"Tap into the Rhythm"!!

We've all seen the commercials on Beyoncé sitting on a couch, playing her Nintendo DS, tapping her stylus to the hand-held game system and screaming along with the figures on her screen. This is the advertisement for the game Rhythm Heavenwhich boasts that it has 50 fun games to challenge and develop your musical and rhythm skills. The basis of the game is you start out with on one column with one game and you have to pass four levels with an "OK" (signified by a gray outline on the picture of the game) or a "Superb" which results in a gold outline and a medal. You also can win a Perfect but more on that later. Then there is the "Remix" at the end of the level which combines elements of all four games you previously played. You must pass a level to be able to access the next game, which can get frustrating after awhile.

Luckily, if this is the case for you there is an option where you can go to a Coffee Shop and talk with a Barista. After three tries the Barista will offer to give you a free pass on the game. You can either take it and move on or try to beat the game by yourself. As you get into the higher levels, the Remixes start mixing all the games so you never really know which game you will be tested on until you see it pop up on your screen. These games can get frustrating so you have to be patient and keep trying and as always a good rule of thumb is to put down the game if you get too frustrated.

There are some drawbacks to the game however. While it boasts over fifty games, in actuality it's more like twenty-five with twenty four of the games being repeated but a little more difficult than the first level. The last game is the end credits which you can play after you have watched them one. This occurs when you beat 24 games. I found that annoying but even though the games are being repeated the more difficult level helps to keep it challenging. There is also an option where depending on the amount of medals you have earned you can go and play with toys or different types of rhythm games. Also once you beat a game called "Rockers" you have the option to go practice your guitar strumming to get ready for the Battle of the Bands that will appear as an option once you beat the last Remix. I guess they are counting this little bonuses as part of the games but personally I don't feel they are; they're just a way to kill time between the mini games that you're playing for medals. Another annoying thing about the game is that even if you don't mess up at all when you're trying to beat one of the games, you can only get a "Superb" rating; you cannot receive a "Perfect" rating until they offer it to you and that annoyed me to no end when I figured that little nugget of information out.

But there are perks the Barista who will help you get pass a game that is giving you so much trouble being one. It is also a fun addictive game; once I got it I couldn't put it down I had to keep on going to see what other games were in store for me. Also, when you do receive "Perfects" you get another bonus besides bragging rights; you receive some item related to the game in the coffee shop; either a song that goes along to the game or something you read that goes along with the mini game. The graphics are pretty impressive, keeping in mind that this is a small hand-held system as they change with each game you play. The only reason the creativity is not higher is because instead of having fifty different games they have about twenty-four with different levels on some of the games. Barring that, this is an extremely fun game that you will undoubtedly enjoy if you pick up. You can buy it from the website as well as the typical places to buy games, such as GameStop, Wal-Mart, or Target.