Get down and funky with Rhythm Heaven Fever
As the final months of the Wii come to a close and developers look forward to the WiiU there are still a few games left that will encourage you to dust off that console and strap that remote back onto your wrist. Rhythm Heaven Fever is the latest title in the Rhythm Heaven franchise. The first game that was brought to the US was Rhythm Heaven for the DS. Following its critical and commercial success Nintendo released the sequel on the Wii. Can it capture the same charm and joy that its predecessors did?
The Good:
What makes this game so much fun is in its simplicity. The game is divided into 50 stages. in each stage you take control of a character and are asked to perform a task in rhythm with the beat. These tasks require only the use of 2 buttons on the Wii: the A and B button. While this may sound simple the challenge comes from the timing of the button presses. This is where the game really shines. There are times where you can look at the screen to know when to press the button but more often than not that will cause you to miss. The game encourages you to develop your own internal metronome and often times will obscure the character you control or change the perspective to test whether or not you are able to maintain that rhythm. It can be frustrating at first but soon you will forget to pay attention and learn to let go as you tap your foot and bob your head to the beat. These stages are also compounded by a remix stage at the end which mixes together all the different activites that you performed previously.
Speaking of activities the artistic style of this game is gorgeous. Everything looks like a handpainted cartoon that like Kirby's Epic Yarn, make you forget that you are playing this game on technology more than 10 years old. The music is very catchy and shows great range and all the animations are smooth and well done.
The Bad:
The only flaw with this game is that it is very strict on its timing window. It can get frustrating at times when you miss a beat entirely because you were slightly off but over time and with some repetition your timing gets better and better.
Rhythm Heaven Fever is a great title for the Wii and is a fitting swan song (no pun intended).
