Reviews// Rhythm Tengoku Gold

There’s also a level where you control a heron wearing an army uniform. Along with a couple of comrades it is being commanded by a duck General to peck the ground in time while sepia-coloured flashback images of difficult army life play in the background. Every time you make a mistake, the duck General’s face turns from feathery white to a raging red. Then there are the singing Moai who get shat upon by birds circling in the sky above every time they (you) hit a duff note… I could go on.

Gold is rhythm-action gone brilliantly wrong. There are no button symbols, no meters and no lines to follow. Interacting with what you see on the main screen isn’t dependant on hitting specific areas of the touch-screen, either, so you can tap or flick wherever the hell you like.

The important thing is timing. The appearance of every new rhythm-related feature in the animation is chimed in with a sound, too, so you can quite effectively play the game without even looking at the DS. (I wouldn’t be surprised if Nintendo’s next console doesn’t have a display or any video output whatsoever.) Sometimes it’s easier to stay in time that way.

The ‘flick’ motion used here isn’t the same as other DS games’ scratch/draw/drag techniques. It’s approximately the same move you’d make to tick a box in a questionnaire, reliant on a good snap of the wrist. It fits the Rhythm Tengoku Gold action perfectly and adds an essential third note to what would otherwise have been a repertoire consisting only of ‘tap’ and ‘release’.

Obviously with Rhythm Tengoku managing to get close to perfection just by using the digital input of the GBA, some players will be worried about the decision to go with the DS's touch-screen controls. But the response time is excellent and, thanks to the fact that you can connect touch-pen and touch-screen at any location, this all results in a game which is as precisely rhythmic as the older version.

This isn’t a game I’d recommend playing through the DS’ in-built speakers, mind. You really need a good pair of headphones or a line-out cable jacked into your amplifier to appreciate the sonics of Rhythm Tengoku Gold – not just to enjoy the music, but for a gameplay advantage, because you need to get into the rhythm if you want to get to Rhythm Heaven. The DS’ tinny speakers just don’t quite cut it.


[i]Conclusion:
This is a quintessential DS game, the kind of thing that reminds you why Nintendo bothered to implement a touch-screen in the first the place. It’s full of foot-tapping, head-nodding rhythmic interaction, stripped down to the essentials – catchy music, stylish graphics, simple stylus controls – and turned up to 11.

Unlike the lost import classic that went before it, there’s even a chance that Gold will appear in the UK – I know it’s America-bound already – under the Rhythm Heaven title at the end of 2008. If it doesn’t show up, Nintendo is stupid (rich but stupid), and you’d be equally stupid not to import a copy.[/i]

SPOnG score: 93%