Rhythm Heaven Groove brings 100 new mini-games after an 11-year wait

Rhythm Heaven Groove is the game Nintendo fans spent eleven years asking for. The rhythm mini-game series that defined a strange, joyful corner of Nintendo’s catalog has returned for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2, bringing something the franchise has never tried before: every one of the game’s more than 80 single-player mini-games is entirely new to the series.

The format is deceptively simple. Each game lasts about 90 seconds. Tap, hold, or flick a button in time with a track, and something absurd happens on screen: vegetables fly toward you at speed, fruit needs deflecting with your biceps, a sledgehammer swing has to land exactly on the beat. The objective is always clear, the controls stay minimal, and the music does most of the explanatory work. That simplicity is the game’s engine — and it runs as well now as it ever did.

The reception has been correspondingly warm. Rhythm Heaven Groove landed a Metacritic score of 82 from 53 critics — the highest the series has earned on a home console. IGN scored it 9 out of 10 and called it “a superb sequel that expertly capitalizes on the captivating energy of its excellent music.” Eurogamer gave it four out of five stars, describing the game as “infectiously charming.” CGMagazine awarded a perfect score and singled out its accessibility features and replayability.

The music is the throughline. Tsunku♂ — the Japanese musician who composed the series’ signature sound from its 2006 Game Boy Advance debut — wrote the soundtrack. He did so without vocal chords, having lost them during cancer treatment more than a decade ago. Guest artists Yui Sakurai and Ado appear across the game’s 20 original remixes, which double the count found in earlier entries and thread the mini-games into something that functions as a coherent musical work as well as a collection.

The one area that gave critics pause was technical. Several reviewers flagged audio latency issues during TV play — a meaningful complaint in a rhythm game where a single frame can determine whether you hit or miss. The new Beatspell mode, a standalone RPG chapter where players cast spells by pressing buttons in rhythm, divided opinion between a welcome structural variation and an unnecessary addition. Nintendo has not released a patch for the latency issue.

The multiplayer component is a genuine improvement over previous attempts. Thirty games designed specifically for two to four players join the 80-plus single-player entries, bringing the total past 100. Earlier Rhythm Heaven entries handled multiplayer as an afterthought; here it functions as a separate argument for couch co-op.

One feature sets the game apart without fanfare: Li’l Miss Reeds, an on-screen text-to-speech reader that assists blind players through menus and game instructions — a first for the series.

Rhythm Heaven Groove is available now on Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Nintendo and co-developer TNX released the game on July 2, 2026. No DLC or post-launch content has been announced.

Tags: gaming, nintendo, Nintendo Switch 2, nintendo switch, rhythm game, Rhythm Heaven Groove