How would you like to be part of an elite club with only 1,000 members? I’m talking about the official “People Who Own a Limited Edition Physical Copy of the New Bad Dudes Metroid Album” club. It’s very exclusive, but we can make it happen (we know a guy).

Club benefits include having a copy of Metroid Arrange 25th Anniversary Album by the Bad Dudes (including a bonus track not available in the digital version), the ability to feast your eyeballs on a glorious, double-sided poster and four panel comic, and the satisfaction of knowing that you’re now just a bit better than everyone else out there.

All you have to do is follow the instructions below and let us know what your favorite Metroid powerup is in the comments of this post. Do you like tearing through enemies with the screw attack? Or maybe you prefer turning enemies into platforms with the ice beam. Space jump over to the comments section and let us know!

Contest Rules:

1. Leave a comment below and tell us your favorite powerup from the Metroid series
2. Limit one entry per person
3. All entries must be made by legal U.S. residents
4. Entries must be accepted by 5:00pm PST on Friday, December 30th. We will then randomly select one winner

I’m talking about the same dudes that brought you the fantastic CHRONOTORIOUS album and fought the OverClocked ReMix community in musical combat. We are talking about some seriously bad dudes here. Dudes so bad they were commissioned by Samus herself to make the Metroid Arrange 25th Anniversary Album (if their totally rad trailer below is to be believed).

That’s 14 tracks from across the series (including a 13-minute medley). For $9.99, you can get the digital-only version. But for $13.99, you can get the limited edition physical CD with a bonus track, 2-sided poster, and 4-panel comic (including an instant download of the digital album). The last 1,000 limited edition copies are in captivity at Bandcamp. How much do you value galactic peace?

Buy the album: Bandcamp

A new Nintendo system means a new Mario Kart game. That’s just how things work. So here we are with the seventh entry in the chaotic kart racing series (not including the Namco co-developed arcade games). Aside from it being one of the very few first party games currently available on the 3DS, why should you care about yet another Mario Kart game?

The answer is simple: Mario Kart 7 is easily one of the best games in the series.

Of course, the core formula of the series is largely unchanged. You’ll still power slide around corners, boost off jumps, and lose a victory or two thanks to an unfortunately timed projectile. But the infamous blue shells seemingly appear less often, and frankly, I didn’t find nearly as much of the trademark frustration found in some of the previous entries.

Part of this is thanks to the multi-layered nature of the tracks. Each kart is now equipped with a hang glider and underwater propeller for air and sea navigation. A lot of sections that would normally have you plummeting to your death and waiting for a Lakitu to slowly pull you up have been replaced by sections of track submerged into water. Sometimes these sections have their own rewards like items and coins, but are often slower than staying on the higher path.

Underwater driving itself doesn’t feel all that different, other than an altered sense of speed and gravity. The hang glider, however, is surprisingly exhilarating. When going off blue jumps, the hang glider deploys and you get an incredible rush of speed. Collecting items, avoiding sections of track, and landing in front of people feels great every time. Normal jumps (or even bumps in the road) allow you to perform an extra boost by hopping at the right moment, similar to the tricks introduced in Mario Kart Wii.

Coins make a welcome return from their long hiatus adding an extra layer to each race. With each coin you collect, your top speed increases (up to a maximum of 10 coins) and you’ll get a tiny speed boost the moment you pick each one up. Get hit or fall off a cliff and you’ll lose some of your coins making combat not just about stopping somebody, but temporarily lowering their top speed as well. They also contribute to how fast you unlock kart parts, further incentivising you to snatch them all up.

Track design is consistently interesting with lots of paths and secret jumps. Themes range from a charming recreation of the original Super Mario Bros. style in “Piranha Plant Slide” and the desert town of Super Mario Bros. 2 in “Shy Guy Bazaar” to more puzzling choices like “Rosalina’s Ice World” and “Music Park”. But even when the themes stop making sense, the tracks are still a blast to play and full of great design.

Three tracks in particular scrap the lap structure for extra long point A to point B races. The new rainbow road is one of these and is one of my favorite new tracks. Aside from the standard rainbow crazyness, you’ll find yourself driving on Saturn’s rings and eventually speeding along the surface of the moon using craters as jumps. Even the retro circuits have been spiced up quite a bit to incorporate hang gliding sections, coins, and other elements into classic tracks.

Kart customization adds an interesting wrinkle to each race. After selecting a racer, you can mix and match kart bodies, wheels, and gliders to suit your needs. This not only affects your speed, but also how well you handle off-road. It’s a nice addition that helps you adapt your kart to your play style.

I don’t know who was in charge of choosing the playable characters, but this has to be one of the weirdest Mario Kart rosters yet. The staples are all there, of course. But the bee from Super Mario Galaxy? Wiggler? Metal Mario (who I and just about everybody else mistook for a powerup in early screens)? Who fishes out the Lakitu racer? Himself?

The single player will provide little challenge. Multiplayer is what Mario Kart 7 is really about; both traditional and asynchronous. Online multiplayer works great. Getting into matches is easy, I’ve experienced zero lag, and the ability to set up special racing communities with custom rule sets is quite neat. It doesn’t have the Super Smash Bros. level of customization when it comes to choosing which items to play with, but the ability to restrict matches to “bananas only” or “mushrooms only” is a welcome feature. If only there was an “every item except blue shell and lightning bolt” setting.

But the most interesting use of online is the ghost data transferred over spotpass. Every day, my 3DS is downloading more and more ghost racers from around the world to race against in Time Trials. When I select a track, I can see visual graphs showing how well players across the globe are doing on a particular track and where each downloaded ghost falls into it. I can then either choose a specific ghost I want to challenge or let the game choose seven ghosts for me to go up against at once.

And since Time Trials lack the chaotic weapons of traditional multiplayer, ghost racers provide a more competitive, skill focused alternative to the party-centric feel of the standard modes. For a company whose online presence is the butt of so many jokes, what Mario Kart 7 manages to do in this regard is quite notable and keeps me coming back to the game.

Yes, Mario Kart 7 is more Mario Kart. You already knew that before you started reading this. But what Mario Kart 7 brings to the table feels genuinely worthwhile. The additional mechanics that add an extra layer of complexity to each race, the consistently enjoyable track design, and the clever online functionality of Time Trials really come together to make Mario Kart 7 more than just “the 3DS version.”

This review is based on a copy of Mario Kart 7 purchased by the reviewer.

With a site named “WingDamage” and a podcast called “Barrel Roll!” it shouldn’t come as any surprise that many here on the site grew up adoring the first couple of Star Fox games. As I’ve written about in the past, the series really hasn’t been able to find a clear direction that works after Star Fox 64. Each game after that point has been a mess of ideas that fail to satisfy the way the core, rail shooting gameplay of the originals did.

Perhaps it’s because of this lack of confidence in the future of Star Fox that I was so eager to revisit the glory days of its past. Star Fox 64 3D may be a remake of a fourteen year old game, but it’s also a remake of the best the series has to offer by a large margin, and one of the greatest gems you’ll find in a genre that barely exists anymore.

You won’t find much in the way of new content. This is largely a prettier version of the same game you played (or didn’t) back in 1997. But there are a few changes. The new 3DS Mode gives you the option of playing the game using the gyro sensor in addition to the standard circle pad. It isn’t a good idea to use it with the 3D effect since you will likely lose focus of the screen. But because it uses slight motions similar to a steering wheel instead of a 1-to-1, Face Raiders style, aiming actually works much better than you’d think and won’t require you to leave as much of your dignity behind. Still, it feels like a novelty at best and doesn’t work any better than the traditional controls.

Multiplayer, while identical in concept, has been given an overhaul. The maps are new, though they’re still small in number, and extra powerups like stealth mines have been added. Unfortunately, there’s no online play, though four player local can be played with a single cartridge through download play. It’s only Arwings this time around, but considering how incredibly unbalanced playing as the Landmaster or on foot was in the original, this is for the best. Even with the new features, multiplayer remains a mildly amusing diversion. The star of the show is still the campaign, just as it always has been.

Score Attack mode is a very welcome addition as it allows you to select any level you’ve previously completed in the campaign. No longer will you have to play through the entire game just to get a shot at earning medals on the last few levels. The feature also really compliments the game’s new portability. You might not have time for the entire campaign on the go, but a single level can be completed rather quickly.

Strangely enough, the voice acting has all been rerecorded. Since Star Fox 64 has some of the most memorable quotes in gaming (causing countless memes to sprout), I was very happy to find that the new voice acting is exactly as cheesy as the original. None of the nostalgia was lost in the new recordings. I also noticed one changed line. No longer does Falco sarcastically refer to you as “Einstein” when you shoot him. The line has been replaced with “Hey Genius! I’m on your side!” Considering this is a world full of animal people flying around in space, this change actually makes a lot more sense than the original.

Of course, the most obvious change is the graphical upgrade. There’s a world of difference between the graphics of the remake and the original. There’s an even larger level of improvement on display than Nintendo’s other recent remake, Ocarina of Time. As a game where you are constantly looking off into the distance, the 3D effect works exceptionally well, and I found myself playing with it on the entire time (except to test 2D and gyro controls). Stages like Venom are especially impressive, as the added level of depth actually gives you a better sense of space between the various obstacles, making the game a bit easier to play.

But all this would be nothing if the game didn’t hold up. Thankfully, Star Fox 64 is still a fantastically designed rail shooter. Stages are packed with plenty to shoot, dodge, and fly through and the controls are as tight as ever. The alternate paths and stage affecting triggers also help to keep multiple campaign runs fresh. Help out a character in one stage and they’ll help you out in another. You’ll fight your rival Star Wolf near the end of the game in Bolse if you don’t take care of them in Fichina, and so on.

I almost forgot how great some of the alternate path triggers were. Sector X in particular has a pivotal moment where Slippy charges toward the stage boss. Destroying the boss before he gets there will take you to Macbeth. Fail to do so and the boss will knock Slippy’s ship away causing it to crash land into the desert planet Titania where you’ll have to go on a rescue mission. It’s touches like these that help the game to stand out, even today.

In some ways I appreciate Star Fox 64 now more than I did in its day. It managed to successfully tell you a story (albeit a cheesy one) while you play it instead of constantly interrupting you; something many games today still struggle with. It also had a great approach to a non-linear campaign within a hyper-linear genre.

You could complain about its short length. It certainly won’t take long to finish. But this is an arcade style game, almost like a shmup, that demands to be played repeatedly. If you’re looking for a lengthy campaign to play once and be done with like so many of today’s disposable games, you’ll be disappointed. This is from an era when games were meant to be played over and over again, trying to achieve that last medal to unlock Expert Mode.

This review is based on a copy of Star Fox 64 3D purchased by the reviewer.

While it’s still unclear whether or not the game will also appear on other platforms, the trailer had a lot to analyze. While running away from a Tigrex, a hunter is seen jumping (gasp!) to various rock structures before they’re smashed to bits, not just landing on top, but clinging to sides from a jump as well. And just when things get really vertical, you can see the Tigrex climb the side of the rock face in pursuit of the hunter.

Things get real interesting when a Rathalos shows up and the entire play field gets knocked over, making a steep slope out of what use to be flat land. There seems to be no wall the hunter can’t climb as he dodges fireballs while hanging on for dear life. As the Rathalos draws near, the hunter pulls out a smaller weapon independent of his great sword to attack the monster while in a climbing position.

Finally, the most exciting addition comes when the hunter jumps onto the back of the Rathalos itself in what appears to be a Dragon’s Dogma inspired grapple system. The same smaller weapon is seen stabbing the back of the Rathalos after it falls out of the sky, hunter and all. His great sword is then drawn as the logo flies onto the screen.

Throughout the entire trailer, the hunter is seen moving through a rather large environment without any abrupt transitions. Could this be the seamless environments we wrote about in our wishlist earlier this year?

It looks like Monster Hunter 4 has quite a bit of new features if this trailer is any indication. More dynamic levels, jumping (which may or may not be context sensitive), more open and seemingly faster climbing options (including climbing monsters themselves), and possibly some sort of sub-weapon.

Did you notice anything we didn’t in the trailer below? Let us know in the comments!

Source: Ustream (video captured via Nintendo Everything) with analysis help from Milo

Most gamers were introduced to the Super Nintendo through the latest adventures of a certain portly plumber, but for me things were a little different. I was too young to have a job when the system released, and I still had only experienced a fraction of the NES library anyway. But as time went on, focus increasingly shifted to the more Super of Nintendos on the market, and eventually a cheaper package was released sans-Super Mario World. It was after this that one of my older brothers surprised me with what I still consider to be the greatest video game system ever made.

A Super Nintendo, the very same one that is hooked up behind me right now, sat on my bed and I was beside myself with excitement. The cheaper model came with a mail-in voucher for Super Mario All-Stars, but what was I to play in the meantime? It turned out the other surprise my brother had in store was a copy of Cybernator, a game I had never heard of before.

I’m so glad that Cybernator was my first Super Nintendo game because even today, I can’t seem to find a single living soul (in person) who knows what it is. Had it not been given to me with the system, I might still be unaware of this incredibly solid gem of a game.

"Please don't hurt me. I have a robo-wife and kids."

Cybernator, better known in Japan as Assault Suits Valken, felt familiar thanks to other run and gun games like Contra. But at the same time, it far exceeded anything I had ever seen. Missions opened up with a briefing before a giant robot rocket boosted out of a drop ship. Characters talked (via written text) to move along an actual story in an action game. The graphics were incredible and the music sounded like actual instruments instead of square waves. Did I mention I got to control a giant robot?

But that was only the beginning. Nothing could have prepared me for the actual gameplay. Eight point aiming is nice and all, but all the cool kids have sixteen points. Having trouble handling your many aiming options? No problem! Just hit the aim-lock button and you’re free to blast away baddies at a twenty-two and a half degree angle while rocket boosting.

When rocket boosting and hovering with your jet pack isn’t enough to get you out of harm’s way, your trusty shield is there to save the day. Of course you can’t move while using it, but it’s a smile price to pay for protection. No run and gun would be complete without a variety of weapons. Cybernator delivers and does so with a persistent upgrade system. And if your various guns aren’t enough to do the trick, you can always punch the enemy in their stupid face with your giant robo-arm (which is also upgradable).

"Meanwhile, in a shmup..."

Stages actually follow the context of a story, taking you to different meaningful locales instead of randomly throwing you about. And to dig up an overused term, these stages are epic! In as early as the second stage, your mech has giant space jets attached to its back so it can fly through an asteroid belt in a level resembling a shmup. After your space jet pack detaches, you find yourself in what can only be described as “robo-Contra with zero gravity”. In a later stage, you’ll fire at enemies as you fall through the Earth’s atmosphere at breakneck speeds.

Many stages have side goals that will determine which of two endings you’ll get. They also have a sense of openness about them allowing for a bit of exploration. This is how you’ll get more of the aforementioned upgrades. You’ll come across giant boss fights. Some of these are fairly straight forward while others involve you destroying the engines of a space station hurling toward Earth in 2 minutes while another mech attempts to robo-punch you with an arm bigger than your entire body.

Sure, Cybernator may be a bastardized version of the Japanese original. Some of the story is less coherent, the anime character portraits have been removed, and the main villain no longer commits suicide after realizing he’s lost. But even with those changes, it’s still an amazing game and one that I’m proud to have experienced as an introduction to the greatest game system of all time. It’s also available on the Wii’s Virtual Console service. I think you know what to do.

Well good day there fellow gaming geeks and geekettes. The Applemonkey here and I’m going to chit chat with you kids about a thing I always enjoy doing: collecting accessories. Today’s hunt will be on the Super Nintendo. From the Super Gameboy controller to the Miracle Piano, hunting for SNES accessories is always a tantalizing experience. I’m going to talk about three unique items that you just might want to hunt for. Go grab yourself some animal crackers and Yoo-hoo, sit back and enjoy!

Item #1: Hyperbeam by Konami

What a perfect accessory for any collection. Unlike the amazing DUAL TURBO (by Acclaim) providing two wireless controllers and a straightforward sensor, the Hyperbeam comes with one controller and a satellite dish for a receiver. Being packaged within a precut Styrofoam will make finding this in pristine condition hard.

Item #2: Wireless SNES Controllers w/ Limited Edition Lunchbox by Messiah

Oh, how I miss Messiah. I have used several different wireless controllers and Messiah created some of the best ones on the market. The distance, the feel and the reaction of these controllers are just stellar. Added bonus, they have created a small quantity of limited edition metal lunchbox sets for sale. It’s a darn shame that Messiah only existed for such a little time period. No other company will ever have their passion on quality.

Item #3: Supaboy ‘Portable Super Nintendo System’ by Hyperkin

At the present moment, this item is still in the prototype phase. After stating that… what a swell system! A portable SNES system that doubles as a home console. With features like an LCD screen, rechargeable battery and the compatibility to use original controllers, the SupaBoy is just a must have. Now having a SNES handheld to test carts while game hunting makes it easier to purchase games in the wild. Hyperkin hasn’t officially announced the release date, but I have a strong feeling it will be ready and in stores for this year’s holiday season. Start making your holiday wish list!

Honorable Mention: X Band by Catapult Entertainment

What a concept… being able to play against your friends without leaving your home. With a small monthly fee, X Band allowed you to live that dream. Unfortunately, game developers never were on board causing a limited number of games that are capable to be used which in turned cause the X Band to disband. The X Band was only on the market for a short period of time.

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What a crazy list, right fellow game cadets?! You can easily obtain these items on auction sites, but it’s worth it to find on a hunt or at your local retro gaming expo. Trust me, finding items on a hunt is just a thrill. I hoped you enjoyed the following and those animal crackers with Yoo-hoo. If you have any questions or if you just want to talk gaming with me, follow me on twit twit @TheApplemonkey or let’s be friends on Facebook. Until the next segment….

Back in the SNES era, one may remember a title Interplay and Visual Concepts developed that bears the word “Clay” in it. Probably to most, the first game that will pop in your head is the memorable Clayfighter fighting game. But there is another lesser known “Clay” gem they both produced in the same year called Claymates, a colorful platformer that hid under the shadows throughout the console’s life.

Claymates is about a boy named Clayton who one day is in a laboratory with his father, who has created a serum that can transform clay into animals. Apparently witch doctors fiend for this stuff because one magically appears out of nowhere and demands that Clayton’s father hand over the serum. He denies him and the witch doctor then strikes Clayton with lightning, transforming him into a blue ball of clay, then proceeds to steal the serum and Clayton’s father away in a flash. Clayton vows to rescue his father and the serum, even if he is just a ball of clay.

The gameplay is as simple as a platformer gets, with a small twist. You control Clayton as a blue ball of clay with the ability to punch and jump. Throughout each stage you can transform Clayton from his simple blue ball form into different animals by collecting smaller, different colored balls. These are usually placed at specific spots where that animal is needed to progress further. There are four animals you can turn in to: a mouse, a cat, a gopher and a bird. Each have their own attacks and abilities, some of which will be required to progress further in the stage. Collecting another colored ball of the same animal will gain you an extra hit. If an enemy hits you, you go right back to your plain blue ball form. Enemies usually are pretty straight forward and simple, with each one usually taking one to three hits to defeat, and they vary depending on the theme of the stage.

As noted on the front cover of the box art, Claymates features “Blaze-processing” which allows you to run at blindingly fast speed when controlling the rat. This was specifically featured, as at the time there were a small handful of games on the SNES that allowed you to move quickly, much like Sonic does on the Genesis. In some cases, this can be useful for speeding through the game. But what I found to be more enjoyable is finding all the secrets and collectibles by exploring each area of the stage

The game does stray away from the usual platformer in terms of progressing between stages. After each level, you are sent to the world map and given several robots who only walk forward until they hit a wall or obstacle, then change direction at a right angle and continue walking. You have to manipulate them to help open the way to the next stage, whether it be cutting down a tree or moving a boulder.

Claymates is somewhat of a short game. There are five worlds, with roughly three to five stages in each. Throughout the game, Clayton travels across Japan, Asia and even Outer friggen’ Space. At the end of each world, like any respectful platformer, there is a boss to defeat. There are no save points or passwords, so players looking to beat the game can look forward to about a one to three hour play session.

There’s nothing too impressive with the generic soundtrack and the bland graphics, so gameplay is about the only strong point in the game. The further you progress, the more repetitive and predictable the puzzles become. Around World 4, you will have seen everything Claymates has to offer. The usual concept would be that the more content, the better the experience. Not so for Claymates. Little is just enough.

There are not too many games in the SNES lifetime that have witch doctors transforming the protagonist into a blue ball of Play-Doh, but Claymates finds a way to mold the usual platforming experience with different animal characters and abilities that are used to keep it from being a bland adventure. It may be short and the story is nonexistent, but if you go into it expecting a fun playable game to keep you occupied for an hour or two, you will be pleasantly surprised.

It’s hard to believe that it has been twenty years since the launch of the Super Nintendo. It may have taken us an extra nine months to get the machine here in North America, but I’m sure we can all agree it was worth the wait. My friends and I had been drooling over the screenshots in gaming magazines for what seemed like forever, but was probably only a few months. They showed off the latest Mario, where he was riding some kind of crazy looking dinosaur.

There were screenshots of games we had no idea what they were about, like Act Raiser. There was this flying game that looked like they were pulling off actual 3D. Our minds were sufficiently blown.

August 1991 was a magical time for many, I’m sure. But I was 11, and I sure as heck didn’t get my grubby mitts on the  impressive looking gaming machine for several more years. If you were like me, you had to settle for grabbing every second you could on the demo stations they had at most retailers. I was often told that “This isn’t an arcade” when I would hang out in the gaming section of a store while my mom did all the boring shopping (clothes shopping is THE WORST at that age).

The big killer was that the system was $200 and neither my, nor any of my friends parents, would go for that price. If my shaky memory serves me, I believe the first real play time I had with the console was when a friend of mine rented a SNES for the weekend and we played through as much Super Mario World as we could possibly cram into a weekend. We couldn’t quite figure out how they had managed to make a game this awesome.

Eventually Nintendo offered a version of the console that came with both Super Mario World and a mail-in certificate for Super Mario All-Stars, an updated collection of the SNES Mario games. This is when everyone I knew started getting them. They also did a bundle that came with no game and only one controller, which every gamer I knew thought was complete crap. It’s funny to me how that has now become the norm. The good news was, the mail-in certificates worked with this version as well. Thankfully that was the case, because this was the edition we eventually had in our house.

"All-Stars Version of Super Mario Bros. 3"

One of our older brothers that we usually didn’t get along with had spontaneously decided to do something really nice. When Jesse and I got home from school one day, there was a SNES sitting on his bed. It was technically for him, but we usually gamed together anyway. I had the better TV in my room (I had bought it for $10 at a garage sale), so it was often hooked up in there. It is the same SNES Jesse still uses today. I can’t even say that about my current 360, and it’s only a few years old.

This not only kickstarted the SNES era of gaming in our house, but also introduced us much earlier than most households to being able to play all the games. You see, not too long before this, our NES had died and our parents, in association with me paying a small part and the same above mentioned older brother paying half, had purchased a Sega Genesis. The console wars were soon in full effect in the schoolyard. Everyone would pick a side based on the system they owned, but even before owning a SNES, I liked it better. It had the games that appealed to me. They are the same games that still hold up, whereas almost none of the Genesis games I enjoyed back then do. Baditude could not match good game design…itude.

But I don’t want to focus on the negatives here. I really just wanted to get everyone thinking about old games. They are the ones that have already stood the test of time, and I’m confident they will continue to do so.

The actual date of the Super Nintendo’s launch in North America is debated as some retailers sold it earlier than others. While some sources note an August 23rd launch, others note August 19th or even earlier depending on where in the country they were.

“This is twice as fun as how completely unsafe it looks.”

Minna no Rhythm Tengoku (meaning Everyone’s Rhythm Heaven) is the most recent entry and first console edition of Nintendo’s Rhythm Heaven series. Like its predecessors, the game is composed of a number of music-driven rhythm games with simple controls. I became an immediate fan after trying out the DS game released in 2009, and was downright ecstatic when Nintendo announced a follow up for the Wii.

I was also concerned, however, since being Wii software likely entitled it to have motion gestures, and big oafs like myself can be pretty uncoordinated. Could this game have been spoiled before it even came out? (Quick spoiler: no.)

Fortunately, as I found out at E3, Minna no Rhythm Tengoku does not use any motion gestures when playing the games. In fact, this installment has the simplest control scheme yet: you either press A or A+B. That’s it; two commands, a single button press or a double button pinch. The result is a game that combines the button pressing input of the original Game Boy Advance Rhythm Tengoku (which was not released in the west), and the greater variety and refinement of the DS Rhythm Heaven.

Virtually nothing has changed from the DS game aside from the content itself. Songs are presented in tiers of five, and you must clear each song to move onto the next one, either achieving a result of high level or good enough. If you do too poorly you must try again. The fifth song in each tier is a “remix”; a special song that throws together the tier’s four previous games. Beating the remix opens the next tier of games.

Every game starts with a tutorial, which is really mandatory to understand what you need to do (which I only mention since some people here tried playing Rhythm Heaven skipping the tutorials). It all comes down to getting into the rhythm and timing with whatever action you’re performing. Some actions would be nigh impossible to do based on sight alone, such as stabbing peas with a fork as they’re flicked at you, or shooting a peg between two washers as they roll past each other. But when you get into the rhythm, it becomes so simple you can do it with your eyes closed.

“Master the rhythm, or you’ll be drowning in robot tears.”

What really makes the game work is the amount of polish and charm it’s loaded with. Many of the songs are incredibly catchy despite having no branded tunes from the well known music games like Guitar Hero. It’s often not just the song that makes the experience, but also the theme of the game itself. Games include a boy on a playground date who must kick away intruding balls, a monkey riding on a watch’s second hand that high fives other monkeys he passes by, and a wrestler answering interview questions and posing for the camera. It may seem goofy, but you really have to experience it for yourself; the games have a knack for making you smile, even if you do terribly.

Aside from clearing the main songs, of which there are fifty, the Minna no Rhythm Tengoku also has a variety of rhythm toys and endless games you can unlock with medals, which are earned by getting a high level score in each game. On top of that, later on you can unlock a few of the games from the original GBA Rhythm Tengoku. Lastly, for the first time in the series there is a two player mode you can unlock. This presents two player versions of some of the songs from the main game. These games are scored based on how well each player does, plus bonus points for good synchronization.

Now above I mentioned that, despite being a Wii game, Minna no Rhythm Tengoku has no rhythm gestures. This is only sort of true. While it is true that you don’t need to do anything motion related to play the games, it’s very practical to dance around or somehow keep a beat when you play the games. I can’t help but feel the designers considered this in choosing the Wii as the platforms, because it works a lot better than having to hold a handheld system up to your face.

As of this review’s publishing, Nintendo has not announced a release for Minna no Rhythm Tengoku in North America or Europe, although they have consistently shopped it around at events. This game really benefits from some careful localization, since some of the games are very Japanese themed, and have spoken Japanese prompts. A few songs even have full singing. I really do hope Nintendo gives this the same attention to detail and strong marketing the DS game got, which was nothing short of great.