Rhythm Heaven Megamix, known in Europe as Rhythm Paradise Megamix, and in Japan as Rhythm Tengoku: The Best Plus, is a rhythm game developed and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS. It is the fourth game in Nintendo's Rhythm Heaven series and compiles stages from the series' previous entries; Rhythm Tengoku, Rhythm Heaven, and Rhythm Heaven Fever, as well as adding new ones. The game was released in Japan in June 2015 and in North America, Europe, Oceania and South Korea throughout 2016.
Gameplay
Like the previous three entries in the series, Rhythm Heaven Megamix is composed of several Rhythm Games, requiring players to play in time with the music in order to clear each one. The game uses the traditional control scheme featured in the original Rhythm Tengoku, which uses the A, B, and directional buttons on the Nintendo 3DS. The game can be optionally played with the stylus, though controls are more simplified compared to Rhythm Heaven. The game features over 100 Rhythm Games, including 70 taken from previous titles and 30 brand new ones, as well as new Remix stages based on the game's Rainbow Towers which combine the previous rhythm games in the tower into one song. Tower-themed elements are incorporated into the remix while every character in the present rhythm games get to wear special tower-themed alternate costumes. Ratings for the Rhythm Games are now awarded based on a score meter indicating how well the player performed. Each Rhythm Game also features a special Skill Star point, which awards bonuses for hitting a certain part of the game with precise timing. Playing through Rhythm Games earns Medals that can be used to unlock bonuses such as additional rhythm games. Megamix features a Story Mode in which players try to help a character named Tibby reach Heaven World, his home. The mode has players play through stages in a linear format, which is broken up by challenge games, before allowing players to tackle various towers in any order they choose. Some older Rhythm Games that returned in Megamix, received a prequel version, An easier version with new graphics and an alternated music, while the original Rhythm Games have been labeled as sequels. Some of the returning games from Tengoku and Heaven have been added new music and redesigned graphics. Outside of the Story Mode, players can attempt Perfect Campaigns, which require players to clear selected stages without making any mistakes, or take on challenges on the Challenge Train, which can be played with up to four players via Download Play. The Challenge Mode in the game also has two WarioWare crossover challenges named as "Wario... Where?", which replaces some of the rhythm games' main characters with characters from the WarioWare series. The game also features bonus rhythm games and a Figure Fighter Duel challenge that uses the 3DS' StreetPass functionality.
Development
Masami Yone, the director of Rhythm Heaven Fever, assumed the same role for Megamix. He was assisted by Takumi Hatakeyama, who previously worked as a programmer and designer for WarioWare D.I.Y. and Rhythm Heaven Fever. Ko Takeuchi returns as the art director, and Yoshio Sakamoto as the general producer. The game's music is done by Tsunku♂, as well as Shinji Ushiroda, Asuka Ito, Yumi Takahashi, and Megumi Inoue. While some music pieces from the original Rhythm Tengoku and Rhythm Heaven were re-used, Rhythm Heaven Megamix re-uses several music themes from the previous game, Rhythm Heaven Fever. For the prequel versions of older rhythm games from previous titles and for the new rhythm games and remixes in the game, most of the music that Tsunku♂ had composed for them was given a techno-themed motif. This is different from the music styles used in the previous three Rhythm Heaven titles, which in Rhythm Tengoku, Rhythm Heaven and Rhythm Heaven Fever, the music for those titles was a mix of catchy tunes and vocal songs. The new vocal songs for Megamix are "Story Of True Love", "I'm a lady now/Hotzmic" and "In the Big Grain Of Tears". Megamix was the final game developed by Nintendo SPD1 before it was merged into Nintendo Entertainment Planning and Development. In 2016, Nintendo announced that the game would launch in North America, Europe, Australia and Korea "later" that year. The game was released as a Nintendo eShop exclusive in North America on June 15, 2016 during Nintendo's Treehouse Livestream presentation at E3 2016. The game received a physical retail release in Europe on October 21, 2016. Like the European release of Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise, the English versions of the game feature both English and Japanese audio.
Reception
Rhythm Heaven Megamix received favourable reviews from Famitsu reviewers, scoring 34/40 in Famitsu Score, and praised for various aspects including its great variety in gameplay despite the simple controls, and supportive feedback from input timing effects. The game debuted at No. 1 in Japanese charts maintained by Media Create, recording 158,000 copies sold in its first week of release. As of 26 February 2016, total Japanese sales reached 650,000 copies.
