Rhythm Heaven Megamix

Written by Nathan Carter on 7/15/2016 for 3DS  

I love rhythm games. Guitar Hero, Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution, Persona 4 Dancing All Night are just some games I can name off the top of my head that I love so thought that Rhythm Heaven Megamix would be another game that I could add to that list. Sadly though I found myself not really having much fun at all with this game because of just how incredibly simplistic it is. I just kept playing, hoping and wishing that the mini games would start switching things up and would add some variety as the game went on, but it really all comes down to pressing a single button in time with the beat of the music. 

Each of the stages in the game contains four mini games and of course all of the games involve matching your button presses to the beat of the music. I highly recommend wearing headphones or playing this this game without any background noise because the timing of some of these games require Just like the Wario Ware games, these mini games can be pretty strange and entertaining. You'll have simple things such as catching fruit bouncing down stairs, dancing to the music, and then you will get into the rather odd mini games including translating an alien's speech, or having a bear chop wood. Honestly, the novelty of the game starts to wear off incredibly fast when you realize that all you are doing is just pressing the A button in tune with the music. The mini games themselves may all be different but at the same time again, all you are doing is just pressing a single button and some of them might bring in either the d pad or the b button.

At the very least, the game does start getting a bit more difficult and entertaining as it progresses by having the mini games zoom in and out, flip around and do all kinds of other crazy stuff. There was one that was infuriating where I played as some surfing boy band and where you have to hold the button to duck under obstacles and the release the button to jump over obstacles. This one was extremely difficult because the timing of the jump has to extremely precise. This one I had to restart a few times. To be blunt, it feels more like a grind and a very boring one to get to the more challenging games later in the game which include remixes of the games set to a different beat.

There is a shining light however. Some of the best mini games are the gatekeeper challenges where you can spend coins to play the game at one of three different difficulty levels. Two of these games involve flipping a coin in the air and catching the coin exactly at three seconds. The other game involves deadly viruses flying through a pipe and you have to snipe them Honestly I think the reason why I like these games more than the other ones is because these feel more like games you would see in a Wario Ware game instead. These special levels are fun to replay, especially on the harder difficulties and do provide a fun break from the normal rhythm games. 

  

Completing each of the minigames will earn you coins and flow balls which you can spend at the shop. Here can you buy special items, music from the game and there is also a museum where you can replay the mini games that you have already completed and buy some new mini games that weren't included in the main story. Honestly for me though, out of all the mini games in Rhythm Heaven Megamix, there are only one or two which I would ever want to go back and play again. Also in the shop area is a Pachinko mini game where you gather turnips and feed them to a goat. If you have played Pachinko before, which is like Plinko from The Price is Right, it's pretty much based on luck as you just have to hope that the turnips will reach the goat below. Leveling up the goat will also change the layout of the board to a more difficult one. Honestly I had more fun with this mini game than a lot of the other games in here.  

I will say this however, Rhythm Heaven Magamix is not a bad game and I'm sure previous fans of the series will enjoy this one as well, but I found to be a bit boring. The beginning of the game feels like a total grind as the games are way too easy. It does get more challenging and a little more fun around the halfway point, but a large majority of these games just all come down to pressing a single button in tune with the music. A lot of the mini games are fun the first time you play them but I really wouldn't want to go back and play any of them again.