Rhythm Tengoku (Game Boy Advance)

Rhythm Tengoku
Developers: Nintendo SPD Group No. 1, J.P Room Recordings Publisher: Nintendo Platform: Game Boy Advance Released in JP: August 3, 2006 This game has unused areas. This game has unused code. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused sounds. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article This game has a data page

Rhythm Tengoku is what happens when popular Japanese music producer/singer Tsunku♂ partners up with the team behind WarioWare - a weird but awesome rhythm game filled with all sorts of wacky characters (and lots of monkeys), which further resulted in the Rhythm Heaven series.

While exclusive to Japan, it actually requires little to no knowledge of Japanese to pick up and play, making it a good (and popular) import title, though a fan translation is available. It's also the last first-party GBA game, coming two years after the Nintendo DS' launch.

To do: Some of the unused graphics, like the flower pot in Spaceball, have OAM animations. We need someone to rip them. We don't have footage or images of where each debug menu option leads to. We could really use these! Sound effects from the scrapped rhythm games mentioned in an interview still exists. MF5K has some good videos on this game. As noted on the talk page, Marching Orders has some unused sound effects. Unused notification for the Rhythm Library. Investigate this unused practice thingy from Bouncy Road. Investigate this also. More stuff from this game might've been posted on the Rhythm Heaven Modding Discord.

Note: all offsets listed here are pertinent to the revision 0 (Rev. 0) rom unless specified otherwise. If you are playing a revision 1 (Rev. 1) copy, offsets mentioned may not be accurate.

Sub-Pages

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Data

Debug Menu Snippets from various parts of development.

Unused Audio Leftovers from scrapped Rhythm Games and more.

Unused Rhythm Games

Tanooki & Monkey

Please elaborate. Having more detail is always a good thing. Specifically: Explain what needs to be done to access this.

A screenshot from the Rhythm Game. Tanooki and Monkey are on the left, the monkey-like drummer is on the right.

An unused Rhythm Game where you control a monkey-like drummer, who's tasked to copy the patterns that are played by Monkey and Tanooki. The game controls the same as the Drum Lessons from the final game, but only A, Right, and Down are used on the patterns. The player is given three attempts at completion for each pattern. Upon completing the game, the player is taken to the Rhythm Test result screen. Upon losing the game, however, the player is taken to the Ratings Screen. It doesn't go much farther than that, though, as the game crashes shortly after.

Tanooki & Monkey also has text to go along with it!

...But does it make sense? The translations on this page need to be proofread. If you are fluent enough in this language, please make any corrections necessary!

Japanese	Translation
こんにちわ！	Hello!
サルとポン太です。 ドラム侍さんのご紹介で あそびに来ました。	We're Saru and Ponta. We've come here to play on the Drum Samurai's introduction.
今回は　ボクたちが レッスンしますネ！	This time, we're giving the lessons!
さっそくですが、 Ａボタンの練習です。	Now, without further ado, let's practice hitting that A button.
よく　きいて マネしてネ！	Listen well and repeat!
ポン太くんも入ります。 ポン太くんの音は 十字キーの下で鳴ります。	Ponta will join in too. Ponta's sound is playing by pressing "down" on the D-pad.
次は、速いやつです。 Ａボタンと十字キーの右を 交互に押すとラクだヨ。	Next is a fast part. It's easier if you alternate pressing "A" and "right" on the D-pad.
練習は　次で最後です。	This is the last stage of practice.
むずかしいかな？ がんばってネ！	Seem tough? Good luck!
それでは、ボクたちと リズムバトルを してみましょう！	All right, come on, let's have a rhythm battle!
各パターンにつき ３回　チャンスが あります。	You get 3 chances for each pattern.
さて、どこまで ついてこれるかな？	I wonder how long you can keep up?
じゃ、とりあえず シンプルなやつネ。	Okay, let's start out simple for now.
オッケーです。 つぎ　いってみよう！ できるかな？	Okay! On to the next one! Think you can handle it?
やりますね。 つぎのパターンは ポン太くんも叩くヨ！	Good work. For the next pattern, Ponta will play too!
おぉ、すごい！ つぎのは　ちょっと テクニカルだヨ！	Wow, great! The next one's a little more technical!
くっ、てごわい！！ こうなったら とっておきのやつだ！	Heh, you're pretty good! Looks like it's time for our trump card!

If the player wins:

Japanese	Translation
まいりました！ あなたの勝ちです！！	We lose! You win!
また、あそんでネ！	Come play with us again sometime!

If the player fails a pattern:

Attempts Left	Japanese	Translation
2	やりなおし！ チャンスはあと2回。 がんばって！	Try Again! You get two more tries. Good luck!
1	やりなおし！ ラストチャンス！ 集中！！	Try again! This is your last chance! Concentrate!

If the player loses:

Japanese	Translation
ブブー！！ ゲームオーバーです！ ボクたちの勝ちでーす！	Boo! Game over! Looks like we win!
また挑戦してネ！	Take us on again sometime!

Metronome

...But does it make sense? The translations on this page need to be proofread. If you are fluent enough in this language, please make any corrections necessary!

An unused Rhythm Test that can be found in the game's Debug Menu. The game is very similar to the Endless Game Mr. Upbeat (and uses the same tileset), and the player must press A in time with the needle passing the bird at the top of the screen. The counter at the top right then starts counting down from 30, and the player continues to press A until the counter runs out. Once the counter reaches 0, the player is taken to the Rhythm Test results screen and is shown their score, which will be different based on how many successful hits the player got in the game.

Metronome was likely an early incarnation of Mr. Upbeat, as the two games play almost identically, with the only major gameplay difference being that Mr. Upbeat is endless. Interestingly, however, Metronome has a different set of text from Mr. Upbeat:

Japanese	Translation
音にあわせて、Aボタンを押しましょう。	Press the A button in time with the sound.
計測中	Measuring...
計測おわり! さて、結果は…	Measuring finished! Okay, your rhythm is...

The minigame also uses a slight variation of the beeping sounds that play during the Rhythm Test. The sounds are mostly the same, but the 3 beeps before the end, as well as the ending chime, are a slightly different pitch. The bird sound effect is unique to this unused Rhythm Test, however.

There are also multiple unused sprites found in Metronome's spritesheet. The first appears to be a scale, with the left side saying "slow" and the right saying "fast". This was likely meant for an accuracy meter, with each bar lighting up to measure how on-beat the player's rhythm was. The other two are pictures of a person's face, with Japanese text written beside him. The first picture says "fast", and the second picture says "slow." Strangely, there also exists copies of the face, but flipped horizontally.

Rhythm Games

Karate Man

Unused Background

These are background graphics that go unused in the first Karate Man rhythm game. They can be activated if 0x089CFF05 is changed to 0x01 in a memory viewer.

• 

  This (non-karate) man appears when you get an input right...

• 

  ...while this other man appears when you either get an Early / Late on an input, or when you hit a rock when you don't have enough flow (you can tell how much flow you have with the hearts that appear in the normal game).

• 

  This last man appears if you might have missed an input.

Marching Orders

Unused Sound Effects

There are ten unused sound effects of the Sarge with a different voice.

Unused Sprites

To do: Add the unused clap sprites/animations if possible

There are unused pointing sprites for Marching Orders, as well as the variant of the minigame that appears in Remix 7 and 8.

This sprite is visible in-game, but is mostly obscured by the helmet sprite. For whatever reason, the entire head is made up of more than one sprite.

Spaceball

Unused Sprites

A flowerpot with a face, an apple, and a star all go unused. The apple was most likely replaced with the rice ball, and the star is a graphical replacement for the baseball since it can be activated by changing the baseball GFX.

Unused Variants

Please elaborate. Having more detail is always a good thing. Specifically: How does one go about accessing this? Is this a test or what?

There are two unused variants of Spaceball present in the game's file. Both variants use the second minigame selection track.

Unused Cues

There are two completely unused cues within Spaceball, one with a ball that is hit after 0.5 beats with no sounds, and one with a ball hit after 1.5 beats with the same sounds as the standard high ball.

Remix 1

Located on page 8 of the Debug Menu, labeled as ダンスレッスン1 (Dance Lesson 1), is an early version of Remix 1! This version of Remix 1 is a minute longer than the final, using unused portions of Remix 1's music (with a few parts of it being reused in Remix 7). The most interesting thing to note is that Rhythm Tweezers is absent in this version and has been replaced by Tap Trial! This implies that it was either originally in Stage 1 but was then moved to Stage 5 later in development.

It's named "Dance Lesson 1" after the dance lessons the development team had to take during the game's development, as recommended by Tsunku♂.

(Source: https://www.1101.com/nintendo/rythm_heaven2/06.html)

The★Bon Odori

Sprite of the girl on top of the tower without her red jacket or hands. While this sprite is in the final game, the jacket and railing of the tower cover up most of her torso. Her legs are completely obscured in-game

Sick Beats

The graphics function that controls the virus palettes has some unused values that change the viruses into other visible palettes.

There also exists unused hit counters, most of which turn the viruses invincible, but one makes the virus require 4 hits to be cleared.

Bunny Hop

There are two unused sprites for the A button and D-Pad within the Bunny Hop sprite sheets. The game might have been planned to have the A button and D-Pad interchangeably, similar to Rhythm Tweezers.

Space Dance

Unused English text is present in this game's tileset. The text can spell out any number of words, including "down", "punch", and "right". Japanese words are displayed during the tutorial in-game, and they mean essentially the same thing as these unused English text. For example, "パンチ" means "punch."

Night Walk

To do: As seen in the arcade port page, there are also some unused sprites of Play-Yan, including one where he crouches, like in the Play-Yan minigame JUMP. Rip those sprites.

A crab and a duck, which both go unused. These might have been a reference to the Play-Yan for the Game Boy Micro.

An unused sound for Play-Yan screaming. This could have been used when Play-Yan fell off of the stairs after the steps disappeared. It doesn't appear in its sequel either, suggesting it was cut before either one was finished.

Polyrhythm

An unused arrow graphic. It is not known what this would have been used for.

Toss Boys

Located within Toss Boys' soundbank are some unused SFX. With new SFX, comes new combos. These include:

• Aka-chan throwing the ball to Ao-kun

• Aka-chan passing the ball to Ao-kun fast

• Aka-chan throwing the ball to Kii-yan

• Aka-chan passing the ball to Kii-yan fast

• Aka-chan bouncing the ball

• Aka-chan popping the ball

• Ao-kun passing the ball to Aka-chan fast

• Ao-kun popping the ball

• Kii-yan throwing the ball to Aka-chan

• Kii-yan passing the ball to Aka-chan fast

• Kii-yan throwing the ball to Ao-kun

• Kii-yan passing the ball to Ao-kun fast

Fireworks

There are two unused sprites in Fireworks,

The string is slightly different on this bomb, the final version uses a more curvy string design.

This is the last frame of the explosion, for some reason this was never added in, probably by mistake.

Tap Trial

There are a few unused sprites meant to replace the giraffe for the different versions of Tap Trial, but only the original giraffe ever appears in the final game. Remix 7 would've utilized the dragon, and Tap Trial 2 might have, at one point, used the camel.

The versions of Tap Trial in Remix 5, Remix 7, and Remix 8 also have finished sprites for jump taps and triple taps, which are not used in the final game. The girl that is used in the Remix 7 version winks if you do a jump tap correctly. These sprites can be seen by editing the memory values at memory address 0x089D1CA1 in a hex editor, then opening the minigame Tap Trial. Changing it to 0x01 shows the Remix 8 version, 0x02 shows the Remix 7 version, and 0x04 shows the Remix 5 version.

• 

  Remix 7 jump tap sprite. Note the wink.

• 

  Remix 7 triple tap sprite.

• 

  Remix 7 jump tap sprite.

• 

  Remix 7 triple tap sprite.

• 

  Remix 8 jump tap sprite. The girl does a special pose.

• 

  Remix 8 triple tap sprite.

• 

  Remix 8 jump tap sprite. Resembles Tap Trial's regular sprite.

• 

  Remix 8 triple tap sprite. Also resembles Tap Trial's regular sprite.

• 

  Remix 5 jump tap sprite.

• 

  Remix 5 triple tap sprite.

• 

  Remix 5 jump tap sprite.

• 

  Remix 5 triple tap sprite.

Rap Women

This unused variant of Rap Women can be found on Page 6 of the Debug Menu, labeled as ラップウィメン(by KAZU), with the other option, labelled as "by YONE", being the version used in-game. This version is likely named after Kazuyoshi Osawa, the Chief Director of Rhythm Tengoku; similarly to how the used "YONE" version is named after Masami Yone, who was the game's Sound Director.

The audio cues in this version are placed differently than that of the used version, most of which being on offbeats. It was likely changed to make the song flow better with the lines from the characters, however this has yet to be proven true.

Ratings Screen

Unused Graphics

Early versions of the OK and Try Again graphics.

This directly translates to "Norikan Check", with "Norikan" being the Japanese term for "Flow". This appears over the white oval with text that serves as the caption on the rating screen after completing certain unused games in the debug menu.

Rhythm Test

Unused Graphics

To do: There are unused, earlier versions of the Rhythm Test present that are still accessible via the Debug Menu, document them.

Sprites of a cowbell are present within the Rhythm Test's graphics, it might have once been intended to be used for a timer's ending tone.

Game Select

To do: There are even earlier graphics for the Game Select in the graphics bank.

Graphics from an earlier version of the Game Select screen. "Rhythm IQ" was a working title for this game.

Café

Unused Graphics

An unused graphic of a dog found in the Café's tileset. It could be an early version of the Barista, however the Barista was never shown in the final game.

Rhythm Toys

Meow Mixer

To do: Technical stuff.

These graphics go unused in Meow Mixer normally, they show different Japanese characters.

Japanese	Translation
耳はスピーカー ボタンはOBJにします	Ears are speakers Make button into OBJ

Rap Machine

Hidden in the background layer for this game is an early version of the "controller".

Unused Text

Japanese	Translation
なっとくの　せいかくさ	Great Accuracy
レッスン（じっせん８）	Lesson (Experiment 8)
リズムお習字 ２	Power Calligraphy 2

Some text that isn't used in-game. The first string uses similar phrasing to the results screen from the unused Rhythm Test, but it doesn't use Kanji characters, unlike the other text. There would have been an eighth Drum Lesson experiment, and Power Calligraphy doesn't have a sequel version in the final game, so these are unused. The second text string can be seen in the Debug Menu, and the third text string can be seen in the unused Gameplay History, also featured in the Debug Menu.

Live

Drum Girls LIVE!

In the Debug Menu, there is an unused version of Drum Girls, where they play the song Bunny Hop. This version is the only time that a Drum Girls minigame is seen to use this sprite, which appears at the bottom of the screen during small segments of the song without any music:

It is also the only known minigame in Rhythm Tengoku to utilize an earlier version of the Ratings Screen without crashing the game. There are other minigames in the Debug Menu that seem to try to use this same screen, but they result in a crash.