The game I’ve chosen to highlight this month has you doing a whole variety of different things. These range from clipping hairs off vegetables to playing badminton whilst flying planes, amongst many other bizarre challenges. The key to conquering any of these challenges is a keen sense of rhythm.
Rhythm Paradise Megamix contains over 100 rhythm games to play, both old ones featured in previous games and all-new entries to conquer. Games from the Nintendo DS’ Rhythm Paradise and the Wii’s Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise are included, as well as some from the original Game Boy Advance title that never saw release in Europe.
Each game is generally as simple as pressing a button – however, you can’t just press it whenever. Your button presses have to be in time with the beat. This is where you’ll need to listen closely to the music and watch for visual cues, which can help you get your timing down.
By performing well in the rhythm games, you’ll earn coins. Each game also has a point where you can earn a skill star with some perfect timing – this helps to increase the coins you earn at the end of the game.
A few of the rhythm games available include: Catchy Tune, where you have to catch fruit as it falls down some steps; Rhythm Tweezers, which has you plucking hairy onions; Fruit Basket, where you bounce fruit off the ground to shoot some hoops; Rhythm Rally, which is table tennis to a beat; Tongue Lashing, in which you feed a chameleon; Fillbots, simply fuel up newly-built robots; LumBEARjack, is about a bear cutting wood for some cats; and one that will be familiar to those who have played Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise, Flock Step. That one’s just a case of marching and jumping in time with other birds.
Each rhythm game is very simple, but keeping in rhythm can prove to be more difficult than you might expect.
There’s also a few distractions from the rhythm games, and these can be found in the Café. For a start, you can change settings here such as switching the soundtracks between English and Japanese. As you play the game, the Café expands.
A Shop opens up, where you can use coins to buy memorabilia and music from rhythm games, or exchange Flow Balls earned in the challenge mode for new rhythm games.
The Museum lets you view epilogues and your best scores for each rhythm game, and it’s the place to go to peruse the items and music bought from the Shop. You can also replay rhythm games. Talking to the Curator will let you see the Mascot Collection, Badges earned and memories from the story.
Mascots for the Mascot Collection can be earned by feeding turnips to a goat, and having it level up. Every ten levels will get you a golden egg with a collectable mascot.
There’s also the StreetPass Terrace, which allows you to compete against others you’ve met via StreetPass or in-game characters. Winning here nets you turnips and coins.
For the first time in the series, Rhythm Paradise Megamix features a story. It is just an excuse plot when it comes down to it, but there’s a few funny moments in there. It’s just a way to have multiple rhythm games connected together.
The story is about helping a creature named Tibby return to Heaven World, as well as restoring flow to the land by playing rhythm games.
There’ll be times you come across the Gatekeeper Trio, and you’ll have to pay to take on one of their trials to progress. You can choose the difficulty for the trial, with the price depending on the difficulty – easy is the most expensive option, whilst hard is the cheapest.
Remixes are still present too – these stages mash together several other rhythm games, so you’ll need to be adaptable as it switches between rhythm games.
You can also board the Challenge Train in Challenge Land. This mode can be played solo, or with up to four players. In the case of the latter, only one player needs a copy of the game. The rhythm games here have alterations to the rules, but doing well in this mode will earn you Flow Balls. As mentioned previously these can be traded for more rhythm games in the Shop.
The music in the game was created in partnership with legendary Japanese music producer Tsunku♂, and many of the tracks are likely to work your way into your head and stubbornly remain there.
It’s also nice to see some of my favourite rhythm games returning from Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise. Air Rally and Ringside are a couple of examples.
This game also has some pretty great visual humour, though experiencing it first time around can be slightly distracting from trying to keep rhythm.
I’m pretty fond of rhythm games, and something as weird and wonderful as Rhythm Paradise Megamix is no exception to that. If you’ve never experienced a Rhythm Heaven game before, you can download a free demo of this game on the 3DS eShop and give it a go. It is only a tiny fraction of what is available in the full game, but it gives a pretty good idea of what to expect.
Rory Muses 