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Rhythm games can be absolutely humbling at times; there’s nothing worse than going into a game thinking something will be pretty easy, only to completely flop at it and truly realise how bad you are. It’s the reason I stayed away from most rhythm games – despite how fun they look from afar, I know that the moment the controller is in my hand, I’m about to deliver one of the worst rhythm sessions you’ll ever see.??
Thankfully, Rhythm Paradise Groove is a game that doesn’t punish you for getting it wrong, and guides you gently along the way. The fifth release in the long-running “Rhythm Heaven” series (fourth if you exclude the Japan-only original), Rhythm Paradise Groove fits into the ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ mould – following the same gameplay of previous instalments, you play though a collection of mini-games that each focus on a different rhythm with its own little quirks. These mini-games are grouped into sets of four, and at the end of each set is a ‘remix’ mini-game which blends all four games into one, putting you through your paces by switching between all four mini-games with a new rhythm linking them together.
Surprisingly the game lets you know right off the bat that if you’re playing on a television, there could be delays between the audio and your controller input, leading to the potential for you to miss your chances or be slightly off when matching the rhythm of the mini-games. This isn’t something I have seen before, and through testing it with various mini-games turned out to be true; going from docked mode to handheld mode on the Switch 2, I was instantly hitting beats that I missed previously. The first mini-game ‘Hoop Trundling’, which took me ages to get into at the start, suddenly became a breeze when playing handheld – and soon I was going back to a lot of the mini-games and absolutely blitzing them, instead of just getting “Good” ratings. The game even recommends wired headphones for the best experience (to which I didn’t have a pair around to try).
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Whether or not the switch from docked to handheld actually did minimize the latency, or whether it gave me a confidence boost remains to be seen; but upon playing handheld I went back over some of the mini-games I’d played previously, and my ratings went from “Good” to “Amazing”, granting me a medal. There’s no punishment if you happen to miss a couple of beats, and the game is generous in how it hands out high ratings, but it also means that the fun isn’t diminished when you’re trying to be beat-perfect in each level and just so happen to trip up. In fact the only time the game demands perfection is when it offers you a specific reward – like “Dino’s Watering Can” on ‘Feeding the Beast’, which allows for no errors and gives you three chances at completing the mini-game without error. Sadly I missed my chance, but it comes back around as you progress further through the game.
The introduction to each mini-game not only gives you the opportunity to work your way into the rhythm, but also gives context to what mini-game you’re playing – and some of them are extremely quirky. Bouncing fruit off your muscles? ‘Fruit Flex’ has got you. Catching vegetables that fly through your kitchen? ‘Slice and Dice Kitchen’ will be your favourite. How about conversing with an alien who’s just arrived on Earth? ‘Alien Alphabet’ will fit the bill. The developers really let their imaginations run wild, but never allowed the mini-games to be boring, despite how weird some of them seem. Some games I found were easy to get into, where others took a few tries to get the pacing right – and what the practice doesn’t tell you is that you’ll have distractions thrown in as you play.
The game challenges you not to focus on what you’re seeing on screen, and instead listen to the beat and fall in with it. This can be extremely annoying – objects placed right in your line of sight, or zooming in on certain characters during gameplay – but it adds to the challenge, and if you’re truly in the rhythm, you’ll pas with flying colours. The better you get at each game, the higher your overall flow rises – which is essentially just an average of how you’re doing throughout the game.
The good news is that it is really, *really* hard to fail a level – in fact it keeps playing through to the end, and even then, the worst you can get is “Keep Trying”. I purposely had to fail a level just to get that rating, and it was the only time I ever saw that message. Depending on the rating you receive, out of “Keep Trying”, “Good”, “Really Good”, “Amazing”, or higher, you also get feedback at the end of each mini-game, and a neat little title card with a quote or comment. This game truly is all about positivity, which is refreshing to see in general. I suppose the one drawback from this is that there’s no on-screen meters, timers or anything that tells you how much longer you’ve got to go, or just how well you’re doing – in fact the only time this appears is when you’re making a ‘Perfect’ run, and the icon disappears the moment you’ve made a mistake.
When you find yourself needing a break or wanting to check out other features of the game, you can head over to Rhythm Toy Box – a neat little bunch of mini-games that don’t need to be ‘beaten’ and are there for fun. This is where your medals unlock more and more mini-games, and sometimes it’s fun just to play these and test your reflexes and skills – for instance, Swing allows you to do just that, and then kick your shoe off to see how far it goes. No win conditions, no end-game, just… see how far it goes. A nice way to kill a bit of time.
There’s also Beatspell – an RPG-inspired mini-game which sees you venture through a magical world with – you guessed it – rhythm-inspired motions. Cast spells and fight monsters as you venture through each chapter and level your character and your spells up. This one is a definite time-absorber, as I found that once I dived into it, getting into the motion of things meant it was hard to give up. The more you play, the better you get and the more you unlock, meaning there’s more things to do. There’s even a neat little cafe option that provides handy tips and general advice if you get stuck or need a bit of direction.
Of course what good is a rhythm game without a multiplayer feature? Play With Friends adds an extra layer to an already-fun game, allowing up to four players to play together on the same console. Similar to Solo Mode, if you complete a level with an “Amazing” rating, you’ll unlock rings which also allow you to unlock more features. These games differ to the Solo Mode in that there are sequel levels that get progressively harder, and that the beat differs in each one – it is never the same beat for each player. My only draw with this is not having more time to play with others – it is definitely a fun party game.
