Rhythm Heaven Groove Review – Get Your Groove On

Going into Rhythm Heaven Groove, my expectations were rather low, but not for the reasons you might think. You see, as someone who has a bad habit of getting into niche Japanese series that got their start on Nintendo handhelds (angrily glances over at Capcom), I’ve become far too accustomed to waiting five, sometimes 10 years for new entries in my favorite franchises. So with Rhythm Heaven Groove, my expectations were relatively low. Not because I expected it to be a subpar game, but rather, it had a rather low hurdle to clear in order for me to be sold on it. 

The good news? Rhythm Heaven Groove delivers exactly what fans have been clamoring for: a polished package that’s jam-packed with charming minigames that test your sense of rhythm. But it also has a few surprises up its sleeve, and marks a true return to form for a franchise that’s been laying dormant for more than a decade. 

For those who’ve played past entries, the single-player mode will feel very familiar. Rather than shepherding you down a more conventional story mode, Rhythm Heaven Groove follows in the footsteps of its predecessors, offering up a collection of rhythm-focused minigames that will test your ability to keep in beat with the music. However, you won’t need to pick up a plastic controller, or play specific notes at the right time like you would in most games in the genre. Instead, each minigame makes use of a rather simple control scheme, and you’ll typically only have to use one or two buttons at any given moment. Instead, the challenge comes from learning the timing needed for these button presses, and paying attention to audio cues. 

Instead of relying on a note highway or other clear visual indicators, you’ll instead be treated to charming vignettes that provide a bit of context as to why you need to be tapping along in rhythm to the game’s soundtrack. In Fruit Flex, for instance, you take control of a ripped bodybuilder who needs to flex his muscles at the right time in order to bounce fruit across his body. On the other hand, Ribbit Rocket has you playing as a frog holding a lily pad, and you need to time your button presses in sync with the music in order to launch your amphibian friends off into the sky. These scenarios are very much steeped in silliness, but their colorful visuals, adorable characters, and catchy soundtracks keep you engaged, and each level never outstays its welcome. 

On paper, Rhythm Heaven Groove’s core premise is rather straightforward, but it manages to squeeze out enough challenge and replayability from its simple setup. Its collection of minigames are split up into sets of four, with each set capped up off with a Remix stage, that cuts and splices the visuals and soundtracks from each individual level, making for a mini-gauntlet that will test your ability to remember each of the minigame’s different timings and rhythms. Better yet, the developers aren’t afraid to switch things up on you at a moment’s notice, limiting your vision by obscuring your character or zooming in the camera awkwardly, forcing you to rely on a stage’s audio rather than the on-screen visuals to keep to the beat. 

Sure, these moments can make for a challenging time, but the bite-sized stages incentivize replayability, and the game will also award you with medals for each stage if you’re able to complete them while only making a few mistakes. Once you’ve made your way through the initial batch of eight sets, you’ll unlock the second half of the single-player minigames, which feature more challenging versions of stages you’ve already come across, as well as some new ones thrown in for good measure. It’s a formula that is well-suited to those who enjoy chasing high scores and besting their previous attempts, but might grow stale if you’re the type of gamer who enjoys a steady drip feed of new mechanics, upgrades, and unlockables.

Rhythm Heaven Groove truly nails multiplayer.

Past Rhythm Heaven entries have dabbled in multiplayer to various degrees of success, but Groove feels the most fully-featured in this regard. There are around a dozen different multiplayer minigames, with most of them being co-operative versions of minigames that would easily pass for a solo stage. That being said, there are a few competitive options that feel much more akin to a Mario Party minigame. 

The standout pick, for me at least, has to be Cake Wait, which sees you and your friends sitting around a table with a single slice of cake in the center. Rather than rushing to be the first one to claim it, you’re instead tasked with waiting for a 10 second timer to expire, and whoever presses a button closest to the timer expiring will snag the delicious dessert all to themselves. Of course, in typical Rhythm Heaven fashion, subsequent rounds will get trickier, with the on-screen timer disappearing or the background track fading out, forcing you to memorize the tempo and perfect your mental rhythm. Much like other minigames, the central hook is easy to understand, but Nintendo manages to milk as much out of it as they can. 

Rounding out the package is Rhythm Heaven Groove’s take on a bite-sized RPG, aptly-named Beatspell. Structured more like a traditional single-player outing, with additional chapters being unlocked by earning medals, Beatspell puts you in the wizarding shoes of a magician as you make your way through dungeons and eliminate all sorts of unfriendly monsters. Rather than attacking them head on, you’ll need to chain button presses together in order to cast spells. I initially had high hopes for this particular mode, but its gimmick wears thin rather quickly, and unlocking new spells does little to stave off the ever-growing tedium. It’s a shame, since this sort of diversion has lots of potential; I can only hope that Nintendo will continue to iterate and experiment on this, because a more fleshed-out, fully-featured version could easily find success as a standalone game.