+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