Ever since the WarioWare franchise popularized the “microgame” approach full of frenetic action games (imbued with preposterous storylines, goofy characters, and a zany Japanese sense of humor), the concept has endured in both handheld and console-based offerings. More recently, theRhythm Heaven series (which featured an initial Japan-only Game Boy Advance installment in Rhythm Tengoku) has thrived in parallel to WarioWare, though at its heart, the attitude, humor, and challenge bear a distinctly WarioWare flavor which is unmistakable in its origin.
Rhythm Heaven Megamix for the Nintendo 3DS is, including that first installment, technically the fourth game in the Rhythm Tengoku series to date, and it made its debut in Japan a year ago in June 2015. Its North American release was a complete surprise, announced the instant it became available at the NOA Treehouse Event at E3 2016 (over a year after its Japanese release). Fans of the series were predictably thrilled, though others might be wondering: could the game really be all that great in light of the complete lack of fanfare or marketing leading up to its release? Yes, yes it can.
If nothing else, Rhythm Heaven Megamix is undoubtedly the best Rhythm Heaven game yet. It’s equal parts ridiculous, unexpected, hilarious, and challenging, and—although it does feature a sizable assortment of “recycled” content from previous games as part of its core experience—there is a lot of new material here.
In total, Megamix treats us to over 100 rhythm games, the vast majority of which feature their own unique background music (some of which is really good!) to which the action is set. The gameplay does vary quite a bit from game to game, though at its heart, all of it is rooted in the challenge of 1) tracking the beat and pressing buttons in sync and 2) responding quickly and correctly to particular cues specific to each game. Thematically, on the other hand, the games are wildly varied, generally featuring inane concepts such as monkeys throwing golf balls to a golfer or cheerleaders cheering on readers in a library. In this way, the minigames are as smile- and chuckle-inducing as they are demanding.
It’s not a game that most people are likely to spend a few hours at a time playing, as the action is often stressful and seriously requires careful attention. But it’s likewise incredibly fun and rewarding to complete each activity, and the game does a fine job of providing feedback both necessary to progress and improve and central to corroborating the game’s reward system.
For instance, with each button press from the player, the game displays an easy-to-interpret visual indication of the player’s timing accuracy on the bottom screen of the 3DS. This allows for both instant feedback and on-the-fly adjustment on the behalf of the player.
Scoring is accomplished by way of an opaque per-minigame rubric, boiled down to a couple of lines of customized feedback post-game accompanied by a meter indicating the final score. Passable grades require competent performance in most cases and result in a silver trophy, which then allows progress to the next game. Perfectionists, however, are challenged further by the temptation of scoring “Superb” gold trophy rewards, collecting Skill Stars (by performing perfectly on a particular predetermined note in each game), and even aspiring to “No Miss” status for each game.
Although it’s hardly necessary, Megamix ties this 100+ strong assortment of minigames together with the help of an asinine storyline. A quick introduction: you meet Tibby, a young child from Heaven (“Hevven”?) World who has fallen from the clouds. He needs your help getting back home, and so you set off by foot on an adventure to reach a green tower in the distance and climb your way back up.
Expertly localized by NOA veteran Nate Bihldorff and his team, Megamix features sharp, amusing dialogue laden with colloquialisms and all-ages wisecracks. The sense of self-awareness is prevalent, with characters constantly breaking the fourth wall, speaking directly to the player, and joking about their predicament. If there’s one thing the game is sure to achieve, it’s a persistent stream of those aforementioned smiles and chuckles up until the moment the end credits roll (er… multiple times perhaps).
Outside of the main game, you’ll also find a handful of other activities. In the Challenges menu, you can try for perfect (no miss!) status on a randomly-chosen game, or fight through a trio of preselected games back to back. This is also where multiplayer starts, and only one player must own the game for it to commence (the others simply must have a 3DS-family device).
At the Café, you can challenge StreetPassers and other characters to one-on-ones and earn turnips as a reward. These turnips can be fed to the pet Goat, who will hatch golden eggs (heh) as he gains levels which contain mascot collectibles featuring the game’s personalities. You can also shop for mementos, music tracks from the minigames, and even more rhythm games (18 more to be exact) using your earned coins and Flow Balls. And finally, there’s a Museum section where you can relive each minigame’s details, view your collected mascots, and rewatch the game’s few cinematic sequences.
But again, regardless of where you look, the focus is on zany fun, divided into completely dissimilar and unpredictable morsels. It’s still just as fun as it was back in 2006, and honestly, this is the best implementation of the concept to date.
