Ahh, Rhythm Heaven. How I missed you. Like many Nintendo IPs, this is a franchise that has inspired many people in different ways with its zany art style and quirky rhythm games. Would you believe me if I said that this month marks a whole decade since the release of Rhythm Heaven Megamix? Yeah…I’m surprised too. But that aside…
When Rhythm Heaven Groove was announced alongside Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream in the September 2025 Direct, a lot of people – myself included, of course – were super excited. And this might also be the final title that Nintendo will ever produce for the Nintendo Switch 1, so let’s answer the question of whether this title closes off the first-party lineup of the Switch 1 with a superb score, or if it should try again and go back to the development board where it came from.
Pick a Game and Play
Unlike the previous game in the series, Rhythm Heaven: Groove just gets you right into the action. The premise is simple. You have various columns, with each one containing four unique games. Then, at the end of the column, you have the Remix, a medley of all of the games in that column. This goes for everything except for the final Remix, which takes all of the games you’ve played in one big medley. The UI is pretty much how it was back from the GBA original, and perhaps a little too much like it, but I digress.
Each minigame is very short, and you can clear each of them in 3 or 4 minutes at most, as their inputs are fairly simple to grasp. At most, you’ll be asked to use A, B, or the D-Pad, with the majority of them just using the A button. Except for Remixes, all of the titles on display feature a tutorial mode where you can practice the various beats and audio cues, and, by holding Y, you can watch an example of how it is done. At the end of the minigame, you’ll be graded with a Keep Trying, Good, or Amazing, with the lattermost giving you a medal. Lastly, at random times one of the games or Remixes will feature a Perfect challenge, and getting a Perfect will grant you some cool extras, and place the iconic “P Heart”.
So how are those games, you might ask? Well, in a word. Positively zany, and I swear I mean that in a good way. There are definitely some games that will make you raise an eyebrow, but trust me when I say that these games will grow on you. Perhaps the most absurd-looking to me was the “A for Effort”, where it seemed like it was a passion project made by the guitarist who was playing the song, and he’s not ashamed to admit it! Simple as the game might’ve been, I still had lots of fun with this and many of the games in the package, even if some of them might’ve not been ones I particularly enjoyed.
One of the things I definitely noticed was that accessibility seemed to be an important inclusion for the team over at Nintendo and TNX. For instance, you have this brand-new character called Lil’ Miss Reeds, a TTS robot that always hangs out on top of the menu. Upon the first startup, she will ask you whether you would like her to read the words out loud in the game and even describe them, and she’ll end her sentences with “beep” for when you’re ready to go to the next line. All minigames also have distinct audio cues that keep the “Rhythm Heaven essence” of being able to play any of these games even with your eyes closed.
There are so many secrets hidden inside Rhythm Heaven Groove that it actually made me want to try my best to get a Perfect each time, just to read what kind of neat little bonus I would get. From the letters that reveal some lore about the minigames themselves, to the amusing comics, I feel this is the most the series has ever had with extra original content since Megamix. In fact, some games even have the chance to trigger specific easter eggs, such as Ashley from the WarioWare franchise sometimes appearing in Sneezy Moon, or even how A for Effort’s stock images have the characters from Rhythm Heaven Fever appearing secretly.
The Missing Pieces
While I dislike having to compare games… There are a few things that I feel this game lacks in comparison to Rhythm Heaven: Megamix. First, Skill Stars seem to have been completely removed from the game: sections of each game where you had to get the rhythm just right in order to get a Skill Star. You could exchange these for additional minigames and items through the Café. When I looked at the Japanese title of the game, it had “Miracle Stars” in its name, so I initially thought that you could collect the “Miracle Stars”, but that’s not the case here.
Another thing that’s missing is the score bar from the 3DS, where you had a 0 to 100 measure on your overall score and flow from that minigame. Your only measure of how well you’re doing in each game is by looking at your Flow on the bottom right of your screen, which, to this day, I never understood what sort of calculation the game is even doing to come to that score. It’s pretty vague, and to be honest, I wish there was a more precise way to know how you did.
And finally, though this is a minor thing, we no longer have the timing feedback bar. Granted, Rhythm Heaven has rather clear sound cues on whether you got something wrong or correct, and that bar was mostly so the 3DS’s bottom screen had some use, but I do wish there was some more accurate feedback on whether our button press was too early or too late, because this is rather inconsistent per game. I’ve been told that the JoyCon rumbles are more or less depending on your timing, but I would even have taken it as an optional accessibility feature. Maybe a future Nintendo Switch 2 Edition will allow for this? Time will tell, I suppose.
Now, I’m not a fan of Rhythm Heaven Groove’s UI design, or at least, some parts of it. It does look very reminiscent of the GBA original, but at the same time, some menu screens feel like they’re downright unfinished. From the screen that appears when you get a Perfect, to some of the Rhythm Toys… I will admit I did feel like they look unfinished. Even the minigame start screens themselves, although they use a lot of different styled fonts, are still super simple-looking for the most part, especially when compared to other titles in the series.
A Rhythm RPG and the Return of Drums
In the leftmost column, you’ll find what Rhythm Heaven Groove titles the Extras, which include the Café, where you can supposedly ask the Barista to help you if you’re stuck in a minigame, followed by the Rhythm Toys section and the main attraction: Beatspell. This is a bona fide RPG with five chapters where you play as an apprentice mage and must save the world from the monsters in the cave you’re in. To cast your spells, you must press buttons in a given order and rhythm. For example, doing B then A casts a fire spell, B-down-A casts a healing spell, and B-B-A does a water spell. If your rhythm is on point, you’ll deal increased damage. The mode may seem pretty short, but on the later stages, there are multiple paths you can take, and getting a perfect 5-star score can be pretty tough, especially if you’re playing a particular stage for the first time. For a side mode, I’m very impressed by it.
Another fun addition is the return of the Drum Lessons that were previously on the original Rhythm Tengoku Silver for the GBA. This is a mode that’s dedicated to learning all about the various drums and their rhythm. You can also jam out to in-game BGMs, which is super cool. And while I did comment earlier on the Rhythm Toys’ UI being rather… unfinished, they’re still able to provide some decent fun. And of course, you can’t forget the in-game music player, where you can play every single song from the game and jam out to the tunes while you’re doing something…like how I am writing this very review while bopping my head to the Remix themes! Jokes aside, there’s a plethora of extra content for you to discover that I will even keep a secret, because their charm is in finding out about it on your own.
Player 1, It’s Your Turn
Now let’s go to the Play With Friends section. Here, we have 30 rhythm games that can only be played via local co-op. And sadly, just so I’m clear, there’s no way to go online or even connect two Switches side by side to play together. I imagine this is because even local communication can cause some delay due to the distance between the consoles. Which, for a game that prides itself on “perfect” rhythm inputs, is understandable. But I do feel the least Nintendo could’ve done was add some sort of leaderboard for you to compare your Flow score against your friends.
My sister and I played some of the games together, and honestly, these games are a bit hit or miss. There are 10 games, and they each have 3 difficulties, totaling 30 games. The higher the difficulty, the more complex the rhythm and grading will be. In some of them, the game would sometimes have two CPUs join along to make a 4-player ensemble, but there doesn’t seem to be any way to adjust how the AI does the rhythm.
There’s also the fact that even games that feel like they should be competitive still grade you with the same Good/Amazing scoring from solo mode, and you’ll even get rings for any Amazing ratings, which will unlock items in the Group Toy Box. My sister and I were left wondering that, if you want more rings, then you should perhaps drop the competitive nature and work together to clear it as fast as possible, and honestly, this kind of defeats the purpose entirely, in our opinion. Still, this isn’t a bad mode. Our favorite game was probably Memo Rising, which combines rhythm with a memory game, and it was a fun mix that we loved.
Groovy and Fun
Rhythm Heaven: Groove is an incredibly fun game, and I’m so glad that Nintendo and Tsunku have returned after a decade-long hiatus. While its art direction can feel somewhat lacking at times, you really can’t go wrong with the amount of content it offers for the low price, and I can certainly recommend this to both Rhythm Heaven veterans and new fans of the franchise. With over 100 rhythm games in total providing fun in both solo and co-op modes, plus a myriad of secrets and extras to collect and find? Absolutely amazing. But I do hope this means we see more of the series in the future, and that Nintendo doesn’t shove it back into the IP vault.
