If this game proved anything, is that I for sure ain't got rhythm.
Considering that I basically grew up with the DS game and Megamix is one of my favorite 3DS games ever, it’s almost heresy that I haven’t even touched none of the other two games in the franchise, and the timer for Fever will arrive, but now I’m nothing but amazed at how Rhythm Tengoku, with flaws and all, manages to be an excellent starting point for the franchise… tho an admittedly pretty hard at that.
Rhythm Heaven as a whole always had really challenging sections, and Tengoku is no exception, but unlike the rest, this one has The Bon Odori and Polyrhythm, or to put it in another way, it holds pain in store. I believe those and their sequels (seriously, when I saw that there was a Polyrhythm 2 I began to hear the Godskin Apostle theme out of sheer dread ) are the most egregious cases where the game just goes batshit insane and asks of you perfection for certain segments, but they are not the only example of this. I’d say overall that this is the most imbalanced selection of rhythm minigames out of all the series, which might be a bit of a mean comparison considering this was the first one, but it still doesn’t fully excuse how some of these challenges can be extremely frustrating and sometimes weirdly dependent on the visuals (Toss boys is a great example of this), which is a issue considering how depth perception can be a bit messy on some of these and it’s a problem that none of the other later games would ever face (at least not that I know of, but I’m sure Fever will also stick the landing in that department). And yet, despite the frustration, despite the occasional uninteresting minigame, I just couldn’t stop being captivated.
The music pushes the GBA sound-font to its limits and it’s pleasant as it is a joy to listen to; there are some incredible themes here, specially on the remixes, as is as almost everything in the game itself is dancing at the music, which it’s a feeling that the game is going for, but no other GBA release that I’ve seen has been able to even come close. I may have trashed The Bon Odori a bit before, but it’s a musical stun as it is visually. Even if only the best games on here where the ones able to achieve the joy and satisfaction that I associate with the series, I can’t deny that them all are a pleasure to the eye, visually varied and incredibly imaginative: you may have a color-book style in one game, but in the next they might even use 3D. Despite everything, Tengoku made me feel the joy of getting a superb, of being one with the rhythm, of discovering what the next challenge has in; it’s still a damn good rhythm game one that since it’s inception it was made to be a challenge as well as an experience everyone can enjoy, and I think there’s something beautiful in that that sincerity was present from the very first moment.
Also I’m contractually obligated to say that Remix 6 is a banger, which it is, but I would also like to point out Remix 5’s theme, ‘cause HOLY NOW THAT’S A BANGER AND IT HAS COOL PINK MONKEYS, PEAK I TELL YOU, PEAK.
Considering that I basically grew up with the DS game and Megamix is one of my favorite 3DS games ever, it’s almost heresy that I haven’t even touched none of the other two games in the franchise, and the timer for Fever will arrive, but now I’m nothing but amazed at how Rhythm Tengoku, with flaws and all, manages to be an excellent starting point for the franchise… tho an admittedly pretty hard at that.
Rhythm Heaven as a whole always had really challenging sections, and Tengoku is no exception, but unlike the rest, this one has The Bon Odori and Polyrhythm, or to put it in another way, it holds pain in store. I believe those and their sequels (seriously, when I saw that there was a Polyrhythm 2 I began to hear the Godskin Apostle theme out of sheer dread ) are the most egregious cases where the game just goes batshit insane and asks of you perfection for certain segments, but they are not the only example of this. I’d say overall that this is the most imbalanced selection of rhythm minigames out of all the series, which might be a bit of a mean comparison considering this was the first one, but it still doesn’t fully excuse how some of these challenges can be extremely frustrating and sometimes weirdly dependent on the visuals (Toss boys is a great example of this), which is a issue considering how depth perception can be a bit messy on some of these and it’s a problem that none of the other later games would ever face (at least not that I know of, but I’m sure Fever will also stick the landing in that department). And yet, despite the frustration, despite the occasional uninteresting minigame, I just couldn’t stop being captivated.
The music pushes the GBA sound-font to its limits and it’s pleasant as it is a joy to listen to; there are some incredible themes here, specially on the remixes, as is as almost everything in the game itself is dancing at the music, which it’s a feeling that the game is going for, but no other GBA release that I’ve seen has been able to even come close. I may have trashed The Bon Odori a bit before, but it’s a musical stun as it is visually. Even if only the best games on here where the ones able to achieve the joy and satisfaction that I associate with the series, I can’t deny that them all are a pleasure to the eye, visually varied and incredibly imaginative: you may have a color-book style in one game, but in the next they might even use 3D. Despite everything, Tengoku made me feel the joy of getting a superb, of being one with the rhythm, of discovering what the next challenge has in; it’s still a damn good rhythm game one that since it’s inception it was made to be a challenge as well as an experience everyone can enjoy, and I think there’s something beautiful in that that sincerity was present from the very first moment.
Also I’m contractually obligated to say that Remix 6 is a banger, which it is, but I would also like to point out Remix 5’s theme, ‘cause HOLY NOW THAT’S A BANGER AND IT HAS COOL PINK MONKEYS, PEAK I TELL YOU, PEAK.
The most pure rhythm heaven experience. No control gimmicks and a perfect amount of content. This game is so gooooood. The perfect system is the best path to 100% completion I have ever experienced in any game. Even after playing this over 30 times it does not get old. I can still finish it in one sitting and have fun doing it. This is a fun game to play blindfolded by the way, except for a couple instances here and there all of the information you need is in the audio cues
there’s not even one gokus
I’d never played Rhythm Heaven before this and can say I pleasantly surprised by how fun this was. It’s a decent experience, but I know I will have more fun with the sequels. Not much to say, it’s a solid game worth checking out.
+from the get-go a lot of the charm and wit of the rhythm heaven series is present here, which speaks to how skilled these developers were already and how strong of a concept this was from the beginning. seeing as much of the warioware staff was on this game from R&D1, there is a lot of similarities in the graphics and overall minigame design as well
+this game has 25 unique stages and a full set of repeated stages, which surprised me as rhythm heaven on ds has more or less the same amount
+lovely sound for a GBA game, which considering the hardware is no small feat. solid vocal samples as well
+they go out of the box quite a bit with some of the minigames, and there's gems here that are worth checking out. the quiz game is repeat-after-me with a fantastic framing, toss boys has a lot of depth with excellent visual/audio cues, and this game's version of built to scale does a great job emphasizing rhythmic independence between the two hands
-there's some pretty boring games in here as well, it's not all winners. when the game's at its worst, it usually pairs a possibly-interesting theme with lackluster rhythm gameplay, usually just matching very simple on-screen cues. some of the games go nowhere in terms of difficulty progression as well
-the limitations of the GBA sound hardware keep this one from greatness, in a way. songs will often abruptly end or only have a single repeated section. the remixes are also not quite as creative as later ones, and you can tell they often struggle with how to map a different song to one of the games beyond doing the simplest thing imagineable.
-some of these games are sorely missing practice. I understand why they chose to throw the player in blind, but I prefer knowing exactly what I'm getting into, and letting the rhythms they throw at you surprise me instead
highly recommend a look-see if you're into the rest of the series, since it's very short and pretty easy to get into if you're already familiar with the series. I didn't want to list it as a negative since it's not their fault, but the lack of localization has made some minigames more difficult (though the fan translators did a great job regardless). if you're new I would steer you towards a later entry
+this game has 25 unique stages and a full set of repeated stages, which surprised me as rhythm heaven on ds has more or less the same amount
+lovely sound for a GBA game, which considering the hardware is no small feat. solid vocal samples as well
+they go out of the box quite a bit with some of the minigames, and there's gems here that are worth checking out. the quiz game is repeat-after-me with a fantastic framing, toss boys has a lot of depth with excellent visual/audio cues, and this game's version of built to scale does a great job emphasizing rhythmic independence between the two hands
-there's some pretty boring games in here as well, it's not all winners. when the game's at its worst, it usually pairs a possibly-interesting theme with lackluster rhythm gameplay, usually just matching very simple on-screen cues. some of the games go nowhere in terms of difficulty progression as well
-the limitations of the GBA sound hardware keep this one from greatness, in a way. songs will often abruptly end or only have a single repeated section. the remixes are also not quite as creative as later ones, and you can tell they often struggle with how to map a different song to one of the games beyond doing the simplest thing imagineable.
-some of these games are sorely missing practice. I understand why they chose to throw the player in blind, but I prefer knowing exactly what I'm getting into, and letting the rhythms they throw at you surprise me instead
highly recommend a look-see if you're into the rest of the series, since it's very short and pretty easy to get into if you're already familiar with the series. I didn't want to list it as a negative since it's not their fault, but the lack of localization has made some minigames more difficult (though the fan translators did a great job regardless). if you're new I would steer you towards a later entry
Not a bad start for the series, there are a couple games I really liked in here that haven't returned for any other rhythm heavens.
Very solid, no major complaints, just a bit dated. Doesn't help that a few audio cues don't quite work for me since I do not speak Japanese.
Very solid, no major complaints, just a bit dated. Doesn't help that a few audio cues don't quite work for me since I do not speak Japanese.
Finally got a good working version of the arcade game on emulator, and I gotta say, this would probably be an amazing arcade game dude wish I could find it in public but that will probably never happen lmao, anyway the game.. uh yea it's rhythm tengoku with updated sound and graphics with some bonus content with two player and tempo up versions of the first 6 games, although I wish they didn't pick the first 6 games and a tempo up version of some of the other best minigames and maybe even a tempo up version of remix 6 that would've been more fun probably imo, i just wish I could find this thing at any arcade dude it's so much fun, hopefully nintendo decides to include it in another rhythm heaven game as a bonus or maybe as it's own seperate game, but nintendo probably doesn't care enough about rhythm heaven to do that sadly
First game I ever imported because emulator lag is lame. This is the first in the rhythm heaven series and it pretty much set the bar for rest of the series to follow. Minigames are fun and varied, the OST goes hard, and the visuals are excellent. Released rather late in the GBA's life so yea the chances for it to be brought overseas were practically zero. Still an absolute banger. I think there's a fan translation for this out there, but ngl reading comprehension isn't even that necessary to play this I played this back when my japanese reading abilities were like infant-level and 100%ed it.
This
beat
is non
stop!
beat
is non
stop!
The Japanese-only first entry in the brilliant Rhythm Heaven franchise, featuring kooky sets of simple theme-based rhythm minigames capped off by remixes which mash all of the different minigames into their own song. While a little rough around the edges compared to the later titles, Rhythm Tengoku's unique minigames and simple charm make up for it in spades.
こっちはGBA版。気持ちのいいリズムアクションだ。
Incrível que o primeiro jogo da série já seja tão bom, variado e criativo. Alguns dos meus mini games favoritos já estão presentes aqui nessa estreia.
Demorei pra zerar esse, por só jogar esporadicamente. Mas todas as vezes que jogava, ficava feliz. Mesmo quando a frustração por não conseguir passar de uma fase difícil me dominava.
Como a minha outra experiência tinha sido começar com o de DS, que se utiliza da mecânica da sytlus para jogar e deixa tudo um pouquinho mais difícil, devo dizer que me dei melhor com esse aqui que só utiliza 3 botões (na maioria das vezes, um só).
Faltam algumas melhorias de vida na série, tipo te deixar pular alguma fase que você travou ou um botão de REINICIAR. Que não existe, você precisa sair e entrar de novo na fase. Mas fora isso, um jogo genial, divertido, uma preciosidade que sempre me deixa sorrindo e feliz quando jogo.
Agora é tentar bater as fases mais difíceis, que abrem no pós game. Mas essas não sei se eu dou conta não.
Demorei pra zerar esse, por só jogar esporadicamente. Mas todas as vezes que jogava, ficava feliz. Mesmo quando a frustração por não conseguir passar de uma fase difícil me dominava.
Como a minha outra experiência tinha sido começar com o de DS, que se utiliza da mecânica da sytlus para jogar e deixa tudo um pouquinho mais difícil, devo dizer que me dei melhor com esse aqui que só utiliza 3 botões (na maioria das vezes, um só).
Faltam algumas melhorias de vida na série, tipo te deixar pular alguma fase que você travou ou um botão de REINICIAR. Que não existe, você precisa sair e entrar de novo na fase. Mas fora isso, um jogo genial, divertido, uma preciosidade que sempre me deixa sorrindo e feliz quando jogo.
Agora é tentar bater as fases mais difíceis, que abrem no pós game. Mas essas não sei se eu dou conta não.
Incredible sound quality on the GBA! Definitely the best for a system with notoriously limited sound. The vocal songs in this game are great. Not all the mini games are amazing, but I love the simplicity. Love that these games make me feel like I’m playing Wario ware
I love tap!
Played with the Rhythm Heaven Silver fan translation patch.
Rhythm Heaven has been a favorite series of mine ever since I played the DS game back when it first came out, so I was excited to finally see where it all began. It's a solid start but man this game very strict with how many times you can mess up during a song. The series isn't particularly 'easy' (anyone who has gone for a full perfect run can tell you this) but this one is just brutal. I don't think any of the songs are impossible but you will most likely end up retrying a few times on some of the later ones.
The presentation is very simple and yet its charm still holds up a decade and a half later. Ko Takeuchi's art style has come a long way, but I feel like the game captures it pretty well despite the GBA's limitations.
The game's strongest strength, however, is the music. I'm happy that Tsunku has been able to consistently put out bangers for every single entry in the series since the very beginning. The Bon Odori was definitely my favorite out of this game and I hope they bring it back in the future.
It's unfortunate that Nintendo never localized this one, but hopefully its limited language barrier will convince them to at least put it out on the GBA Switch Online app someday. Nevertheless, I'm happy I was finally able to cover the one blind spot I had as a series fan. Definitely recommend checking this and the rest of the series out!
Rhythm Heaven has been a favorite series of mine ever since I played the DS game back when it first came out, so I was excited to finally see where it all began. It's a solid start but man this game very strict with how many times you can mess up during a song. The series isn't particularly 'easy' (anyone who has gone for a full perfect run can tell you this) but this one is just brutal. I don't think any of the songs are impossible but you will most likely end up retrying a few times on some of the later ones.
The presentation is very simple and yet its charm still holds up a decade and a half later. Ko Takeuchi's art style has come a long way, but I feel like the game captures it pretty well despite the GBA's limitations.
The game's strongest strength, however, is the music. I'm happy that Tsunku has been able to consistently put out bangers for every single entry in the series since the very beginning. The Bon Odori was definitely my favorite out of this game and I hope they bring it back in the future.
It's unfortunate that Nintendo never localized this one, but hopefully its limited language barrier will convince them to at least put it out on the GBA Switch Online app someday. Nevertheless, I'm happy I was finally able to cover the one blind spot I had as a series fan. Definitely recommend checking this and the rest of the series out!
You will never be as cool as the blue rap men.
just inject rhythm heaven into my viens at this point dude
howd they get all those instruments in such a little tiny handheld. doesn't make any sense.
if you want a perfect introduction to rhythm games, or just a really good GBA game, go play the fan translation until nintendo makes one themselves (they aren't going to do this)
if you want a perfect introduction to rhythm games, or just a really good GBA game, go play the fan translation until nintendo makes one themselves (they aren't going to do this)
Nintendo SPD really moved up in the world with this game, going from making games that were 3 seconds long with Warioware, to games here often lasting around an entire minute, really crazy stuff! Rhythm Tengoku is one of the most delightful and in certain ways, impressive games I've seen on the GBA as well. Basically every moment of this is full of life as it takes you through this eclectic journey of rhythmically timed button presses, having the fun artstyle of "throw everything at the wall with reckless abandon" and cleverly using its visuals as both a means to guide and distract the player in a lot of minigames, really emphasising the requirement to get into the flow of each track.
There's a lot that gets done with the controls being as simple as they are as well, as while technically a lot of them could boil down to just pressing A at the right time, the way it's framed makes each scenario feel meaningfully different and exciting. While the rhythm in this honestly does feel a bit less engrained in every facet of the experience when put alongside other games in the series, frequently acting almost as something playing off background music cues rather than the rhythm of the piece itself, it still does a pretty great job for the most part. I mainly bring this up because there were a lot more moments that felt purely reactive rather than something I felt was intuitive to get on the first couple of runs of these minigames, feeling like I just needed to practice and memorise a lot more compared to the sequel on the DS, where those moments felt far less frequent and were often telegraphed far more in advance. This game having failure so often tied to just not knowing or remembering what's coming up is the one thing that hurts this game a bit for me, as once you mostly memorise the string of inputs you need to do, there are only a few cases where the actual execution of this is at all tricky.
Still cannot deny how good this game is though, and I really do feel like it did a lot with the GBA system, really just going all out with the experimentation. I love the pseudo-3D effects that are used in a few places to provide these weird moments of visual depth in particular, but there are just a ton of little moments that feel very clever and charming with how this technology was used. The audio is also insane considering how the GBA is usually pretty infamously bad in that department. Most of it sounds insanely clean, particularly in the remix stages that have actual vocal tracks being almost perfectly clear, and the parts that are a bit crunchier carrying their own unique appeal, especially with the character voices. The game has its shortcomings in other areas as well, such as a lot of really short tracks that don't really go anywhere, along with most of the remixes being a bit uninspired and mainly just stringing together a bunch of very simple interactions, but I just adore this game nonetheless. Definitely an essential GBA game, and I also love how the focus on music makes this feel so universal even when there are things like spoken Japanese cues and the like once in a while.
There's a lot that gets done with the controls being as simple as they are as well, as while technically a lot of them could boil down to just pressing A at the right time, the way it's framed makes each scenario feel meaningfully different and exciting. While the rhythm in this honestly does feel a bit less engrained in every facet of the experience when put alongside other games in the series, frequently acting almost as something playing off background music cues rather than the rhythm of the piece itself, it still does a pretty great job for the most part. I mainly bring this up because there were a lot more moments that felt purely reactive rather than something I felt was intuitive to get on the first couple of runs of these minigames, feeling like I just needed to practice and memorise a lot more compared to the sequel on the DS, where those moments felt far less frequent and were often telegraphed far more in advance. This game having failure so often tied to just not knowing or remembering what's coming up is the one thing that hurts this game a bit for me, as once you mostly memorise the string of inputs you need to do, there are only a few cases where the actual execution of this is at all tricky.
Still cannot deny how good this game is though, and I really do feel like it did a lot with the GBA system, really just going all out with the experimentation. I love the pseudo-3D effects that are used in a few places to provide these weird moments of visual depth in particular, but there are just a ton of little moments that feel very clever and charming with how this technology was used. The audio is also insane considering how the GBA is usually pretty infamously bad in that department. Most of it sounds insanely clean, particularly in the remix stages that have actual vocal tracks being almost perfectly clear, and the parts that are a bit crunchier carrying their own unique appeal, especially with the character voices. The game has its shortcomings in other areas as well, such as a lot of really short tracks that don't really go anywhere, along with most of the remixes being a bit uninspired and mainly just stringing together a bunch of very simple interactions, but I just adore this game nonetheless. Definitely an essential GBA game, and I also love how the focus on music makes this feel so universal even when there are things like spoken Japanese cues and the like once in a while.
Not sure what the deal is but I found this quite a bit harder than every subsequent game in the series. And this isn't my first rodeo ... I 100% perfected FEVER, okay? I'm not used to seeing anything but "Superb" on my first runs, THANK you very much. Seems like maybe the timing window overall is tighter? Also the songs/challenges just aren't designed as well or with as clear feedback as in the later games. Many feel rushed and awkward. Their overall design ethos isn't exactly locked down yet - some of the songs definitely just require light memorization, and that's not something that I can ever say for anything else in the series after this.
Anyway, the joyous infinity that is RHYTHM HEAVEN's charm is present and accounted for in its debut, definitely. A game of constant smiling and rocking out to what has to be the best collection of music on the GBA. Just not nearly as good as any of the later ones.
Anyway, the joyous infinity that is RHYTHM HEAVEN's charm is present and accounted for in its debut, definitely. A game of constant smiling and rocking out to what has to be the best collection of music on the GBA. Just not nearly as good as any of the later ones.
Don don pan pan dondo pan pan
Como o PRIMEIRO jogo da série já era tão maravilhoso assim? Rhythm Heaven sempre foi incrível, então?
E a simplicidade do primeiro jogo, com jogos muito inteligentes e divertidos mas sem ter 50 controles confusos e diferentes, me fez ser o preferido da série! Queria realmente entender de onde veio essa barra tão alta do Megamix...
Aliás, Bon Odori é um dos melhores joguinhos de RH e esta é apenas a verdade <3 Panpa!
E a simplicidade do primeiro jogo, com jogos muito inteligentes e divertidos mas sem ter 50 controles confusos e diferentes, me fez ser o preferido da série! Queria realmente entender de onde veio essa barra tão alta do Megamix...
Aliás, Bon Odori é um dos melhores joguinhos de RH e esta é apenas a verdade <3 Panpa!
dont play this on emulators i am begging you i dont care if you dont want to import a japanese copy or you dont want to buy a prepatched copy from some scummy dude do yourself a favor and play this on actual hardware
HAAAAA - BON ODORI
DON DON PAN PAN DON DON PAN PAN DON PAN PAN
DON DON PAN PAN DON DON PAN PAN DON PAN PAN
bold stance: i prefer this to the ds one. obviously more rudimentary and a lot fucking easier than that one (only had to retry once, on the final remix), but the overall consistency of the stages feels better, they're more inventive, and the bad ones are nowhere near as bad 🗿
perfect system's still dumb tho
perfect system's still dumb tho
Having replayed this and gotten every medal, I can confidently say that this is the weakest Rhythm Heaven.
That being said, it's still extremely fun and does have some great games (Bon Odori, Night Walk, Rap Men, and Tap Trial in particular) and tests different areas of rhythm sense effectively. The Remixes are also quite nice, especially the last three.
Unfortunately, Tengoku also has some really low lows. Some games are extremely short, others are unspectacular and even boring at some points. Quiz is not even rhythm game. Tengoku's version of karate man is also rather dull, especially compared to its future iterations, which are all among my favorites in the whole series.
Rhythm Tengoku is a fine game. It laid the groundwork for the series to flourish and did so with bravour. And flourish it did.
That being said, it's still extremely fun and does have some great games (Bon Odori, Night Walk, Rap Men, and Tap Trial in particular) and tests different areas of rhythm sense effectively. The Remixes are also quite nice, especially the last three.
Unfortunately, Tengoku also has some really low lows. Some games are extremely short, others are unspectacular and even boring at some points. Quiz is not even rhythm game. Tengoku's version of karate man is also rather dull, especially compared to its future iterations, which are all among my favorites in the whole series.
Rhythm Tengoku is a fine game. It laid the groundwork for the series to flourish and did so with bravour. And flourish it did.
fantastic game, probably my second favourite in the series so far as it has all the charm and quirk but none of the frustration of using the touchscreen in the DS version.
Played via the English fan translation Rhythm Heaven Silver.
They hit the ground running with the first entry in the series, its a shame this never left Japan, though some of the minigames definitely wouldn't have clicked with a western audience.
There are a couple stinkers here for sure - Quiz (?) - but lots of very solid minigames that were bound to be remastered in later entries.
I don't think this game is on the same level as DS, and definitely not Wii, but is worth a play if you have the means to.
They hit the ground running with the first entry in the series, its a shame this never left Japan, though some of the minigames definitely wouldn't have clicked with a western audience.
There are a couple stinkers here for sure - Quiz (?) - but lots of very solid minigames that were bound to be remastered in later entries.
I don't think this game is on the same level as DS, and definitely not Wii, but is worth a play if you have the means to.
5th remix owns
Surprisingly stands on its own as the first title in its series, just DO NOT use an emulator. My original runs got ruined thanks to that, and is unfortunate when hardware starts to die.