My Hopes for Rhythm Heaven Groove

After ten long years, a whole entire decade, we finally have it: a new Rhythm Heaven game.

It might seem silly, but I can not overstate, how excited I am for this game. No joke, this game is to me and my siblings what GTA VI probably is for most other people.

Over the course of the past week or so, Nintendo fans have been flooded with new info about upcoming releases for the Switch, and launch titles for the Switch 2. This game is still at the top of my priorities. Elden Ring? Silk Song? Zelda? Couldn't care less. The Switch 2 supporting 4k resolution and 120FPS or whatever? Who gives a shit! But this wacky little Rhythm Game? You have my full and undivided attention.

The only other game covered in the direct that matches this level of hype for me is Deltarune, which is another game that holds a very special place in my heart. But anyone who's been paying attention to Deltarune knew that new chapters were dropping sometime this year, Rhythm Heaven Grooves announcement came totally out of left field, and after a very long hiatus too!

I am not a game journalist, so sorry if this post isn't super well-written. I just really wanted to share my hopes and predictions for Rhythm Heaven Groove while it's still fresh in peoples minds.

A Possible Return To Form

The most recent release in the series, Rhythm Heaven Megamix, is sometimes considered the black sheep of the franchise. It's the only entry in the series to have a story mode, mostly includes remakes of old minigames from past games instead of new ones, and adds a bunch of other new features. Some fans love it, while others hate it.

I think a lot of fans are wondering: is Megamix the direction the series is going to go from now on, or was it just a fluke? A part of me feels like the series might be going back to its roots. The new character shown in the trailer says that Groove "doesn't have a big, epic story", which Megamix did. All the minigames shown in the trailer seem to be original as well.

That being said, I hope they still bring back some features from Megamix. I really liked the way megamix handled "collectibles" and in-game currency. I think it added a lot of replay value to the minigames without making it feel redundant. I also really liked how the bottom screen showed you how early/late your inputs were. It actually gives you an idea of how to improve your gameplay, instead of the older games which might as well tell you to "do it again, but better!" when you fail. I'm not sure how that's going to work out though, since the switch only has one screen. None of the gameplay shown in the trailer has any extra UI elements, so maybe they're just not including it.

Improving The Story Mode

Something that a lot of people really appreciate about the first few games in the series is how to-the-point they are. There's a very brief tutorial and then you're thrown into the game menu. No padding, no bullshit. It's very easy to just pick up and play.

A lot of fans disliked the story mode that was introduced in Rhythm Heaven Megamix, because now you have to button mash through a bunch of dialogue after every minigame. I think it's pretty safe to say that Rhythm Heaven does not need a heavy plot for it to function. I don't want to have to untangle some crazy, JRPG-style story, I just want to play my damn rhythm games!

As I mentioned earlier, the trailer mentions that Groove "doesn't have a big, epic story", but does that mean it doesn't have a story at all? Or just that the story is going to be more toned-down than Megamix's? I'm not against them including story mode. Warioware, the other franchise that this dev team works on, has a story mode in all of their games that nobody complains about, and a wonderful cast of characters that its fans love. I'm sure with a few edits, people would say the same thing about Rhythm Heaven!

I feel like there's a couple ways they could go about this. For one, they could try better connecting the story mode to the minigames. For example, in Warioware, the microgames include characters from the rest of the game. Wario will show up both in the story mode and as a character in his own microgame. It makes everything feel more connected. Maybe I'd care more about the characters in Rhythm Heaven's story mode if they showed up in the rhythm games themselves?

Alternatively, they could just have the main game be like how it was in the older entries, and have the story mode be a separate mode. Or they could just do what Warioware does and have the story mode be video cutscenes instead of visual novel-esque text boxes. At least then, people who don't want to see it just have to skip it once instead of button mashing.

Better Multiplayer

Something I really like about the Rhythm Heaven Games that I don't see a lot of people talk about is the multiplayer aspect. I often play Rhythm Heaven with my younger siblings, so being able to actually play with them is a real treat. I'd really love to see them expand on this in the new game.

So far we've seen them implement multiplayer in two different ways: the "true multiplayer" in Rhythm Heaven Fever, and the multiplayer challenge train in Rhythm Heaven Megamix. Personally, I prefer the way Fever did it, but both ways can be really fun and have their own sets of pros and cons.

Considering how time-sensitive rhythm games are, and how bad online lag can be, it'd be really difficult to include Fever-style multiplayer. Maybe they still could, but it'd probably have to be local multiplayer only. There's a lot more they could do with the challenge train-style of multiplayer, since it allows for some asynchronous gameplay.

All of the challenge train gameplay is cooperative. If one person wins, the other players still get rewarded. I wonder if they could add a competitive aspect to it. Maybe give the player the ability to sabotage the others? Or add a "last man standing" style of challenge? Or even something as simple as competing to see who can get a higher score? Like I mentioned earlier, these are the same people who make Warioware. WarioWare: Get It Together has tons of multiplayer options, both competitive and cooperative. I'm sure they could come up with some cool ideas for this game too.

Voice Acting

The new character shown in the trailer talks! It sounds like text-to-speech, not a real voice actor, but still. I wonder if there's actually going to be voice acting in the game, or if they only did that for the trailer. Personally, I think it'd be fun if they included it in the actual game.

The Price

How much will the game cost? Most Switch games go for around $60. Apparently Switch 2 games are going to cost at least $80. I still can't get over spending $60 on a game, so the idea of spending $80 on a digital game makes me want to shrivel into dust. Thankfully, Groove is releasing for the original Switch, so we don't have to set our expectations to be that expensive.

My brother is convinced that it'll be $30. I told him that's way too low, I spent $35 on Megamix when it first came out and that was for the 3DS, but he is adamant. If I had to guess, I'd say it'll probably be $60, maybe $50. No, it's not a highly anticipated game, but it's still a first party Nintendo game on a home console. It's naive to think that they still won't try to nickle and dime us as much as they can.

My Now-Outdated Shrine

Not directly related to the new game, but fuck it! It's my blog and I can talk about whatever I want!

I've been working on a shrine/fan site for the Rhythm Heaven Series for a while now. Here's a little sneak peak of a, now outdated, widget I had on it. I'll probably have to remove it now that we know there's a new game coming out.