Ironically this game is at its worst when you have played all of the previous entries like I have. I thought I was setting myself up to have the most fun, and be able to pick out the most references etc by playing the games that came before this one. Unbeknownst to me, the remasters of the old games take up 75% of this game, and are completely in their original forms, with the same music and same button timings. For some of these games it was my 8th time playing the same game across different platforms, and it did start to drag.

I liked most of the new additions, though with the format of this game there wasn't much space for their full depth to be explored, which was a shame.
I don't know how I feel about the new scoring and skill star system. On the one hand, it gets rid of any ambiguity that was present with the old system, and where you needed to avoid mistakes. Taking away the requirement to perform well on a section left a void that was filled by the skill star, where you have to have absolutely perfect timing - compared to the usual close enough - on one specific input. It did become quite frustrating when the skill star was placed right at the end of a couple-minute long level, on a pattern that only shows up once or twice on the whole level so you can't really practice the timing.

In the end I picked up all the skill stars and all superbs in the main story, completing my sweep of the Rhythm Heaven series. I didn't end up going for all of the challenges levels, but these and the perfects will make for a fine challenge when I inevitably return to this fantastic series of games.

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.

The microgames here are either far too easy, or require you to frantically search for which of the many things on screen are interactable. The latter leads to some very cheap feeling fails.
The blowing on the microphone bit is cool in concept but all of the microgames suck or else it would be too difficult.
The bullet hell boss stage is a ridiculous difficulty spike compared to the rest.

The Wii entry is way more fun.

I don't prefer this game to the Wii entry, it lacks difficulty at times, and is frustratingly hard in others. Typically a level will require you to nail one specific section, which will be slightly different in timing than usual, in order to get a "superb" score. The problem arises when the bit you have to hit is right at the end of a 3 minute level and that is your only opportunity to learn the timing. I did only find this for a couple of levels, however.

Remix 3 in particular left me feeling sour, I finished the level without seeing any indication that I had made a mistake, which the game is usually flawless at telegraphing, but was still only given an "OK". I had to look this up and learnt that one of the minigames will give you a passing score and indicate you did well even if your timing was off, but will register that your timing was off when it comes to the final grading. I was unimpressed by this.

Has really got me in the mood to play the 3ds entry, before moving on to Rhythm Heaven Studio!