Rhythm Tengoku Gold Walkthrough and Review

(note: work in progress)

Rhythm Tengoku Gold is a game for the DS that tests your sense of rhythm and your sense of timing by giving you random challenges ranging from shooting screws into the holes of spinning bolts to participating in a choir. Rhythm Tengoku Gold is like your drug-addled uncle, weird but at the same time hella fun.

Actually, there's not a lot of things that you should know about this game to be able to play it well. This article simply discusses how to overcome the first challege of this game - the goddamn moonspeak language.

Starting a game:
1. Tap and hold the circle on the right screen (since the ds is held vertically for this game) then swish the circle upward quickly so it disappears from the screen. If you fail, you can try again.
2. After you successfully toss the circle, the profile selection menu appears. If this is your first time, just tap any of the three slots.
3. In the name selection screen, just tap any of the characters and then tap the left button of the confirmation window to confirm. Training mode will start.

Training:
1. The objective of the first stage is to hit the frog statue on top of the screen by using the coin you can toss by pressing the screen with your stylus and then sliding your stylus across the right screen. Do this multiple times and you'll get to the next step.
2. The next stage is like the first stage, but this time you have to time your tosses so it hits the passing car. It takes a couple of tries to get it right but it shouldnt be too hard. After you finish this game, you finally start playing the different stages.

Stage selection:
Once you finish training, you are now allowed to select stages on the right side of the screen. A new stage gets unlocked when you clear the one below it. If this is your first time, only the first square is unlocked, with a flashing "new" speech bubble. Tap that and you're good to go.

Saving:
This game autosaves so you shouldn't worry about it.

Loading a game:
On the profile selection screen, just tap the slot where your profile is located and then tap the biggest button on the confirmation screen. The button to the lower left is for rename, the one for the lower right is delete and the lowest button is for cancel.

Skipping Stages:
If you failed any of the mini-games for a certain number of times (three or four will do) and you want to skip it out or frustration, all you need to do is to click on the coffee cup icon located in the bottom-right corner of the mini-game selection screen.

In the next page, choose the uppermost option, and just tap away at the text. Usually, you have to repeat the mini-game you're stuck on after doing the above steps, so play through it again.

When you fail it and get sent back to the mini-game selection screen, you'll notice that the coffee cup icon is slightly changed (if it isn't, you need to play through and fail the mini-game again then tap the coffee cup icon).

Touch the coffee cup again and select the uppermost option, and after a few pages of text you will be presented with a choice. Pick the left button and the stage will finally be unlocked.

(credits to Mai of Don't Lick Them Turtles Blog She's a bigger fan of the game than I am, at the moment at least. Thanks!)

Training Phase:
Every beginning of the stage has a training phase where you will be given a chance to try out the mechanics of the stage. You can either skip the whole training phase by clicking the long blue button above your screen, or performing the required training tasks a certain number of times. I suggest you don't skip this the first time around though.


Stage Mechanics
Since every stage has different goals, it took me a while to figure out what needs to be done. I'll try to write down here what you need to do.

1. The goal of this stage is to shoot a bolt between two nuts spinning towards the center where their holes intersect. While this happens, a piano is playing in the background. Focus on the piano more and it'll be a lot easier (actually this tip is useful for a lot of the other stages too) At some point in the actual stage, you will be required to do the task with only the center area visible. If you have mastered the shooting by hearing, this shouldn't be a problem.

2. The goal of this stage is to help what looks like a doughboy to perform in the choir. Controls are as follows: Pressing the stylus towards the screen silences the boy, removing the stylus makes him sing. Swinging the the stylus up makes the doughboy wail (AAAAAH). This stage is hard because of the different patterns, but basically you just have to immitate what the two other boys are doing, but not usually at the same time as them. For the first example, you have to sing after the second boy has sung. When the conductor says "Yobun daze", you will have to wail at the same time as the two. If you fail your timing, the two kids will have a >__> face. Get too much of this and you will fail the stage.

3. Robots! This stage is straightforward. Wait for the robot to be assembled, and just as it passes above your tube thingie, press the screen so the tube lowers and hits the robot in the middle of the head. Missing will cause the head to tilt, which is instant failure. Once the tube connects, wait for the paint to fill the robot up then pull back. You can approach this stage by either using the music or just waiting for the paint to reach the small square on top of its head, afterwhich you can just release for a quick perfect-timing operation. Tricky part is that the robots sometimes become big and fill up at a different rate. Nothing too hard.

4. Monkey clapping stage. This stage is awesome. You have to clap at the request of a singer singing a rather cute song. There are two patterns to memorize. One is the 4-clap pattern (first part of the training) and the 1-2-Cheer pattern (2nd part of the training). The 1-2-Cheer pattern is a bitch, I swear. Anyway, clap by tapping the screen and then cheer by sliding the stylus upwards quickly after holding it against the screen. As for which to perform, just pay attention to how the girl requests. I also think the pattern for which to clap at what part is fixed. If you can't tell, just memorize what the other monkeys are doing. If you fail in timing, the other two monkeys will give you the evil monkey stare.

5. Stage 5 is like a review. It will remix everything you've done for the first four stages. If you didn't cheat your way to this point, you can breeze through this stage in a single try.

As for the other stages, I'm still playing them so, yeah. Figure it out on your own. If you feel like you can contribute, drop me a message at my yahoo messenger. Full credits will be given.

Disclaimer:
I made this guide by analyzing the game from a complete gaijin's perspective. I know jackshit about Japanese so that's about as much as I can do.