Rhythm Heaven Fever

This one’s a bit of an odd duck. Transforming a whacky activity like pilots playing badminton in the sky into a rhythm challenge that requires only a single button is downright brilliant. The game’s simplicity is inspired. When you’re in the zone it can be enormous fun, and satisfying in a way that only the best, purest game experiences are. Plus, the video game-y music is often wonderfully catchy. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself singing some of its simple ditties after a single session.

However, there’s one big hurdle keeping it from being a true standout: Difficulty. This seems like a game that should be great fun for the whole family, but its difficulty is tuned to older, hardcore gamers. Most younger kids (and even some grown-ups) will get fed up failing activities over and over again, unable to progress to the next game. Players ought to have been provided multiple difficulty levels. A scoring meter would help, too, so that players understand how their performance is being judged and can see how close (or far) they are from passing a challenge. There’s no denying that Rhythm Heaven Fever can be a lot of fun, but its prospective audience is much smaller than it could -- and should -- have been.