Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
There have been levels involving a spooky moon having sneezing fits, crabs bouncing sweet foods into a hole, umbrella people putitng on performances, and a dinosaur catching fruits launching out of flowers…and this is what the game considers weird? There are some pretty eccentric premises in this batch though. But showing off one’s muscles, cushing cans to recycle, and backup dancing isn’t exactly “weird,” per se.
00:11 - Fruit Flex
Type: Cue/Keep the Beat
We begin with Fruit Flex, a hybrid cue and keep the beat game. You have audio cues coming in telling you a fruit is incoming, upon which you press A to have Ko Maximum flex his biceps to bounce from one arm to another. Where the keep-the-beat part comes in is that not only are each cue at least two inputs long, one beat after another (or three-quarters beat with the lemons), but if a green apple by rather than a red one, this signals more green apples will turn up one after the other, upon which you must keep flexing on the beats to keep bouncing them along. A red apple means you can rest and await the next cue. A lemon, being smaller, takes only three quarters of a beat to go from one bounce to the second. Ko Maximum is likely the “hungry partner” at the end of Slice N Dice Kitchen (supplementary materials show they live right by each other and know each other).
Ko Maximum’s day job is a doctor.
05:47 - Alien Alphabet
Type: Cue
Thematically, this one is one of my favorites because it derives so much of its premise from those kids’ movies in the 80s and 90s—not just the obvious E.T., but other such films like batteries not included, Star Kid, The Iron Giant, and a few other movies I hadn’t thought of, where some kids discover a friendly alien and are the first Earthlings to befriend it. (No More Heroes 3 pokes fun of this concept.) You play as Nao, the girl on the left in front of the RV; she and her friend (his name is unknown) have studied the Rhythm Alien’s language, and they engage in communication with it. You even got the “cool uncle” character there, Mr. Exclusive, who takes the kids’ side.
There are two possible things the alien can say, and thus two possible responses. The first is “cha cha cha,” upon which the kids must say “bo bo” in a Bo Diddley/Habanero rhythm. The other is “ bo bo bo bo,” upon which the kids must say “cha” in a…rhythm whose name I don’t know. Might be best to see for yourself; I used the example to understand what to do. The alien’s antenna lights up indicating how you did: green indicates a correct response, yellow indicates it’s slightly off, and red indicates a total miss.
11:04 - Can Do
Type: Cue
This level takes its visual style most heavily from the earliest Rhythm Heaven games, except the room tis in full 3D, as is evidenced by the conveyor belt—each Rhythm Heaven game has at least one stage where things go by on a conveyor belt, and you must do something to the things on it as they pass by (though this is the first game in the series to lack a level set at the widget factory). You play as Tom Catio, a worker at Mew Era, a recycling plant. He must slam his sledgehammer down onto the empty cans on the belt, crushing them. CEO Kitt Kattington observes from above. Red cans and blue cans travel down the belt and have different cues, but the response is the same: hold A at the right time to swing the hammer and crush the cans. A near miss will boucne the can off the belt harmlessly.
This is probably a coincidence, but a “catio” is an enclosed outdoor space for a cat, designed to protect them from predators. The red cans may be based on Coca-Cola, while the blue cans may be based on Pocari Sweat (a Japanese sports drink).
16:53 - Backup Spotlight
Type: Keep the Beat
Song: “Odoreba Dance!” by Reina Nishi
This is perhaps the most “Rhythm Heaven” level in this whole game, combining idol singing with the Space Dancers from the original GBA game. You play as the second Space Dancer from the left, like it was originally, though now they’re backup dancers for Lena. And are way better at dancing. There are two ways to follow the rhythm in this keep-the-beat game, based on the cues provided. The first is “Zukyuin!” (not “zucchini” as I originally thought), where you press A very two beats. The second is “Dance! Dance!” with an arrow pointing left (or rarely, right). If it points left, you press Left, A, Right, A on each beat as a cycle (and Right, A, Left A if the arrow points right). Either way, the signal to stop is “Three two one ow!” Lena’s song has something of a climactic feel to this. (How does the stage work? She comes out of a portable hole.)
“Zukyuin!” is a Japanese onomatopoeia for a Cupid’s arrow strike.
24:12 - Remix 4
Type: Remix
Without a theme of its own nor anything unusual done to the levels that comprise it, this is one of the more forgettable Remixes in this game, sadly.
Next, I'll cover the Rhythm Toy Box, a miscellaneous assortment of rhythm activities.
There have been levels involving a spooky moon having sneezing fits, crabs bouncing sweet foods into a hole, umbrella people putitng on performances, and a dinosaur catching fruits launching out of flowers…and this is what the game considers weird? There are some pretty eccentric premises in this batch though. But showing off one’s muscles, cushing cans to recycle, and backup dancing isn’t exactly “weird,” per se.
00:11 - Fruit Flex
Type: Cue/Keep the Beat
We begin with Fruit Flex, a hybrid cue and keep the beat game. You have audio cues coming in telling you a fruit is incoming, upon which you press A to have Ko Maximum flex his biceps to bounce from one arm to another. Where the keep-the-beat part comes in is that not only are each cue at least two inputs long, one beat after another (or three-quarters beat with the lemons), but if a green apple by rather than a red one, this signals more green apples will turn up one after the other, upon which you must keep flexing on the beats to keep bouncing them along. A red apple means you can rest and await the next cue. A lemon, being smaller, takes only three quarters of a beat to go from one bounce to the second. Ko Maximum is likely the “hungry partner” at the end of Slice N Dice Kitchen (supplementary materials show they live right by each other and know each other).
Ko Maximum’s day job is a doctor.
05:47 - Alien Alphabet
Type: Cue
Thematically, this one is one of my favorites because it derives so much of its premise from those kids’ movies in the 80s and 90s—not just the obvious E.T., but other such films like batteries not included, Star Kid, The Iron Giant, and a few other movies I hadn’t thought of, where some kids discover a friendly alien and are the first Earthlings to befriend it. (No More Heroes 3 pokes fun of this concept.) You play as Nao, the girl on the left in front of the RV; she and her friend (his name is unknown) have studied the Rhythm Alien’s language, and they engage in communication with it. You even got the “cool uncle” character there, Mr. Exclusive, who takes the kids’ side.
There are two possible things the alien can say, and thus two possible responses. The first is “cha cha cha,” upon which the kids must say “bo bo” in a Bo Diddley/Habanero rhythm. The other is “ bo bo bo bo,” upon which the kids must say “cha” in a…rhythm whose name I don’t know. Might be best to see for yourself; I used the example to understand what to do. The alien’s antenna lights up indicating how you did: green indicates a correct response, yellow indicates it’s slightly off, and red indicates a total miss.
11:04 - Can Do
Type: Cue
This level takes its visual style most heavily from the earliest Rhythm Heaven games, except the room tis in full 3D, as is evidenced by the conveyor belt—each Rhythm Heaven game has at least one stage where things go by on a conveyor belt, and you must do something to the things on it as they pass by (though this is the first game in the series to lack a level set at the widget factory). You play as Tom Catio, a worker at Mew Era, a recycling plant. He must slam his sledgehammer down onto the empty cans on the belt, crushing them. CEO Kitt Kattington observes from above. Red cans and blue cans travel down the belt and have different cues, but the response is the same: hold A at the right time to swing the hammer and crush the cans. A near miss will boucne the can off the belt harmlessly.
This is probably a coincidence, but a “catio” is an enclosed outdoor space for a cat, designed to protect them from predators. The red cans may be based on Coca-Cola, while the blue cans may be based on Pocari Sweat (a Japanese sports drink).
16:53 - Backup Spotlight
Type: Keep the Beat
Song: “Odoreba Dance!” by Reina Nishi
This is perhaps the most “Rhythm Heaven” level in this whole game, combining idol singing with the Space Dancers from the original GBA game. You play as the second Space Dancer from the left, like it was originally, though now they’re backup dancers for Lena. And are way better at dancing. There are two ways to follow the rhythm in this keep-the-beat game, based on the cues provided. The first is “Zukyuin!” (not “zucchini” as I originally thought), where you press A very two beats. The second is “Dance! Dance!” with an arrow pointing left (or rarely, right). If it points left, you press Left, A, Right, A on each beat as a cycle (and Right, A, Left A if the arrow points right). Either way, the signal to stop is “Three two one ow!” Lena’s song has something of a climactic feel to this. (How does the stage work? She comes out of a portable hole.)
“Zukyuin!” is a Japanese onomatopoeia for a Cupid’s arrow strike.
24:12 - Remix 4
Type: Remix
Without a theme of its own nor anything unusual done to the levels that comprise it, this is one of the more forgettable Remixes in this game, sadly.
Next, I'll cover the Rhythm Toy Box, a miscellaneous assortment of rhythm activities.
