‘Rhythm Heaven Groove’ shows that the Switch 1 still has the juice

Nintendo is closing out the Switch 1 era in style.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been leisurely digging my way through Rhythm Heaven Groove. At the time of publication, it’s the only announced upcoming first-party game for the original Nintendo Switch console, which could potentially give it a unique place in history. To be clear, I’m fairly confident that Nintendo will release at least a couple more games for the OG Switch before too long, but for now, Rhythm Heaven is all that’s left.

And what a way for the Switch to go out, if this is indeed its swan song. The latest entry in one of Nintendo’s most eclectic franchises is also one of the most eminently approachable games for the platform. All you need is a basic sense of rhythm and the ability to hit one, maybe two buttons now and then. Between that, its low $40 price, and its sublime sense of style, anyone who has yet to pick up a Switch 2 really ought to give Rhythm Heaven Groove a shot.

Rhythm Heaven Groove is a Switch game that practically anyone can play

If you’ve never played a Rhythm Heaven game (and I suspect there’s a good chance that’s true), they’re made up of dozens of little unique musical minigames that each take only a couple of minutes to complete. Each one has its own premise, visual style, and music, but at the end of the day, you’re doing the same thing in all of them: trying to adhere to a beat and press one or two buttons when the rhythm calls for it.

A big part of what makes Rhythm Heaven work, both in Groove and in the games before it, is that each minigame has an attractive, somewhat low-fi 2D visual style to it. Characters and backgrounds are all eminently endearing to the eye, and rather charmingly, no part of it looks like a mega-budget GTA VI-style production. Of course, the music is fantastic, too, with beats that are simple enough for even the non-musicians among us to keep up with, and melodies that’ll stick in your head for at least a few minutes after you’re done.

If you want to get a quick idea of what Rhythm Heaven‘s whole vibe is, I will direct you towards Monkey Watch, a minigame from Rhythm Heaven Fever for Wii. I promise the series has not changed much since then, to its benefit.

Look at these freaks!
Credit: Nintendo

I also dig the structure here. Minigames are divided into groups of four, and once you’ve completed all four in a group, you’re treated to a playable remix level that mashes all of them together into one song. These are generally the highlight of the experience, as it’s fun to see (and hear) how four different musical minigames can come together into something that actually feels coherent.

Groove, of course, has a little more going for it than just a series of single-player minigames. One of the big side modes here is Beatspell, a rhythm-based RPG where you mash out little musical combos to cast spells in fights against monsters, complete with experience points and leveling up. I need to spend more time with this to make a proper judgment, but at the very least, this is a really cool thing to include alongside the main event.

Similarly, the multiplayer offerings here should be a good time for living room hangout sessions. I am particularly partial to the four-player game where each person tries to grab a slice of cake at just the right moment, and whoever comes closest to nailing the timing wins. It’s a fun game, but I mostly love it because each character has a stupid color-coded pompadour haircut that grows longer each time they win a round. That’s the kind of spirit that Rhythm Heaven has always had.

It also represents what made the Switch era so great

You should play Rhythm Heaven Groove because it’s charming, cool, and, again, only $40. But beyond its quality as a game, I really like what it represents about the Switch era for Nintendo.

Namely, the past nine years have been great for exposing Nintendo fans to franchises beyond the safe confines of Mario and Zelda. The Switch era made me a fan of Fire Emblem, Xenoblade Chronicles, Luigi’s Mansion, Tomodachi Life, and now Rhythm Heaven, and those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head right now. Heck, even Metroid got revived in both 2D and Prime form.

Yes, a handful of important (or important-to-me) series missed out on the OG Switch, with F-Zero probably topping that list. But for the most part, if you’re the kind of person who maybe didn’t spend as much time playing the DS or 3DS as they should have (subtweeting myself here), the Switch has been a great excuse to learn about a bunch of different, cool games that used to live primarily on handheld platforms.

Given that Rhythm Heaven fits that description perfectly, maybe it is the best way to close out the Switch era. For now, anyway.