Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Stage 3 combines the mundane and the fantastic, continuing to demonstrate what the rest of the Rhythm Heaven series has been doing: that anything could become a rhythm game. This stage gives us our first “keep the beat” style level, which is NOT cue based and are considered the toughest category overall due to their very high number of inputs; historically, some of the toughest Rhythm Heaven levels are keep the beat levels, like Lockstep, Monkey Watch, and one found later in this game involving a plastic bottle.
00:11 - Slice N Dice Kitchen
Type: Cue
Sachiko Diamond prepares a salad for her cats, consisting of Cha-Chá (the one sitting by the sink in front of her) and his many brothers. Nevermind the fact that cats are obligate carnivores and thus would not have any need nor desire for a salad. Sachiko will hum, and one beat after the second note, press A to catch a tomato; or a yellow bell pepper, signaling that three chunks of broccoli will come over, half a beat apart. The A button applies to both sides; the game will pick the correct side. This stage shows how things are getting more difficult, as the cues have less notice and come at you faster and more frequently, despite it being a daily routine food prep.
Her “hungry partner” might be Cha-Chá, but it may also be Ko Maximum (someone more likely to give an articulate evaluation), whom we’ll meet later.
04:16 - Sneezy Moon
Type: Cue
I struggled with this one when I first encountered it, as despite the slow tempo befitting its spooky atmosphere, it has four different cues to pay attention to: the premise is that a large family of creatures resembling ghosts need to pass through a gap in a fence but can’t let the Moon see them…but, characteristic of the trademark silliness in the series, the Moon is also in a sneezing fit, and you must press A to let the Family Members run past that gap while the Moon’s eyes are closed sneezing. I said there are four different cues here, and that’s because the Moon can sneeze in four different ways: sneezes where the Moon glows green means his eyes will close one beat after the last gasp from the sneeze, while if the Moon glows red, his eyes will close half a beat instead. Each also has a variant where he skips the first two gasps. At one point, the Moon even changes sneezes before he finishes.
Also, have you noticed Ashley from WarioWare?
09:51 - Crab Snacks
Type: Cue
Set against a stock photo of a beach, three crabs have lined up to bounce snacks into a hole for later. You play as the third and last crab in line, bouncing it into the hole (Don’t worry that the hole looks pretty small for the things they’re putting in there; it’ll fit.) Introducing you to simultaneous controls, the Left button controls the left claw, and A controls the right claw, and as the macarons and mangosteens bounce by, you’ll need to lift both claws to bounce them into the hole. The macarons bounce from crab to crab at one-beat intervals, and for the trickiest timing yet, the mangosteens bounce from crab to crab at three-quarters-beat intervals. Either of them can turn up on offbeats too.
14:30 - Hop, Stop N Roll
Type: Keep the Beat
Song: “Nanakorobi Hachi Get up!” by Kurukuru, Naho Koumura, and Mao Harada
Okay, I was wrong—this has a comma here too. In Hop, Stop N Roll, four beckoning cats (also known as maneki-neko, though I first knew of them as beckoning cats) jump in a line down a path, presumably as part of something they do every day. This is a keep-the-beat level, meaning you must press a button to the song’s rhythm. There may be cues to start and stop (as is the case here, with “meow meow” being to begin and “three two one” to stop), as well as other cues to either do some other action in place of a normal input (in this case, “roll it” to press Right to roll in place of a jump) or do the input at a time other than an onbeat. Missing an input will get a reaction from the Siamese cat at the end in line if too late or the pink cat second in line if too early. A slightly off input, but on considered still valid, will show the “You” label shifting left (if a bit late) or right (if a bit early).
Beckoning cats are cat statues placed indoors in homes and businesses. They stand on their hind legs and have a front paw raised. They’re most common in Japan but can be found all over East and Southeast Asia, and around the world within such communities. White cats are the most common and are said to bring good luck and fortune (and customers if in a business). Pink ones bring romance, while the other two are not traditional beckoning cat types.
19:44 - Remix 3
Type: Remix
This remix does something I don’t think a remix did in a prior Rhythm Heaven game: combine levels together, such that you need to keep track of multiple cues at once from different games. Namely, the Hop, Stop N Roll segments will have Slice N Dice Kitchen and Sneezy Moon overlaid on top at times. There will be other cases like this later on too.
Stage 3 combines the mundane and the fantastic, continuing to demonstrate what the rest of the Rhythm Heaven series has been doing: that anything could become a rhythm game. This stage gives us our first “keep the beat” style level, which is NOT cue based and are considered the toughest category overall due to their very high number of inputs; historically, some of the toughest Rhythm Heaven levels are keep the beat levels, like Lockstep, Monkey Watch, and one found later in this game involving a plastic bottle.
00:11 - Slice N Dice Kitchen
Type: Cue
Sachiko Diamond prepares a salad for her cats, consisting of Cha-Chá (the one sitting by the sink in front of her) and his many brothers. Nevermind the fact that cats are obligate carnivores and thus would not have any need nor desire for a salad. Sachiko will hum, and one beat after the second note, press A to catch a tomato; or a yellow bell pepper, signaling that three chunks of broccoli will come over, half a beat apart. The A button applies to both sides; the game will pick the correct side. This stage shows how things are getting more difficult, as the cues have less notice and come at you faster and more frequently, despite it being a daily routine food prep.
Her “hungry partner” might be Cha-Chá, but it may also be Ko Maximum (someone more likely to give an articulate evaluation), whom we’ll meet later.
04:16 - Sneezy Moon
Type: Cue
I struggled with this one when I first encountered it, as despite the slow tempo befitting its spooky atmosphere, it has four different cues to pay attention to: the premise is that a large family of creatures resembling ghosts need to pass through a gap in a fence but can’t let the Moon see them…but, characteristic of the trademark silliness in the series, the Moon is also in a sneezing fit, and you must press A to let the Family Members run past that gap while the Moon’s eyes are closed sneezing. I said there are four different cues here, and that’s because the Moon can sneeze in four different ways: sneezes where the Moon glows green means his eyes will close one beat after the last gasp from the sneeze, while if the Moon glows red, his eyes will close half a beat instead. Each also has a variant where he skips the first two gasps. At one point, the Moon even changes sneezes before he finishes.
Also, have you noticed Ashley from WarioWare?
09:51 - Crab Snacks
Type: Cue
Set against a stock photo of a beach, three crabs have lined up to bounce snacks into a hole for later. You play as the third and last crab in line, bouncing it into the hole (Don’t worry that the hole looks pretty small for the things they’re putting in there; it’ll fit.) Introducing you to simultaneous controls, the Left button controls the left claw, and A controls the right claw, and as the macarons and mangosteens bounce by, you’ll need to lift both claws to bounce them into the hole. The macarons bounce from crab to crab at one-beat intervals, and for the trickiest timing yet, the mangosteens bounce from crab to crab at three-quarters-beat intervals. Either of them can turn up on offbeats too.
14:30 - Hop, Stop N Roll
Type: Keep the Beat
Song: “Nanakorobi Hachi Get up!” by Kurukuru, Naho Koumura, and Mao Harada
Okay, I was wrong—this has a comma here too. In Hop, Stop N Roll, four beckoning cats (also known as maneki-neko, though I first knew of them as beckoning cats) jump in a line down a path, presumably as part of something they do every day. This is a keep-the-beat level, meaning you must press a button to the song’s rhythm. There may be cues to start and stop (as is the case here, with “meow meow” being to begin and “three two one” to stop), as well as other cues to either do some other action in place of a normal input (in this case, “roll it” to press Right to roll in place of a jump) or do the input at a time other than an onbeat. Missing an input will get a reaction from the Siamese cat at the end in line if too late or the pink cat second in line if too early. A slightly off input, but on considered still valid, will show the “You” label shifting left (if a bit late) or right (if a bit early).
Beckoning cats are cat statues placed indoors in homes and businesses. They stand on their hind legs and have a front paw raised. They’re most common in Japan but can be found all over East and Southeast Asia, and around the world within such communities. White cats are the most common and are said to bring good luck and fortune (and customers if in a business). Pink ones bring romance, while the other two are not traditional beckoning cat types.
19:44 - Remix 3
Type: Remix
This remix does something I don’t think a remix did in a prior Rhythm Heaven game: combine levels together, such that you need to keep track of multiple cues at once from different games. Namely, the Hop, Stop N Roll segments will have Slice N Dice Kitchen and Sneezy Moon overlaid on top at times. There will be other cases like this later on too.
