Putting Monkey Watch in the second row of rhythm games is perhaps the most evil deed any of these games have ever performed… well, that and Remix 10’s whole existence. Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise (As it is called over here)? It appears to be quite the contrary my fellow, as it seems that the beat is BEATING MY ASS.

Back when I talked about Deltarune: Chapter 2, I mentioned that there are certain games with the ability to just make anyone happy, to express such a sensation of comfort and happiness even when something bad is happening or when losing non-stop, and this effect isn’t produced by ‘’vibes’’ alone; every element need to click and fall into place juuuuuuuuuuuuust right, feel the amount of polish and passion that it was put into a certain work is something that doesn’t happen very often, and while Rhythm Tengoku came pretty close to achieving such elements of sheer ectasis by fumbling a bit in some aspects… this is it, Luigi.

Fever isn’t the first game in the series to reach such levels of excellence, but it is the first one achieving such heights of visual and sound spectacle; it’s great to see that, despite abandoning the varying art-styles of the past games in favor of a single and consistent one, it has a fantastic sense of identity and this still feel as Rhythm Heaven as (f)ever, and the sound design and OST… H O L Y F U C K I N G S H I T. The freacking madlads literally said ‘’Yeah, we’ve composed Blue Birds, Munchy Monk, Remix 8 and goddam That’s Paradise…but wouldn’t it be crazy if we put banger lyrics in a remix centered on food?

Air Rally, Remix 4, 8 and 9, Samurai-Slice, Flock-Step, MY ABSOLUTE FAVORITE THAT IS Flipper Flop AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA I LOVE THOSE SEALS :D. I do think and maintain that DS had the overall stronger OST when looking at it as stand-alone songs, but Fever has by far the strongest collection of musical pieces in a purely rhythmic sense; that is not to say that I wouldn’t listen to some of them outside of the game (if it has lyrics, it’s ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC), but they specially function flow for the task they went conceived, they flow exceptionally with the fantastic gameplay and you feel as by merely listening and pressing buttons you are learning rhythm, and in a way, you are indeed doing that.

Fever is a festival, on that invites you to stay as long as you like you need (specially because it gets really challenging at times), an packed with side content as much as it has bonkers main challenges. I also really appreciate that despite being on the Wii, there are no motion controls in any of the rhythm sections. They knew very well what they wanted to do, and they went for it.

Rhythm Heaven is a series that loves itself as much as it loves the people that put the time into playing it, and while Fever is not the peak of the series to me, it’s an amazing experience, one of pure joy, one about loving both music and fun

Have you ever been playing DDR, watched an arrow zip down the screen to the beat of “I Ran” by A Flock of Seagulls and thought, “Alright. What really qualifies this particular note of this song as a right arrow instead of an up arrow?” I mean, it’s a test of rhythm, right? But rhythm is about pacing, timing, getting into a perfect groove by being able to clearly predict the sequence of actions. One may or may not conclude that, in a hypothetically “perfect” rhythm game, it should be completely possible to close your eyes and rely on audio alone to carry you through to the end (this is all down to preference, of course). For this to work, your inputs would have to correspond with particular sounds instead of arbitrarily selected visual cues. DDR’s input mapping of “I Ran” can conceivably chart two G major chords from different parts of the song onto two separate arrows, making this a tricky prospect (disclaimer: I have not checked to see if “I Ran” features the G major chord), and almost every game in the genre follows a similar model. But this is still a game. The goal is delivering a simplified, digestible, and curated version of the real experience; otherwise players can just go out, learn an instrument, and join a band instead. A functional game built for this sort of thing would ideally feature nothing but songs which have all been carefully designed for this level of sonic clarity (it’s not impossible to do this with licensed or “normal” songs instead, but they’d have to be peppered with additions for the sake of the gameplay, which probably wouldn’t be welcome), but what are the odds that anyone is actually going to go to the trouble of making something like that?

Leave it to the WarioWare folks. Rhythm Heaven Fever is charming as all heck, and I’ve had so many of its goofy little tunes rattling around in my brain for years (Packing Pests 2, Air Rally, Samurai Slice, etc.), but its greatest achievement is in its layering of musical rules which come together in endlessly surprising and creative ways. Every tune in the game is well-constructed and clever on its own, all of them introducing some sort of audio cue or two or three which get explored, and are then tossed into a pot and stirred with the rest of the lot to form even more challenging oddball conglomerates of melodic cleverness. And yeah, cute as it is, Rhythm Heaven Fever can get surprisingly tough. With only two inputs, the game has no reservations about tightening up its timing requirements and asking for near perfection, especially in its home stretch, but the pressure is lifted by the bizarre situations and characters designed to represent each song. The role you play in the audio is made hilariously clear through the visuals — you know you’ve missed a “flipper roll” in “Flipper Flop” if your little seal avatar is bumping into his fellow performers — and it’s in this way that a oneness between the song and the player’s agency within its soundscape is achieved. You press a button, and your character does (or attempts to do) the same thing every time. Sounds simple, but it’s a pretty rare find in a genre where you’ll most commonly be asked to press a string of disconnected buttons while watching a barely-related music video.

Anyone looking for more “expressive” or “nonlinear” mechanical systems isn’t likely to find it in this genre, and if we look at these games as sort of gamified metaphors for playing musical instruments, that could be seen as a bit a shame, but if you want a test of your raw rhythm prowess, I’ve yet to come across anything as pure and satisfying as Rhythm Heaven Fever. Screwing a robot’s head into its body, striking a pose in front of an adoring crowd, kicking a ball and slapping a spider out of the air all feel as viscerally enjoyable as they sound when applied to the backing track at just the right moment (which isn’t to say they all hit that same mark, but even the worst bits still enjoy the benefits of the rest of the game’s “vision-optional” philosophy). It keeps up that musical creatively for longer than you’d expect, and still lands the dismount without outstaying its welcome. If nothing else, “Remix 10” has earned its spot on my pantheon of final bosses. It does for high-fiving monkeys what DOOM did for shotgunning demons.

When I first played Rhythm Heaven on the DS, I got stuck on the third mini game for years. I made it to Fillbots, could not for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong, and so I simply stopped playing the game. A year later, I tried coming back to it and the exact same thing happened. I'm sure this happened a couple more times, and it wasn't until about two years ago (I bought that game only about a year or two after launch!) that I finally realized how to beat Fillbots, and then I proceeded to, through intense struggle and pain, finish Rhythm Heaven on the DS with a respectable amount of medals.

Obviously Rhythm Heaven Fever didn't take me several years to beat, but the pain and suffering I went through felt very familiar. Don't get me wrong, this game is incredibly delightful, endlessly creative, joyous, wonderful to look at and listen to, but playing it is basically my own personal version of the movie Whiplash, it is the most I've screamed at a game in a while. Trying to go for perfects only makes this feeling even stronger, and I only managed to get one (shout out to Built to Scale). I am glad I did this though, this is a great game, and an unforgettable experience. I haven't played much of the Wii but this feels like an incredibly essential part of the console's library.

Also fuck Tap Troupe, those square-head motherfuckers can die.

O game que eu considero "O jogo de rítmo", a experiência definitiva. Não subestimem este pacote de diversão por sua aparência infantil e idiota, pois te garanto que logo ficará viciado em seus mini-jogos.

Rhythm Heaven Fever é um jogo extremamente bem humorado, que apresenta seus gameplays da forma mais divertida e dinâmica possível, com direito a diálogos cômicos e situações idiotas para complementar. É o tipo de jogo que desde uma criança comedora de terra até um adulto engravatado poderiam igualmente adorar.

Suas mecânicas são o suprassumo do simples, aperte no momento certo e ponto. Mas não pense que será fácil por isso, o game exige que o player já tenha pelo menos um pouco de noção rítmica de início, e até eu, que levo a música como um hobbie de longo prazo em minha vida tive dificuldades com certos minigames.

Simples? pode até ser, mas o quanto que esse jogo entrega algo cômico e bem feito em cima dessa simplicidade é o que realmente me atrai nele, é sem sombra de dúvidas um dos melhores jogos de rítmo que há.

Whatever slightly less positive things I could say about Rhythm Heaven Fever are completely overshadowed by the fact that this is one of the greatest games ever. Sure, I'm not enamoured with the idea of creating a more consistent artstyle instead of just throwing a lot of disparate ideas at the wall, but when everything looks as cute as it does here, I can't complain at all really. Everything that appears to be that tiny bit less interesting to me compared to previous entries ends up not mattering when it feels like so much else has been taken further. The outlandish concepts for the minigames have somehow become even more ridiculous and charming, the way a player's sense of rhythm is messed with feels both more intuitive than ever before while also throwing some really interesting curveballs your way that are sure to catch you off guard even after having played the games before it, and the music is once again fantastic. Basically an ideal game, I need another 17 entries in this series and I need them immediately.

it's really no exaggeration that Rhythm Heaven Fever is one of the best games, if not THE best game, on the Wii. not only is it one of the greatest and most accessible rhythm games of all time, but it's also really damn charming to boot. the art direction is superb and the difficulty is just right to hit that sweetspot between too difficult and too easy. even if the game is too challenging or too breezy for you, the visuals and music are bound to keep you entranced no matter what.

it's insane how much this game takes advantage of the Wii's superior output, compared to the meager handhelds its predecessors were locked to, in order to give Ko Takeuchi's art direction the visual shine it deserves. Everything about the look about this game is perfect, but everything about the
feel of the game is just as perfect, despite the control being limited to just the A and the B button. You'd be surprised how much creative freedom they're able to get away with despite you using only the two buttons to match the beat.

if you're even remotely interested in the Rhythm Heaven series I suggest you start here, I'm sure you'll be hooked instantly.

The best, most polished collection Rhythm Heaven has to offer yet. The consistency in quality is really high here; sure there's a couple games that aren't quite as standout as others, but overall, they're all a good time. Even the not-as-notable ones have a lot of charm put into them that shines through. And of course, the hits here are some very high highs, I would list my favorites but there'd be too many, so I'll just say Karate Man as usual and every other vocal song too. It feels like they got a little more time and budget for this entry as their first home console game, and it shows. There seems to be more care put into things like the difficulty curve as you go, transitions between games in remixes, bringing back some GBA games as bonuses, 2 player, etc. Having a simple, consistent, normal control scheme is also a relief. If you just want to check out what Rhythm Heaven's about, play this game. If you enjoyed the DS game, play this game. If you have a pulse, give this game a chance to win you over.

This is simultaneously one of the most and least accessible games I have ever played. The controls are comically simple, but this game will kick your ass if you don't know what the heck you're doing. It's on the Wii, which everyone probably has laying around somewhere, but a copy of this thing costs an ungodly amount of cash, very likely putting you down three digits. I got it complete in-box for 20 bucks a couple years ago at my local used game store, and it is now the most expensive game I own by a significant margin. If not for this bullshit, I'd say this is a game that anyone can play and enjoy, but due to the very high cash barrier to entry... I had to take it off of my list of good video games for beginners. Still pretty damn good tho

Very charming rhythm game! While the GBA and DS ones didn't quite grab me (DS more because I thought the controls held the game back), this one very much lived up to all the hype I heard about it and feels like the definitive Rhythm Heaven experience. The songs are a bop, and all have really fun and cool timings with cute presentation that I adore.

Also, shout out to Remix 10 for being one of the coolest and most fun and catchy final levels in a rhythm game period. I've always loved this song as I've heard it many times beforehand, and getting Superb rank on it was so satisfying. Very great game. That said, I do find that I prefer Theatrhythm on 3DS a bit mostly since I find the touch screen being more responsive and better for faster paced rhythm games like this vs. button controls, but this game is still awesome despite that.