It’s strange to say “welcome back” to a game like Rhythm Paradise Groove because it’s one of those series’ that you think nobody likes but you. Just as Nintendo has given Star Fox a new lease of life with the wonderful 2026 remake, Rhythm Paradise is back, but it’s not even a Switch 2 exclusive: you can play this on your original Switch.
I think the best way to explain what Rhythm Paradise Groove actually is, would be to say it’s a bit like WarioWare, but if all the mini-games revolved around keeping on time with the beat of the music. The eccentric characters and colourful visuals will do their best to distract you as banger after banger plays out, and for much of the time all you really need to do is hit the “A” button, or do a combo involving the A button and up, down, left, or right on the D-Pad.
It really is that simple, and at the risk of sounding cliched, the magic is in the charming way it’s all delivered. From robots who have to smash cans in a factory to the beat of the song, to a muscle-man who is bouncing fruit off his biceps to keep the rhythm, there is no stone left unturned in the “weird” encyclopaedia of wacky that Nintendo pulls from with the visual offering, here.
But that’s not even “all” there is. The music is pretty much entirely excellent, yet to aid in your attempts to keep to the beat, voiceovers will give you cues. The muscle-man for example, will have someone shout “apple” in a peculiar way, then “lemon”, which changes up the speed you need to hit the buttons. There are video shoots for sports cars which will have beeps and rev noises that join in with the song on offer, or an umbrella that you open and shut that will shout noises at you as you do so. You do need to have some semblance of musicality to get the most, as at the top level, you should almost be able to play with your eyes closed and just keep to the beat.
Thankfully, you don’t actually have to do that. While the visual representation will often do something to obfuscate your view (and the numerous ways in which this is in keeping with the theme of the level, and is constantly creative in delivery), you can at any point hold down “Y” and get an example of the timing for those who prefer visual cues to audio ones. Rhythm Paradise Groove doesn’t want you to fail, but it’s also not an easy game.
I’d actually also suggest it might be a better game in handheld mode. Due to the way TVs operate now, latency is an issue. Although there is a TV latency setup within the game, I always felt it was better in handheld. It’s hard to know for sure if this was a placebo effect, but I tried multiple levels and always performed them better in handheld. Likewise, my family performed better when it came to multiplayer mode in handheld as well.
Speaking of multiplayer, playing Groove with friends and family is a blast. Often working together as much as you’re facing each other as opponents, the multiplayer levels on offer are entirely separate to the single player ones. There has been clear thought given to how to make this an enjoyable multiplayer experience, and when you’re working together you can save one another, rather than just have a game over if someone isn’t quite keeping time as well as others.
It’s a boisterous time with the right group, and the level called “Cake Wait”, where you have to grab the cake on a timer is going to remain a firm favourite for a while in our house. Here you have to watch a ten second countdown timer, and work out if you’d rather use your eyes or ears to judge the ticking of the clock. Much fun will come when you somehow manage exactly the same split-second timing, or when you’re thrashed by someone who clearly has their finger on the literal pulse of the music.
Fantastically, after you perform well at a multiplayer level, another variant of the same one will unlock, offering a few ways to play favourites, and “best” your performances over and over again. There’s so much attention to detail in every level, too. On Cake Wait, for example, you will see the Grease-style dudes get a longer quiff every time they win a round. Then the ultimate winner gets a jacket, which he’ll be wearing when you start another game of Cake Wait.
There’s plenty to unlock, though given the time fans have waited for a new Rhythm Paradise title, I’m not going to get into too many deeper things. Beatspell is an additional single player mode I adore, though. A Slay the Spire-like offering, you need to go through dungeons and defeat enemies using spells which are acted out with rhythm actions on the face buttons. To use fire, for example, you need to hit “B, A” on the beat. This soon gets more complex, adding water spells, a healing cast, an electric spell, and more.
If there’s one thing I didn’t like, however, it’s the way that Beatspell gates its levels. You’d think that beating a level would unlock another, but that’s not quite right. Here, you have to beat the previous level, but also get a set number of “rings” in the other part of single player mode. To get a ring you have to get a near perfect performance (note: not perfect, you can make a few mistakes, but just a few), and this required number goes up as you progress further into Beatspell. I just don’t see why you’d gate it this way, other than because you feel that if people can’t get, say, 18 rings, they aren’t ready for the challenge.
Beatspell is otherwise a huge success, though it suffers the most from latency. You will be warned about this, with Rhythm Paradise Groove telling you that it’s a game better played in handheld mode more than once. There’s even plenty of story to doll out, ably told by the text-to-speech style narrator who ends every sentence with “beep”. And yes, you can turn her down, or off entirely, if you want her to show you a sad face.
The music in Rhythm Paradise Groove is just absolutely brilliant, as you’d expect. I can’t think of a single song I didn’t enjoy, and even the way the single player remixes the mini-games is clever. This is a challenging experience at times, and I can’t pretend my musical brain didn’t struggle with some of the games that make you play off-beat, or in weird time signatures.
Rhythm Paradise Groove is a fantastic return for a series I and many others adore. There are simply so many mini-games to enjoy here, and if you don’t laugh at one, you’ll definitely laugh at the presentation given by the next one. Not every level is a home run, but this is a kooky, superb rhythm game that has loads of reasons to come back to play time and time again. Rhythm Paradise Groove is lovely, but the biggest tip I’d give anyone going in is that if you’re struggling, take that Switch out of the dock and try again.
