Nintendo opened the June 9th Direct with Rhythm Heaven Groove, and if you have been a fan of this series for any length of time, that choice of opener said everything. Not a new Mario. Not a Zelda update. Rhythm Heaven. Nintendo's most endearingly weird series, the one that never quite found mainstream footing but somehow never lost its audience either, is back on July 2nd. It has been a long time coming, and the story of how we got here in the first place is more interesting than the announcement itself might suggest.
Rhythm Heaven Groove is the fifth entry in a series that started on the Game Boy Advance in Japan back in 2006, and the first new game since Rhythm Heaven Megamix on 3DS in 2015. For the last all-new entry in the series, you have to go back even further – Rhythm Heaven Fever on Wii came out in 2011. Fifteen years since something truly new, depending on how you count. The series has lived in that gap as a cult favorite, passed around between fans, recommended quietly to people who seemed like they might get it. A kind of open secret about how...
