Retro Game Review: Rhythm Heaven Silver

     
       Rhythm Heaven Silver is a free fan-made hack of the original GameBoy Advance Title, Rhythm Tengoku (リズム天国 Rizumu Tengoku).This hack is basically just an English translation of the original Japan-only release yet there are still some instances in this hack where some Japanese text has not yet been translated. Also, since this is not an official release, slightly more significant things like Japanese voice acting has been left unchanged.

      This rom was an incredible find for me to stumble upon. I don't speak Japanese (yet I'm learning how to at the moment) so when I originally played the game on emulator a few years back, I had to use my intuition to try to figure out what to do. Fortunately, it's a fairly simplistic game so it did not take too much away from the experience.

     But now, some people have actually made an English translated hack of the rom which gave me reason to play the game a second time. So drop what you're doing, it's not as important as you think it is. Come join me in Rhythm Heaven as I explain to you what's going on in this rom. It's only going to take 10 minutes. You can afford to procrastinate that long.
 

     I mean, c'mon! Look at all the pretty colors!

        リズム天国 is obscure yet one of the most brilliant rhythm game titles I've ever played. It stands out among the crowd of mediocre rhythm titles trying to rip-off other popular titles by being clever and imaginative yet being stupidly simple, a monkey could play it with its ass. This does not mean the game too easy and dull, however. So many ideas have been put into the game with such brilliant game design to tie them all together that I could almost call it a perfect game. The game begins with you being a buff Karate fighter punching flying objects to the beat and 10 minutes of gameplay later you could be playing as a baseball player constantly making home runs in space. It manages to blend so many different themes into one game without being inconsistent. All the mini challenges feel like they all harmonize together into one colorful universe, varied yet united.

                   I'm not sure what these guys are supposed to be. Not even sure if they're naked. . .
 
         This game can be one big gluttonous buffet for completionists. It has a huge amount of content for a handheld game. However, if you do not have very good reflexes, you sadly won't be able to access most of this content. There are extra mini-games you can unlock by doing very good at some of the main challenges and earning medals. There are also tons of extra content that can be unlocked by beating the PERFECT challenges. Again, if you're as quick and precise as a fish on land, you will not be able to access these bonus content. There even some challenges that give me strains and frustrations to beat its PERFECT challenge. As a hardcore gamer with really good reflexes, this is not a problem for me but I think Japanese kids who ended up buying the game might have been disappointed to learn that half the game is basically barred from access unless they try really hard.

         I also should mention that these PERFECT challenges crop up randomly and when they do, you only have 3 tries to try to beat it else you have to wait for a new PERFECT challenge to show up again. They also only show up on challenges you have managed to get a medal on. It's actually very intuitive and reflects good design and thought on the part of the developers. It actually reduces the potential for frustration by limiting the player's ability to try to repeat said challenge over and over again and make them weary of how little tries they have. It also increases a feeling of tension as you usually want to beat the PERFECT challenge as early as possible.

    Unfortunately, the hack as not yet translated what I assume is supposed to say "Congratulations"

         And of course, the music. Can't have a good rhythm game without good music. I like the overall variety in music choices. The rhythm and beats are made to keep the flow of the gameplay pumped up while the style of music made to fit whatever weird challenge the music is supposed to be in. Each challenge has their own track so it does not suffer from monotony. You can even unlock the soundtracks themselves and the game allows you to have your own drum sounds over the actual song but in order to unlock the soundtrack you need to beat a PERFECT challenge like I mentioned earlier so some people may not be able to do this.

    The english translations have really helped a lot with making the game experience a lot clearer for me. I can even read the text content in the E-mail section of the game now (which is one of the game's extra content that needs to be unlocked through the PERFECT challenges). Even the title cards that show up everytime you select a challenge has been helpfully translated so I now know the titles for every level. Kudos to the people who made this hack! There has been wonderful work put into this!

    If you're a musically minded person who cares a lot about flow and energy in music and also likes playing video games, this game is an absolute MUST to find. I put this game up there with the likes of Parappa the Rappa and Lumines for being video games that know how to blend the medium of games and music in very interesting ways and being unnaturally creative and spontaneous at that. I suggest you get an emulator and look for the english rom hack if you don't understand Japanese though, don't worry it's not like Nintendo is going to swoop in and take you in for questioning or anything.

    Thanks for reading. I'll be back again when I want to write about something else.
                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                - Eezy