[DS] Rhythm Heaven: WarioWare + music madness. Out now—scratch-o, hey!

Lunker

WHO: Rhythm Heaven, aka Rhythm Paradise in EU and Rhythm Tengoku Gold in JP
WHAT: The Wario Ware dev team pairs with a Japanese pop music producer to create a sexalicious rhythm game
WHERE: The Nintendo DS (or that brand-spankin'-new DSi!)
WHEN: US: April 5; EU: May 1 (out already in JP)
HOW: did the original GBA game never come to the West? For reals, I've been jonesing for this for years, dawg

Rhythm Tengoku/Heaven minigame trailer

So imagine this music mashup: The development team behind the treasured WarioWare games, and a Japanese pop producer who wants to create original music. What you get is a peek into the open maw of madness, aka Rhythm Heaven. This Joystiq review sums up why I'm so excited about the game:

If you've played WarioWare, you can imagine the basic look and feel of Rhythm Heaven: a string of brief minigames presented in disparate, deliberately lo-fi styles, covering a wide variety of subjects, characters, and tasks. The WarioWare team is also behind Rhythm Heaven, as well as its GBA predecessor (which never made it outside of Japan), and it shows. Rhythm Heaven differs from WarioWare in that the minigames are longer (up to a couple of minutes) and all musical. You tap and "flick" the stylus to the beat of original music by Japanese pop producer Tsunku, in order to make your avatar volley ping-pong balls, for example, or to make one moai mimic the singing of another. Each minigame features a short tutorial to help you understand the task before jumping into the song. These minigames are all just practice, however, for the "remix" stages: every fifth task is a roundup of the previous four, all strung together with new graphics, to the tune of a new song.

The minigames are almost universally charming, featuring standouts like DJ School, in which you play a student DJ who stops and scratches a record in response to his teacher's commands of "Break, come on, ooh," and "scratch-o, hey." Karate Man, in which you tap and flick to punch and kick flying objects, is another favorite. Fan Club, in which you control a monkey who must clap for a pop star in unison with the other audience monkeys, will probably burn a permanent response to the phrase "I suppose" into your mind.

Strong performance in the minigames earns you medals, which unlock all kinds of stuff: endless rhythm minigames, "rhythm toys" in the form of ungraded minigames and various noisemakers, "guitar lessons" based on one of the guitar-based games, and more. In addition, as you play, the game will randomly challenge you to complete a minigame with a perfect score to earn a specific reward, like songs in the music player, lyric sheets, and even background reading about the characters in the games. The extras help motivate obsessive replaying of the games, although honestly, the game itself is motivation enough for obsessive replaying.

I've been curious about this game ever since the original came out on the GBA in Japan. It never made it to the West, and when the DS sequel was announced I was stunned that it was eventually confirmed to be brought to the west. Right now there's a demo on the US Wii Nintendo Channel that you can download to your DS. It's got two minigames in it, both of which you see in the trailer above, and they are tons of fun.

And once you've succumbed to this game's glory, I'll even save you money: Amazon: Rhythm Heaven for $26 with free shipping. That's 10 bucks below what GameStop is charging! If you can wait a few days, anyway.

Lave II

The more time that passes the more I realise that the GBA game is the greatest game I own.

It's a perfect creation. A perfect 10. It's exactly what it is, and it's brilliant, it never over steps its limits. It's the one game everyone on a forum like this should own and yet at the same time it's exactly the kind of game that Nintendo should be using to reach out to people. It's more a game than so many other titles.

It's fucking wonderful. If you reading this post and your thinking it's all hyperbole, then all I want to ask is if you ever thought Advance Wars 1 or Wario Ware 1 were special? Or important? Because if you did, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

I've not played much of the DS sequel because my DS broke. But it didn't grip me in quite the same way as the first. Some of purity and focus had left, in the same way that it did for WarioWare when it made the trip to the DS - though to a much, much, much lesser extent.

If you've never played the GBA game, then I suspect you'll fall in love with the game.

DeaconKnowledge

My DS is broken, and DSi is still over a week away.

maximumzero

I'm gonna dump some coins into the coinstar this weekend, get a Amazon gift certificate and buy this shit asap.

LordNibbler

I imported both games and love them both despite being horrible at the later games.

maximumzero

I really wish Nintendo had localized the original game. I would have loved to play it.

Lunker

Lave II wrote: »

The more time that passes the more I realise that the GBA game is the greatest game I own.

It's a perfect creation. A perfect 10. It's exactly what it is, and it's brilliant, it never over steps it's limits. It's the one game everyone on a forum like this should own and yet at the same time it's exactly the kind of game that Nintendo should be using to reach out to people. It's more a game than so many other titles.

It's fucking wonderful. If you reading this post and your thinking it's hyperbole, then all I want to ask is if you at any point though Advance Wars 1 or Wario Ware 1 were special? Or important? Because if you did, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

I've not played much of the DS sequel because my DS broke. But it didn't grip me in quite the same way as the first. Some of purity and focus had left, in the same way that it did for WarioWare when it made the trip to the DS - though to a much, much, much lesser extent.

If you've never played the GBA game, then I suspect you'll fall in love with the game.

Lave, you're the first person I thought of when I got to play this demo. I'm going to track down the GBA game now, because this shit is awesome, and I'm going to play the DS one on my DSi but I want the GBA one to keep in my Micro so I can have this game in my pocket all the time.

I'd always wanted the GBA game, but now that I've gotten some time to try it, it's not a want, it's a need—and when it's a need, it's a responsibility.

Lave II

Lunker wrote: »

Lave II wrote: »

The more time that passes the more I realise that the GBA game is the greatest game I own.

It's a perfect creation. A perfect 10. It's exactly what it is, and it's brilliant, it never over steps it's limits. It's the one game everyone on a forum like this should own and yet at the same time it's exactly the kind of game that Nintendo should be using to reach out to people. It's more a game than so many other titles.

It's fucking wonderful. If you reading this post and your thinking it's hyperbole, then all I want to ask is if you at any point though Advance Wars 1 or Wario Ware 1 were special? Or important? Because if you did, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

I've not played much of the DS sequel because my DS broke. But it didn't grip me in quite the same way as the first. Some of purity and focus had left, in the same way that it did for WarioWare when it made the trip to the DS - though to a much, much, much lesser extent.

If you've never played the GBA game, then I suspect you'll fall in love with the game.

Lave, you're the first person I thought of when I got to play this demo. I'm going to track down the GBA game now, because this shit is awesome, and I'm going to play the DS one on my DSi but I want the GBA one to keep in my Micro so I can have this game in my pocket all the time.

I'd always wanted the GBA game, but now that I've gotten some time to try it, it's not a want, it's a need—and when it's a need, it's a responsibility.

Ha ha, I told you! I told you! I'ld try not to play the DS one till you've played the GBA one - though I'm not sure why. I just think it's important.

True fact, I own a GBA SP and a GBA Micro. When I saw a new green GBA micro on sale for £17 I bought it purely to have Rhythm Tengoku in - and nothing else. So it's not a GBA it's a Rhythm Tengoku machine. Which seems to be a scarily common occurrence amongst fans. If this great article is anything to go by. I chuck it in my pocket all the time, like an interactive iPod.

I'm pretty certain it's my all time number one game.

Lave II

maximumzero wrote: »

I really wish Nintendo had localized the original game. I would have loved to play it.

Import it. Seriously. It has no language barrier. It has a weird rhythm test at the very start where you just have to keep hammering a for a few minutes till it lets you quit, but then your into the game proper and the language thing really, really isn't a problem.

Working out what you are meant to do is part of the charm.

Tim is on the Internet

I don't have access to this demo of yours. I would doubt it, but I wonder if it's because I'm in Canada. RIP.

cj iwakura

Do want.

Will go download ASAP, in fact.

mntorankusu

I love this game to death, but the GBA version is so much better in every way. It is the pinnacle of rhythm gaming. Pure bliss. Incredible! Amazing. Awesome. The GBA version is like if you combined the quality of every music game ever made, but then tossed them all out and made something a million times better.

Rhythm Heaven is still one of the best games on the DS, though, and everyone should get it.

Firebrand

Anyone know how the localization differs from the Japanese version? I noticed they changed some voice clips to English, did they change the songs as well?

maximumzero

Lave II wrote: »

Lunker wrote: »

Lave II wrote: »

The more time that passes the more I realise that the GBA game is the greatest game I own.

It's a perfect creation. A perfect 10. It's exactly what it is, and it's brilliant, it never over steps it's limits. It's the one game everyone on a forum like this should own and yet at the same time it's exactly the kind of game that Nintendo should be using to reach out to people. It's more a game than so many other titles.

It's fucking wonderful. If you reading this post and your thinking it's hyperbole, then all I want to ask is if you at any point though Advance Wars 1 or Wario Ware 1 were special? Or important? Because if you did, you owe it to yourself to buy this game.

I've not played much of the DS sequel because my DS broke. But it didn't grip me in quite the same way as the first. Some of purity and focus had left, in the same way that it did for WarioWare when it made the trip to the DS - though to a much, much, much lesser extent.

If you've never played the GBA game, then I suspect you'll fall in love with the game.

Lave, you're the first person I thought of when I got to play this demo. I'm going to track down the GBA game now, because this shit is awesome, and I'm going to play the DS one on my DSi but I want the GBA one to keep in my Micro so I can have this game in my pocket all the time.

I'd always wanted the GBA game, but now that I've gotten some time to try it, it's not a want, it's a need—and when it's a need, it's a responsibility.

Ha ha, I told you! I told you! I'ld try not to play the DS one till you've played the GBA one - though I'm not sure why. I just think it's important.

True fact, I own a GBA SP and a GBA Micro. When I saw a new green GBA micro on sale for £17 I bought it purely to have Rhythm Tengoku in - and nothing else. So it's not a GBA it's a Rhythm Tengoku machine. Which seems to be a scarily common occurrence amongst fans. If this great article is anything to go by. I chuck it in my pocket all the time, like an interactive iPod.

I'm pretty certain it's my all time number one game.

Hah, I have two Micros/ A Silver/Black one and one of the Famicom models I imported.

I swear the things are like crack. Even though the Famicom model has never left it's box I wouldn't mind owning a few other colors.

Blue map

I heard a fair amount of people say that the ds game is inferior to game boy version, but what about it make it worse? I know in the case of Warioware inc./Twisted to Touched it was the way they structured the micro games in such a way that it lost a lot of its variety.

Lave II

mntorankusu wrote: »

I love this game to death, but the GBA version is so much better in every way. It is the pinnacle of rhythm gaming. Pure bliss. Incredible! Amazing. Awesome. The GBA version is like if you combined the quality of every music game ever made, but then tossed them all out and made something a million times better.

Rhythm Heaven is still one of the best games on the DS, though, and everyone should get it.

See i'm not alone. One it gets under your skin, it will be one of your precious things.

Do you know those books and films that you feel, despite knowing otherwise, that only you get? This is the game equivalent.

Fireflash

This game looks awesome! Can't wait to check it out.

Lunker

Blue map wrote: »

I heard a fair amount of people say that the ds game is inferior to game boy version, but what about it make it worse? I know in the case of Warioware inc./Twisted to Touched it was the way they structured the micro games in such a way that it lost a lot of its variety.

I'm also curious. Is it a precision thing? So far I'm finding the flicking really satisfying. I'm just dipping my toe into this now but I feel like I'm going to tumble in as far as Lave and mntorankusu have, since the game is really custom-built around two of my favorite genres: WarioWare frantic minigames and rhythm games.

UnbreakableVow

I greatly enjoyed the demo of this.

I was pissed when it was all like "That's it! That's everything in the demo!"

Lunker

UnbreakableVow wrote: »

I greatly enjoyed the demo of this.

I was pissed when it was all like "That's it! That's everything in the demo!"

They totally cock-tease you with that last game too. :x

Lave II

Lunker wrote: »

Blue map wrote: »

I heard a fair amount of people say that the ds game is inferior to game boy version, but what about it make it worse? I know in the case of Warioware inc./Twisted to Touched it was the way they structured the micro games in such a way that it lost a lot of its variety.

I'm also curious. Is it a precision thing? So far I'm finding the flicking really satisfying. I'm just dipping my toe into this now but I feel like I'm going to tumble in as far as Lave and mntorankusu have, since the game is really custom-built around two of my favorite genres: WarioWare frantic minigames and rhythm games.

Before I start this let me just state for the record that when I say RH is worse than RT that is NOT a slight of RH. It's great. It's ace. It's clearly in the top ten best DS games (to me at least).

Precision? Not at all.
Music? Nah.
Familiarity? I suspect so.

But getting a little anal and in depth here I think the real truth is down to the menus.



This isn't a good example of the menu, as it's a rip of the icons and has no background, but it's the best I could find. But's it a lovely checkerboard of levels, which get a little gold medal when perfected. The speed and energy of the music and background and the how responsive it is makes it such a joy to poodle around, and every gold star makes the menu look better.

It's hard to explain but the RH menu looks cheaper and less entertaining and so kept me in the game slightly less.

Do you know how the menus in Geometery Wars 2 make you play it so much more than a bad menu system would? It's like that.

So yeah, minor overall, but important.

Ah_Pook

Lave II wrote: »

But getting a little anal and in depth here...

:winky:


ahem. i had heard this title around but somehow totally missed that it was the localized version of Rhythm Tengoku Plus. that is awesome!

mntorankusu

I kind of hate the controls in Rhythm Heaven, personally. The game's good enough that I can look past that, but they did make me angry sometimes. That god-damned level with the god-damned vegetables made me so mad when I would lose my chance at a gold medal because it didn't detect my slide.

I think the feeling of sliding added to some of the games, but mostly I just would have liked to play by pressing A like before.

Blue map

I think it's worth pointing out that amazon is having a promotion where if you pre-order Rhythm heaven along with a Dsi you can get an extra ten bucks slashed from the price.

Link:http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=amb_link_83993291_2?ie=UTF8&docId=1000356881&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=hero-quick-promo&pf_rd_r=02MR7M4

Djiem

We need to make something clear here:

Rhythm Tengoku on the GBA is the best GBA game ever.
Rhythm Heaven on the DS is one of the best DS games ever.

If you don't own the GBA game, or if you aren't going to own the DS one, you're crazy.
And missing out. Bad.

mntorankusu wrote: »

I kind of hate the controls in Rhythm Heaven, personally. The game's good enough that I can look past that, but they did make me angry sometimes. That god-damned level with the god-damned vegetables made me so mad when I would lose my chance at a gold medal because it didn't detect my slide.

I think the feeling of sliding added to some of the games, but mostly I just would have liked to play by pressing A like before.

This sums perfectly the main flaw of Rhythm Heaven (except I don't "hate" the controls, I just prefer button presses). THIS SAID, the game's still awesome and fantastic, and I'm sure mntorankusu and I would like it even more if we didn't know Rhythm Tengoku existed.

Glal

Lave II wrote: »

True fact, I own a GBA SP and a GBA Micro. When I saw a new green GBA micro on sale for £17 I bought it purely to have Rhythm Tengoku in - and nothing else. So it's not a GBA it's a Rhythm Tengoku machine.

But then, what do you play Astro Boy on? These are questions of supreme importance.

Lave II

Glal wrote: »

Lave II wrote: »

True fact, I own a GBA SP and a GBA Micro. When I saw a new green GBA micro on sale for £17 I bought it purely to have Rhythm Tengoku in - and nothing else. So it's not a GBA it's a Rhythm Tengoku machine.

But then, what do you play Astro Boy on? These are questions of supreme importance.

The DS (before it broke) but now the SP or silver Micro. Only RT gets it's own console, such is it's worth.

Glal

I feel like objecting, but cannot. They are both outstanding.

Djiem

I also have a Micro RT machine.
The only time I take out RT from that GBA is to put it in the GBA player in the gaming room.

Lunker

Boom boom BOOM!

(clap clap clap clap)

Djiem wrote:

We need to make something clear here:

Rhythm Tengoku on the GBA is the best GBA game ever.
Rhythm Heaven on the DS is one of the best DS games ever.

If you don't own the GBA game, or if you aren't going to own the DS one, you're crazy.
And missing out. Bad.

I think the fact that the handful of people who've imported the GBA love it to death is a good indication the series is golden. I fell in love as soon as I played the demo, though I've been teetering on buying into the series for a long time now. I'm going to check out importing the GBA version, but in the meantime I'm keeping my preorder locked and ready to roll.

EDIT: Fine, assholes, I just bought the GBA version. Play-Asia has it for $35, on sale from the normal $40, and it was $3 for the cheap shipping. Assholes.

Lave II

"check out?"

Lunker I'll make you a deal. It's on play-asia for $35. Buy it, and if you don't think it's worth every penny cent then I'll buy you a game. For free.

Thats how sure I am.

EDIT: FUCK THERE IS A RHYTHM TENGOKU CD. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.

Lunker

Lave II wrote: »

"check out?"

Lunker I'll make you a deal. It's on play-asia for $35. Buy it, and if you don't think it's worth every penny cent then I'll buy you a game. For free.

Thats how sure I am.

EDIT: FUCK THERE IS A RHYTHM TENGOKU CD. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.

Brothers from other mothers, mang; I literally just placed the order as you posted.

Awesome site Tiny Cartridge has two samples from the CD, The Bon Odori and Chorus Men Summer. They've also unearthed a cache of wallpapers for perusal.

Djiem

Lave II wrote: »

Buy it, and if you don't think it's worth every penny cent then I'll buy you a game. For free.

That's a no-risk bet.
It's like saying "If you shoot yourself, jump in a fire and then get launched in outer space without a space suit and you survive, I'll buy you a game for free".

You can't not like Rhythm Tengoku. It's not actually possible.
It's never been done before because it'd be against the very laws of thermodynamics that rule our universe.

PS: This is not an hyperbole.

Renzo

Bought it. Jerkfaces. It's been on my list for years, and I finally caved.

Lave II

Renzo wrote: »

Bought it. Jerkfaces. It's been on my list for years, and I finally caved.

You'll look back on that comment as though you said "Fine, Jerkfaces. I WILL sleep with Scarlett Johanson. Fine. Sheesh."

Lave II

Lunker wrote: »

Lave II wrote: »

"check out?"

Lunker I'll make you a deal. It's on play-asia for $35. Buy it, and if you don't think it's worth every penny cent then I'll buy you a game. For free.

Thats how sure I am.

EDIT: FUCK THERE IS A RHYTHM TENGOKU CD. FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK.

Brothers from other mothers, mang; I literally just placed the order as you posted.

Awesome site Tiny Cartridge has two samples from the CD, The Bon Odori and Chorus Men Summer. They've also unearthed a cache of wallpapers for perusal.

Damn straight.

Good man. You totally wont regret it.

Djiem

So, for those of you who already have the DS game, has anyone seen this?

Idol

I thought it was just some monkey minigame, but it turns out you're actually supposed to do these moves when going to see the song live. That's awesome!

DS version for those not in the know:

Idol DS

Lord_Mordja

Oh wow.

The dub man..the dub.

Djiem

Lord_Mordja wrote: »

Oh wow.

The dub man..the dub.

Ok, that is hilarious.
Still, I expected much, MUCH worse.
The blue frog's almost great, actually.

cj iwakura

Yeah, it's passable.


Also, I guess it would help if I had this Nintendo Channel, since I couldn't find the demo in the VC.

Lunker

Everyone flipping out over the English versions of the Dazzles and Fan Club songs are making me roll my eyes so hard they're about to fall out of my head. No one here, anyway, but GAF and that Destructoid link reek of the most intense weeaboism I've seen in ages.

Admittedly, the frogs don't trigger instantaneous and explosive vomiting the way the other dubs do. But still, why did that need to be changed? Half of this game's appeal is its quirky Japanese soul, and that's been ripped out of it. I understand that they want to appeal to an American audience with this, but did they really need to change the music? There was a great opportunity here to introduce the broader demographic to something wonderful, and they blew it.

:? Are they really saying that the generic J-pop idol songs were such masterpieces? I've watched the videos and they sound like, well, every other J-pop song ever.

The best part is all of the commenters bitching about how they now refuse to buy the Western version because it Disturbs the Purity of the Original. There are maybe four or five out of 50+ rhythm games that have vocals.