Review: Rhythm Heaven Groove

Nintendo Switch has been the home of countless franchise revivals, including the recent successful return of Tomodachi Life. As developers begin shifting their focus over to the more powerful Switch 2, Nintendo has been keeping its near decade-old system alive with less graphically demanding titles to ease the generational transition for their player base of over 155 million and counting. As of now, Rhythm Heaven Groove is the final first-party Switch game on Nintendo’s release schedule, and it’s hard to think of a more perfect title to give the Switch one last hurrah, while also providing something exciting and new to play for Switch 2 adopters via backwards compatibility. With that being said, is the latest entry in the cult-classic series still able to find a funky fresh groove all these years later?

The last Rhythm Heaven game, Rhythm Heaven Megamix, was released for 3DS way back in 2015, so when Groove was announced at the March 2025 Nintendo Direct, it garnered quite a bit of hype for fans of the rhythm genre (myself included). While other popular rhythm game franchises, such as Guitar Hero or Project Diva, typically focus on having you play all the notes of a given song by pressing the corresponding button, Rhythm Heaven scratches a different musical itch, standing out for its unique presentation and elegantly simple controls. Without a story, or even a main campaign, Rhythm Heaven Groove features over 80 consecutively unlockable minigames with a charming 2D style from art director Ko Takeuchi (also known for his work on the WarioWare series). Each minigame has a new thematic scenario; some cute, like catching a flying disc as a dog, some comedic, like flexing muscles to bounce oncoming fruit as a beach bro, and some more familiar activities, like kicking a soccer ball. Whatever the case may be, the goal is to press the A button (and sometimes a single directional button on the opposite side of the controller) to the beat of an original track, including ones composed by Japanese musician Tsunku.

After selecting a minigame, you’ll first be given a tutorial to help you understand its unique rhythmic mechanic, with both a visual and audible indicator to help you time when to press the button(s). Bobbing your head or tapping your foot to the rhythm can be quite helpful, and I found myself doing so anyway because of how catchy the songs are. During the minigames, when pressing the instructed buttons with accurate timing, a sound will play that goes to the beat, the animated character you’re playing as will perform the proper action, and the controller gives off a slight vibration, which is a nice touch that feels so intuitive you might not even notice. To avoid visual cues being relied upon, part of your screen sometimes gets blocked in creative ways, encouraging you to pay full attention to the rhythm itself.

There are no points or score counters, but after the minigame is over, which lasts the duration of the song, you will be given a rank/grade. If you were off beat too many times, you’ll be asked to try again, but if you only miss a few, the highest “Amazing!” rank is rewarded, along with a gold medal. If you’re looking to achieve perfection by not missing a single beat, this is unfortunately not counted at your own volition. At seemingly random times, you’ll be given three attempts on a particular, already completed minigame, where getting a Perfect will reward you with a prize in the Rhythm Reference menu. I understand this is done as a way to encourage you to go back and play already completed minigames, which are indeed highly replayable, but it’s a bit anticlimactic to hit every beat and it doesn’t count until you’re prompted to do so again.

It’s important to note that while there are indeed over 80 minigames as advertised, not all of them are entirely unique, with more challenging “sequels” to minigames being included in that number. Sequels change up some of the visuals and add an additional rhythmic button pressing pattern you must remember, making for a nice difficulty curve as you progress through the stages. A “stage” consists of a set of 5 separate minigames, with the fifth being a “Remix” that combines the rhythm mechanics of the previous 4. Despite having a naturally good sense of rhythm, some of the later minigames gave me a run for my money, and though the words “try again” rarely appeared on my screen, mastery of some certainly took a little practice.

One of the most interesting parts of Rhythm Heaven Groove is the new RPG-inspired mode: Beatspell. Going just beyond feeling like a tech demo, Beatspell left me wanting more; not because it’s bad, but because it’s great. Gameplay consists of casting magical spells, like Flame or Wave, to deal damage to defeat monsters with elemental weaknesses. Spells are cast by pressing the B and A buttons to the corresponding beat (or half-beat) pattern, and there’s a diamond shape around your character to help time your rhythm to the four corners, with perfectly timed attacks dealing more damage. All your traditional RPG elements are here; health and damage stats, leveling up, and unlocking even more spells and gameplay mechanics as you progress through the chapters, but it feels more like a lighthearted parody of an RPG, which is a fitting take for the Rhythm Heaven series. After each chapter, you’re given 1-5 stars based on the amount of time it took you to defeat the monsters, the number of critical hits you got, and how many hearts you have left. You’re given 3 hearts, but I never lost a single one; with proper rhythm and the use of the Cure spell, cast in the same way as attacks, you can replenish your health and avoid losing hearts when the monsters fight back. More substantial than I was expecting, with enough mechanical depth to have been a full-fledged game, Beatspell is an incredible concept held back only by its length and lack of difficulty; that is, unless you’re aiming for 5 stars in all the chapters, which is a fun challenge that requires excellent timing precision.

There are so many other little side modes that really makes Rhythm Heaven Groove jam-packed with content (especially considering the £33.99/$39.99 price point). Earning medals from the main stages unlocks: unique “Score Attack” rhythm games that scores your timing to retry for high-scores, “Rhythm Toy Box” minigames to mess around with (fun once or twice, feeling like cut-content ideas that weren’t fully fleshed out), and surprisingly robust “Drum Lessons” where each button on the controller is a drum/symbol to practice your timing/rhythm. Additionally, the extras menu features a Sound Studio where you can listen to all the music tracks you’ve unlocked in full, and the Rhythm Reference prizes you’ll have to discover yourself.

Multiplayer content is entirely separate from the solo rhythm games, but it’s far from being an afterthought. Offering a classic couch co-op experience for 2-4 players, there are 10 multiplayer rhythm games (6 co-op, 4 VS), each with 3 difficulties/variations, making for 30 games in total. There are also additional unlockable “Group Toy Box” games that are much more amusing than the solo ones. Before beginning a multiplayer session, each player will select a custom name that will be written under the character that corresponds to the rhythm they need to follow, or called out by a quirky text-to-speech voice in the games where you rapidly take turns. The uniqueness and variety in the gameplay of the multiplayer rhythm games is enough to justify a review of each, but to put it simply, the overall package is absurdly humorous, playfully competitive, and brought about hours of fun and laughter. An example of a co-op game is Rhythm Tweezers, which is like a rhythmic game of Simon, but instead of colours flashing, hairs grow out of an onion, and each player takes turns repeating the pattern to pluck the hair with tweezers. As for a VS game example, Cake Wait was one of my favourites, where each player competes in a best-of-3 by keeping a rhythm in their head to press the button at the exact right time, with the closest taking the cake.

Rhythm Heaven Groove is a perfect example of the wonderfully weird side of Nintendo. With its colourful presentation of wacky characters, upbeat soundtrack of catchy earworms, gameplay that’s easy to learn but hard to master, and modes that surpass expectations of both quantity and quality for the price, heaven is a place on Nintendo Switch. As one of the most uniquely charming rhythm games on the platform, whether playing solo or with friends, everyone should get their groove on. If you wanna try out the game for yourself before committing to a purchase, a demo is available now on the Nintendo eShop.

8/10

A copy of Rhythm Heaven Groove for review purposes was provided by Nintendo UK.

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