NEW RHYTHM HEAVEN GAME LET'S GOOOOO
after almost a decade of no new Rhythm Heaven, the recent Nintendo Direct has announced Rhythm Heaven Groove releasing 2026!!!
as you may expect, i'm a bit excited. that's my way of saying YOOOOOO LET'S GOOOOO IT HAPPENED- you get the picture.
so this is my rough analysis of the announcement, and how i imagine each of the minigames will work.
this is clearly just the game to demonstrate how rhythm makes timings easier. this is a classic trope of Rhythm Heaven games, alongside being the last of 3 or more individuals to do something in a linear rhythm. i doubt they'd do anything much more complicated than demonstrated in the announcement. this is also definitely appearing in the final remix.
i imagine this one will be similar to Shrimp Shuffle in a way. different audio cues for different timing/movement patterns. either that or you have to hop forward every beat, but there's some cue to roll instead (which would be the B button), and probably other movements like that.
this looks like a call-and-response minigame. i expect it'll work similarly to a lot of other minigames, but especially Moai Doo-Wop comes to mind. hey there's even birds in Moai Doo-Wop isn't that crazy
my guess here is you hold a button to charge up your hammer hit, then release it to absolutely CRUSH a can. mechanically probably similar to something like Screwbot Factory.
ok this one has to be a simple like. press left to catch left, press right to catch right. maybe you get less warning for if they come from the left?
this reminds me of Mr Upbeat in a way. feels like an endless minigame almost. that said, it could just be a normal minigame with different timing patterns, probably a little like Tap Trial. there's also a lot of empty space to the right, which makes me very curious!
ok i don't really know for this one. it could be something like Micro-Row or Frog Hop where you press every beat and there's special cues sometimes? that's the best guess i really have here.
ok yeah that's all of the minigames that were featured! i guess i won't know how i did for a good while, depending on how much future trailers show. as long as that weird text-to-speech voice that character had doesn't make it into the final game, i'm happy, and even if it does... well it's a new Rhythm Heaven game, isn't it?