Rhythm Tengoku

is a Japan-only music video game/mini-game-collection. It was made by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance hand-held game console, and was later released in arcades. It was made by Nintendo's Research and Development 1. A sequel called Rhythm Tengoku Gold was released on the Nintendo DS in 2008.

Gameplay
Rhythm Tengoku is a level-based music mini-game collection which has a total of five normal levels and one remix level for every set of levels, which total eight sets, 48 levels in all. The game is set up with mostly different levels - for example, the first level has the player punch objects and the second level has the player pluck hairs out of an onion, both in the beat to the music that they use. The player has to beat one level to go onto to the next.  When he or she has beaten all five levels in a set, a remix appears, which is a level that has the five levels in the set remixed into one, using a different song. Rhythm Tengoku starts with a Rhythm Test that checks how well the player's beat is.

In each level, the player's score at the end is figured out by how well he or she hits the beats. There are three types of hits:
A perfect hit, where the player hits the beat exactly.
A semi-hit, where the player is slightly off.
A miss, where the player misses or does not even try to hit it. 

At the end of the level, the player is awarded one of three ranks - High Level, Mediocre, and Redo. If the player gets anything but Redo, the level is cleared, and getting High Level in a level gets the player a Perfect Campaign, which unlocks stuff in the "Bonus Corner" depending on how many the player unlocks. 

After the player beats enough levels, the game lets him or her try to get a perfect score, which gets the player a heart on the level he or she beats. The game tells the player when a level can have a heart won on it.

Besides the main game, there are six side features - the Cafe, the Toys, the Games, the Drum Lessons, the Staff, and the Live mode. The Cafe is used for advice, while the Toys, Games, and Drum Lessons have unlockable mini-games that can be played. The Staff mode shows the game's credits, and Live is a mode where the player plays in a band and is the drummer.

Drum Lessons
The Drum Lessons mode teaches the player how to play the drums in Rhythm Tengoku. The teacher, Drum Samurai, shows the player a short song that he or she must copy exactly. Drums use all of the buttons except for Start and Select, each button being a different part of the drum. The player is shown how well he or she did at the end and is given a rank. The drums can be played in the Studio mode, where the player can take any song in the game and play the drums to it. The drums are also used in the Live mode.

Music
All music tracks in the game was made for it by Tsunku, the game's composer. Because the Game Boy Advance can only do so much, most of the music is limited, and only a few songs have lyrics.

A soundtrack was released on October 15, 2008 with 140 songs from this game and its sequel, Rhythm Tengoku Gold.

Development
Tsunku contributed more than 30 soundtracks, and worked with Nintendo's Yoshio Sakamoto in making the game. It was not known until the game's release that Tsunku was involved with the game, with the Drum Samurai being based on him. Because it was developed by R&D1, it looks like and plays like the WarioWare series.

Reception
Rhythm Tengoku has received many positive reviews. EuroGamer called it "effortlessly entertaining," or that the game was very fun without putting too much work into it.  Edge said it was a best takes on rhythm games and one of the last good Game Boy Advance games.

Rhythm Tengoku received an Excellence Prize for Entertainment at the 10th annual Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006.

By the end of 2006, Rhythm Tengoku sold a total of 282,879 copies and was the 43rd best-selling game of that year.

Arcade version
Nintendo and Sega made an arcade version of Rhythm Tengoku that had multiplayer, which the Game Boy Advance version did not have. It has all the same levels as in the Game Boy Advance version, but it has a new mode that lets the first six games be played at a faster tempo.

Sequel
Nintendo released a sequel to Rhythm Tengoku called Rhythm Heaven for the Nintendo DS. It's made by the same people who made this game. It uses the DS' touch screen instead of the buttons, and the DS is held sideways. While Rhythm Tengoku has only been sold in Japan, the second game came out in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Another game was made called Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Wii.

References

Other websites
 Official Japanese Website
 Graphical menu translation, screenshots, and tips for each minigame

2006 video games
Arcade games
Game Boy Advance games
Japan exclusive video games
Music video games
Sega arcade games