Rhythm Heaven Groove Hands-on Impressions: Laughs made me miss the beat

The fifth Rhythm Heaven/Paradise/Tengoku game, the fourth main entry if we consider 3DS' Megamix, which is what the title says it is, is around the corner. And it comes after an endless 10-15 years hiatus, as the game missed the whole Nintendo Switch generation... until now. The new entry in the unique rhythmic series by artist Tsunku and Nintendo's Masami Yone is about to release on the original Switch and of course be playable on the Switch 2, and as it acts kind of like a bridge title, we've tried it out for about an hour on the newer hardware.

If you don't know what to expect here, you might be surprised and amazed by one of the best formulas in gaming to deal with, and even to explain, rhythm to all audiences in the most fun and simplistic way. And also by its silly, hilarious humour, both qualities similar to those in the WarioWare series.

The cool part here, and the main takeaway from my hands-on time, is that I had played three out of the four previous titles, and yet I had a fantastic time, mostly laughing and feeling cleverly challenged by the new rhythm games it includes.

But how, if the mechanics are pretty much the same? Well, yes, but they've come up with new scenarios, tweaked the button prompts ever so slightly, and just put an inevitable smile on your face regardless if you've played before, as the new songs and ideas are just that good so far. By the way, an interesting thing I observed on this matter: the couple of J-Pop songs I played conserved their Japanese voices. Previous games had fantastic adaptations to local languages for better or worse, so we'll have to see what's the purist vs mainstream approach with the final game.

As per tradition, the regular single player rhythm games come split in columns, and I was allowed to play the first full column, including four games/songs and the Remix 1 where you have to alternate all the learned mechanics in a final, normally faster-paced and curve-ball-filled track. Namely:

1. Hoop Trundling. Following that same tradition, the very first game you play has been carefully chosen to be simple and charismatic enough to act as both the game's introduction and a poster child to come back to. These badly-drawn round guys jumping through rings are just immediately adorable and hilarious, and the fact that you're the last on the line of five, and the trick the perspective plays on you, make it way more difficult than it seems - you'll always press to early! That being said, I got an "Superb" medal on my first attempt.


2. Brolly Good Show. No Rihanna license here, but things get a bit more complicated as you have to both follow the lead and combine A and down on the directional buttons to either open or close your umbrella, ah, ah. Even more adorable, and even more hilarious when you miss, than the previous game. I got an A+, no medal here.


3. Disc Dog. My favourite of the day. How can you not like a game called that? You're the doggie being thrown a frisbee on the beach (so appropriate for the season), and you have to count seven to the rhythm in your head and jump just at that seventh beat so that the dog will grab the disc on the eighth. Smart, fresh, and of course challenging when the screen zooms in and you don't see the dog or when you're thrown several in a row. So, I bounced my knees to keep hitting the beat and my disc dog managed to collect every single pink disc. The accompanying puppy was impressed, I got an "Superb" medal and it would have been a Perfect had I been challenged. By the way, a fantastic training for deejays.


4. Feeding the Beast. The last song game is more standard, but also harder as my dragon had to eat all the flower buds being popped towards it. Lots of syncopation here and confusing visual clues led me to my worst result, but the Japanese dance tune is sooo good!

• Hop Stop N Roll. Besides, I was offered to choose one of two games from the third column, the now well-known Slice N Dice Kitchen from previous trailers, and this one I picked because it's all about kitties. Again a formula we've seen in previous entries, you're the third of four Japanese roly-poly dolls and you have to jump to the beat (A), roll when you get the cue (right on the directional), or stop when prompted. More complex button-wise as you're keeping the rhythm almost all the time with A, it shows how the gameplay will evolve. And the second J-pop song gave it an epic anime feel. I medalled it too :3.

The main challenges with Rhythm Paradise always come from nailing the songs to get the high scores. And I really mean nailing them, as you first chase medals and then, if you're crazy enough, you try to get a "Perfect" on every song once challenged. Then you realise how something so simple, even though this is all about pressing buttons to the beat, or to the backbeat, or weirdly syncopated, or hitting 2-3 times between beats, while music and visual clues are there to both help and mess with you, can go a long, long way, believe me.

Finally I didn't have time to try out the multiplayer mode, and it got me really intrigued after the Nintendo Direct, but I did try the innovative rhythm RPG mode called Beatspell, unveiled at that very showcase.

I didn't progress much and I think the key to its challenge and depth will be to see how much you can combine the different attacking and defending spells against the monsters, but I found it to be, again, unique and trying something new in a cool setting. Here the button pressing combos are trickier, the "turn-based" combat depends on your agility and pace to the metronome, and it allows for some creativity while rewarding your perfect hits with critical damage. We'll see, but it looked very cool.

If you haven't tried any Rhythm Heaven entries before I'd urge you to either buy Megamix for the 3DS if you still own the system as it really is one of the very best titles of its entire catalogue... or to wait for our final verdict on Groove in a few days before it releases on the Switch systems on July 2nd. But this looks and sounds fantastic, its design is something else, and they're making it bigger, plus it's got that educational touch to it that just trains your sense of rhythm naturally.