Hardcore Gaming 101: Rhythm Heaven

Rhythm Heaven heads to the Wii with the third installment, and it's nice to have it on a big screen, especially since the arcade game never saw release outside of Japan. The series has never had a problem artistically, but now the graphics are much sharper, and the sound quality much clearer. And thankfully, having learned its lessons from the shiftiness of the stylus controls in the DS game, there are absolutely no motion controls at all. It works much like the GBA game, where you tape the A button to most beats, except occasionally you'll also have to press both A and B at the same time. Many games also have a "goal", by hitting certain segments of the song, which will grant you an extra congratulations on the ranking screen.

The setup is identical to the previous games. There's also an option for a demo so you can hear how the beats are supposed to sound, which is vital to at least one of the games. There's also a multiplayer mode similar to the arcade game, where you match your rhythm with a friend on two-player variations of certain games. In addition to the usual assortment of Endless games, there are also a few songs to unlock from the older versions.

	See Saw These weird looking dudes are see-saw testers, which has to be just an amazing job. The rocking track is pretty decent too.
	Double Date Oh no! Your date is going to be ruined by the local sports teams! Protect your sweetie (and the weasels nearby) by kicking the errant balls away from you both.
	Monkey Watch The first really hard game, here it portrays a watch filled with tiny monkeys, whose hands you need to slap every second. It's tough because the button presses are on off-beats to the song, which gets worse with the purple monkeys, which are off-off beats. The Remix version is brutal.
	Air Rally Mid-air badminton matches? Sounds fun. Here your opponents sings various phrases to indicate higher hits, and flies back and forth in the background. The scrolling clouds and terrain seems like a modern rendition of something like After Burner.
	Ringside Probably the most famous game in Rhythm Heaven Fever, having obtained meme status before being released in North America (This one is the best.) The reporter asks a question ("Wubadubaduba is that true?") then you, as the wrestler, responds. You also flex your muscles and pose for the photographs.
	Donk Donk So, there's this octopus giving commands to a squadron of...things?...who knock themselves to power their blimp. The best kind of pure Rhythm Heaven insanity, right down to the psychadelic clouds. The credits can't even decide what they are - they just refer to them as "Uh...these guys?"
	Love Rap One of the most annoying games. Here, you need to mimic what the girl in the middle is saying, with the timing dependent on a handful of phrases. Getting the rhythm down is difficult due to the hip-hop nature of the song, which doesn't have much in the way of discernable beats.
	Board Meeting It's an executive board meeting of pigs, where you need to impress your clients with your chair spinning abilities.
	Cheer Readers A cheerleading squad promoting the finer points of reading. "It's up to you!"
	Flock Step There are numerous games in the series where you move in rhythm with various other characters, and this one is the best, purely because of how many goofy looking, different colored birds match along side you.

Unlike other rhythm games where people are likely to be playing them on HDTVs, like Rock Band or Guitar Hero, there's no option to change delays due to display lag. However, since the game is more focused on feeling the sound rather than relying on visual cues, this doesn't actually pose much of a problem.

The localization is generally excellent, a step up from the DS game. Unfortunately, the endless game "Manzai" had to be removed. It consists of two birds, one of which will recite a pun (or not) while the other answers in the affirmative or negative. Given that none of the puns would properly translate, Nintendo simply opted to remove this game, and replace it with Mr. Upbeat from the earlier games. It's not exactly an ideal substitute, given how boring it is in comparison, but it's slightly better than having it removed altogether.

Though one could argue some changeup of the formula is probably due by now, Rhythm Heaven Fever is nonetheless fantastic, with its superior graphics and controls elevating it above the DS game.

Links

Cracked Rabbit Gaming - Mini-Fan Site A detailed graphical FAQ explaining each game.
Rhythm Tengoku - Official Site For the GBA game.
Rhythm Tengoku - Official Site For the arcade game.
Rhythm Tengoku Gold - Official Site For the DS game.