Nintendo has released a free game demo for Rhythm Heaven Groove ahead of its release next week on July 2. You can download it now from the eShop.
The game consists of one multiplayer minigame and one stage of the single-player campaign, consisting of four minigames and a remix level. The four single-player games are:
- Hoop Trundling: A line of sad blobs jump through hoops
- Brolly Good Show: Little turnip creatures flap their umbrella heads on a Parisian street
- Disc Dog: On a mysterious planet, a dog counts to seven before jumping to catch a frisbee
- Feeding the Beast: A little monster eats flying tulip heads to the beat
The remix mingles these four games in what the game accurately describes as a “wild jumble.”
The one multiplayer game is Rhythm Tweezers, in which players take turns to rhythmically pluck beard hairs from a hirsute onion.
My review of the Rhythm Heaven Groove demo is that it’s a whole heap of fun, as you would expect if you’ve played one of these games before. The tunes are catchy bops, the art by the great Ko Takeuchi (WarioWare) is hilarious and weird, and the design of the beat challenges is cunning and funny in the way it wrong-foots you. There’s a decent level of challenge, even in this opening stage of the game.
In its own way, Rhythm Heaven Groove is a momentous release for Nintendo. It’s the first Rhythm Heaven game in 10 years and the first all-new game in the series in 14 years. It’s also likely to be the swansong for the original Switch, as the last first-party Nintendo game to be released on the console. This is apt: The first game in the series, Rhythm Tengoku, was the last Nintendo game to be released on the Game Boy Advance.