Rhythm Heaven Review for Nintendo DSi

Rhythm Heaven For The Nintendo DS

Music oriented video games tend to be a mixed bag.  The vast majority are pure mind numbing entertainment with very little extrinsic value in terms of learning a new skill or developing an ability.  In Rhythm Heaven for the Nintendo DS however, the challenges are both visual and auditory, and depending on your level of musicianship they can be quite an intellectual challenge.

What is Rhythm Heaven All About?

Rhythm Heaven’s game play is based on developing a strong sense of rhythmic accuracy but is done in a fun, cartoonish way.  A player makes his way over fifty mini games, each one with a slightly different theme but with varying degrees of required accuracy.  The last of every five games is a remix, where the four preceding games are thrown together in random succession and with increasing levels of difficulty.

Each level has it’s own threshold past which a player must pass before they can move on to the next mini game.  The level of accuracy varies between games, but for some it will take even experienced musicians several tries before they are accurate enough to move on.  One downside to the game is that the individual mini games are always the exact same thing.  There is no real variety or randomness to the play, or at least it seems like it.  For beginners and those that are rhythmically challenged though, this actually can work out to be a good thing as the game play is simple yet addicting in many different ways.

The first  few games include:

• Built To Scale – Flick the screen with the stylus at the correct time, just as the scale gets to “sol” so that the pin is shoved into the widget and assembled correctly.
• Glee Club – You control one member of a vocal trio, making him sing or stop singing in rhythm with the other singers.  Flicking the mouse makes him do a cool little scream!
• Fillbots – You fill up robots by accurately pumping fluid into them in time to the music.  Four beats for the small robots, eight beats worth for the big ones.
• Fan Club – A basic call and response game where you clap in different patterns based on what the singer has just said.  It’s harder than it sounds!
• Remix 1 – A mashup of the previous four games at a faster tempo.
• Rhythm Rally – Ping pong that requires a very high level of rhythmic accuracy.  Flick the screen at exactly the correct beat or you hit the ball out of bounds.  Much harder than it looks!
• Shoot Em’Up – A space invader inspired call and response game where you copy the complex rhythms that are played.
• Bluebirds – Similar to Fan Club but with an avian  military style theme.
• Moai Doo-Wop – Two Moai (Easter Island statues) sing and jive in another call and response type game.
• Remix 2-  A remix of the previous four games.
• Love Lizards – Scrape a lizard’s back  in time with the music to make the other lizard fall in love with you.
• Crop Stomp – Stomp on the down beat to pick the veggies, flick on the eighth note up beat to toss them into the basket, flick on the sixteenth note to grab moles and throw them out of the garden.
• Freeze Frame – Snap photos of race cars as the cross the finish line with lots of off-beat rhythms.  As the game progresses more of the screen gets covered, requiring you to use your ears more and more to time your shots
• The Dazzles – A cheerleading kind of competition, trying to get a contestant to cheer and move at the appropriate time to the music.
• Remix 3 – Fast paced remix of the previous four games.
• More games too!

Other reviewers of this game have not been so kind.  While many of the Rhythm Heaven reviews from other sites all seem to hit the point that it is a fairly tough game to win at.  While that may be true to some extent it is still a lot of fun and rather addicting as you try to get your rhythmic timing just right.  Yes, it is a bit harder to complete especially if you are a non-musician, but unlike other games where you practice a level with the only reward being that you finish the game, completing Rhythm Heaven can actually help you improve your rhythmic accuracy on a visual and auditory level.  As anyone that plays it will attest to, you can’t solely rely on the visuals to pass the levels.  You have to use your ear and develop a very keen internal sense of rhythm in order to advance through the game.

As video games go Rhythm Heaven for the Nintendo DS is a good play for all ages.

Pros: A fun, brain intensive game that almost anyone can enjoy playing.  The mini games are inventive and very original. A good edutainment alternative for aspiring musicians to play around with.

Cons: Relatively rapid completion of the game if you have a good sense of rhythm and beat.  Although it is rated E, children under age nine or so may have problems getting accurate enough to move on to the higher levels.

1 Comment

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  By Lind Granite, October 21, 2009 @ 9:29 am

  I just read your “The Computer in Your Student’s Pocket” article in the 10/09 TM and am so glad I found your review here. My children will not be happy with me when I pirate their DS’s for use in my classroom!

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