Author Topic: Rhythm Heaven Fever Impressions  (Read 1703 times)

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Offline MegaByte

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Rhythm Heaven Fever Impressions
« on: January 30, 2012, 01:15:57 PM »

Wubbadubbadubba'sattrue? Yes, Rhythm Heaven Fever continues the series' excellence.

http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/impressions/29032

Rhythm Heaven, perhaps Nintendo's greatest overlooked series, is finally coming to Wii in North America. Last week, I had the chance to check it out at Nintendo. If you're a Rhythm Heaven veteran, you'll find the affair very familiar. If not, you're long overdue for the experience.

The presentation features a distinctive Flash-like 2D art style, and most importantly, extremely catchy tunes. Coming from the WarioWare team, the game's style and quirky humor is very similar, but rather than focus quick-fire mini-games, Rhythm Heaven Fever tests players rhythm sense. The game is both endearing and absolutely zany. Seriously, you will wonder what possessed the creators to combine the elements in the way they did. It may be nonsensical, but it's musical genius. If music is a drug, Rhythm Heaven Fever is amphetamine.

Unlike most rhythm games, rhythm isn't tied to a string of incoming notes, and instead you control some aspect of an ongoing animation. Rather than attempting to marry motion controls with the music, the game thankfully uses buttons. However, the buttons are limited to pressing A or A and B together, which is probably the game's biggest downside -- the original GBA game had more buttons.

The majority of the mini-games are all-new, though some borrow aspects of those from the previous games. Like previous games, at the end of each four stages, there's a remix stage, which features a song and a mix of the preceding stages. At the end of each stage, you are awarded with a Superb, Just OK, OK, or Try Again rank. And like previous games, you are sometimes given the chance to attempt to complete a song perfectly, which will award a special medal.

Before each stage, a tutorial tries to get players used to the control for that stage. There seems to be less hand-holding than in previous games, and players will have to experiment with timing and listen closely to the beat, which is always key. If you have trouble, you have the option to see a demo of what you should be doing. The first stage, Hole-in-one, is more verbose since it is your introduction to the game. Two monkeys throw golf balls at you, which you must hit into the hole. In the game's first humorous moment, the second monkey doesn't even cue you and beans you with the ball. The series has always been full of humor, but it seems more explicit this time around.

There can be a lot of stuff going on the screen at one time, often intentionally. Flockstep (a play on the DS version's Lockstep, but featuring birds), tries to overwhelm the player with zooming effects and lots of birds flying in and out of view. Some of the games explicitly block your view for a time or pop up messages to encourage (distract) you. It's usually easier to follow the beat simply by listening and not looking.

Yet with a larger screen to work with, the developers inserted all sorts of Easter eggs into the mix. For instance, in Double Date, where you must kick three types of balls away from hitting a pair of burrowing animals, the balls you kick fly into the background and if it's a football, you might see a bunch of guys tackle each other trying to get it. The karate man from previous games also pops up to kick the soccer ball.

Speaking of Lockstep, the game features a variety of rhythm types, including at least one stage with the infamous off-beat timing. This time, it's Monkey Watch, which features tiny monkeys in a watch, of which you must slap their hands in sequence.

Since the Japanese version released last July, there's a good chance you've seen videos of the game on Youtube. One in particular, Ringside, which features a wrestler being interviewed, became an internet meme. Now, instead of "pikapikapikadesuka?", the reporter now asks "wubbadubbadubba'sattrue?" Surprisingly, it works. And that's how it's goes for the whole game. A lot of care was taken in creating the localization, and Nintendo did a great job redoing the songs for an American audience with a full English dub.

Rhythm Heaven Fever is best experienced first hand, but one of the nice things about bringing it to televisions is that others can participate, actively or passively. While there's a two, player mode, it's pretty limited compared to the single-player game. However, the songs are a lot of fun, and the beat makes it easy for spectators to imagine they're playing. Additionally, the scenes that play out when you mess up are humorous, and it makes for a good party experience.

Like previous Rhythm Heaven and WarioWare games, Fever includes a number of bonus mini-games and toys that are unlocked by earning medals. Some of these mini-games are of the endless variety, testing sheer endurance. The first of these, Mr. Upbeat, is all-new for the English-language version, though it actually appeared in the original GBA edition. Mr. Upbeat, a Mr. Game & Watch-esque character must jump in time with a metronome that ramps up in speed. There are also remakes of some of the mini-games from the original.

The toys can include simple timing-based challenges, like trying to launch a toy car into position at the exactly right moment. There's also a phone, and I'm told people should pay attention to upcoming trailers (such as the one embedded in this article) for secrets relating to that toy.

In the cafe, you can talk to a barista to get hints in the game. Here, you can also listen to the music you've unlocked. The cafe also includes diary-type entries where you can learn the back-stories behind the mini-games and what some of the characters were thinking. Rhythm Heaven Fever starts off with a rhythm test, which tests your innate rhythm sense against a metronome, and is also available to redo at any time in the cafe.

Rhythm is a deep part of the human experience, and as such, Rhythm Heaven Fever is the type of game that will be enjoyed by casuals and core gamers alike. Rather than a series of incoming notes to press, the Rhythm Heaven series turns rhythm into a narrative with highly engaging gameplay that's easy to pick up, but challenging to master. The game's $30 budget price makes it an especially attractive purchase. Rhythm Heaven Fever launches in North America on February 13.

Aaron Kaluszka
Contributing Editor, Nintendo World Report

Offline SBB

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Re: Rhythm Heaven Fever Impressions
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2012, 05:54:32 PM »
Got my copy pre-ordered. Can't wait!

Offline MegaByte

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Re: Rhythm Heaven Fever Impressions
« Reply #2 on: February 14, 2012, 08:35:54 PM »
The secret word to enter into the phone is "STAFF." From what I understand, there are others hidden in the game.
Aaron Kaluszka
Contributing Editor, Nintendo World Report