Rhythm Heaven

There is a game for everyone and not everyone is into blood and gore types of games. My wife doesn’t wants to be near me when I am playing Grand Theft Auto.

Rhythm Heaven is for people who like a good musical game. If you like Guitar Hero, then you will most probably like this one too. Although I mentioned that this is a music game, but it is a bit weird, bordering and out of the ordinary.

This game was created for the Nintendo DS and is made to be played using the stylus.

The premise of Rhythm Heaven is to match the beat of the scene being played out on the screen. In each level, you will see wild and amazing scenes with black and white characters, colorful animals and little guys with spears doing a funky dance. The graphics alone are worth trying to see if you are up to the challenge of creating the right rhythm.

You can play this even if you can’t dance Hold your Nintendo DS sideways like a book, with the top screen on the left and the touch screen on the right and imitate what the characters are doing and match the background music. You may have to tap with your stylus if the character is punching. Flicking, like hitting the ball in Rhythm Rally, is required if you are on a level where they are playing ping-pong. Whatever the character does, you have to tap, flick, hold, slide or lift when they do it.

The game sounds simple but it gets increasingly harder as the level increases. There are 10 stages with 5 sub-stages per set. Each set consists of 4 original sub-stages and a final remix sub-stage that combines the mechanics of the previous sub-stages in a new visual context with new music.

Your rhythms are rated at the end of the stage. It’s similar to Guitar Hero where they rate how well you kept up with the music. When trying to make a beat, the result can be correct, half-miss, or miss. You will be rated – Superb, OK, Just OK or Try Again. If you are really great, Superb, you get a medal and can unlock the next stage. Accumulating these medals unlocks extra mini-games, including endless games, rhythm toys and guitar lessons. If you are not worthy, you must Try Again. The game can be very addictive and you just want to play over and over again until your rhythm is top notch. Even if you are mediocre, OK or Just OK, you get to unlock the next level, but without a medal.

Rhythm Heaven tests you in ways that are different from other games but also fun. The game is rated E for everyone so the entire family can rock out to the beat.