Rhythm Paradise Groove - Switch Review

It's been over a decade since the previous Rhythm Paradise game and fans have been eager for a new addition in the series. The wait is finally over as Rhythm Paradise Groove makes its debut on the Switch. With 80+ new minigames, new modes and hectic multiplayer shenanigans, does Rhythm Paradise Groove fulfil expectations or does it fall on deaf ears?

The Good

If you’ve never played a Rhythm Paradise game before, the core gameplay loop is to go through a collection of 4 rhythm-based minigames, trying your best to intuit what you’re supposed to do based on both the visuals and the music. Once you’ve completed that collection of minigames, you’ll be tested with a remix that includes all of the prior 4 minigames into one and once you complete that, you’ll be given your next minigame collection. It's a very simple premise for a simple game but it works in its favour as it is very easy to get into a groove (pun not intended) and get stuck in that “just one more” mentality.

What is a rhythm game without music? I don’t think there was a single song in Rhythm Paradise Groove that I didn’t like. Starting off, the songs used for minigames are pretty simple but the further you go, the more complex they become, adding different styles and genres and sometimes even licensed music from professional artists. It was quite the shock to see Ado’s name pop up while working on this review, let me tell you.

During the June Nintendo Direct, they showed off a little RPG mode for Rhythm Paradise Groove called 'Beatspell', which I was EXTREMELY excited to try out. If you’ve read my recent review of Deathbulge: Battle of the Bands, you’d know that I have been on the lookout for good musical-themed RPGs and after trying out Beatspell, I think I may have found a new king of this very specific niche. Its gameplay kinda reminds me of Patapon in a way, as performing different button combinations in time with the music causes you to cast different spells and performing them all without missing a beat feels so incredibly satisfying and makes you feel unstoppable. Please, Nintendo, we need Beatspell expanded into a full game; I am begging you!

TL;DR

• Extraordinarily satisfying gameplay
• Excellent Music
• Beatspell is an incredible new addition and I need a full game version, please Nintendo

The Bad

An unfortunate circumstance of gaming moving into the HD era back in the mid-2000s was that widescreen TVs will always have some kind of input latency when playing games on them. Most of the time you’ll never notice it but if you’re someone like me who plays a lot of rhythm games, the latency is very noticeable. Booting up Rhythm Paradise Groove for the first time, you will be prompted to do a latency calibration; it’ll tell you to hit the A button on every 4th beat you hear and then automatically adjust based on how you did. Annoyingly, I could never get the calibration exactly how I wanted it; it was always just slightly off and there is no way of going in and manually fine-tuning the calibration. On the upside, the game does tell you that this input delay is non-existent while playing in handheld mode so I highly recommend playing the game exclusively in handheld mode.

While a good majority of minigames work just fine, there are a handful where the visual and audio cues don’t match up how you’d think they would. The audio would sound like you’d need to react on beat but the visuals would suggest you’d react on the off-beat; 9 times out of 10 the visual cue was the correct one in that case. This really threw off my flow every time I encountered it and took me out of the game

TL;DR

• No way to fine-tune your audio/visual delay
• Some minigames rely more on visual cues rather than audio cues

Final Score: 8/10

Despite its minor hiccups, Rhythm Paradise Groove is yet another incredible addition to the Rhythm Paradise series that fans will be grooving too for a long time. Just make sure you play it in handheld mode, though, just to be safe.

Thank you for checking out our Rhythm Paradise Groove Switch review, thank you to Nintendo AU/NZ for providing the review code and thank you to our Patreon Backers for their ongoing support:

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