Rhythm Heaven Groove Gets Nintendo Tokyo Merch and Nintendo Music Tracks
Nintendo has marked the worldwide launch of Rhythm Heaven Groove with two fresh ways for fans to celebrate: a themed merchandise line hitting Nintendo’s Japanese flagship stores and a batch of soundtrack songs streaming free on the Nintendo Music app. The pushes landed alongside the game’s July 2 release on Nintendo Switch, giving both Japanese shoppers and the wider global fanbase something tangible to dig into on day one.
Nintendo Tokyo’s Eight-Item Rhythm Heaven Groove Collection
A new line of Rhythm Heaven merchandise went on sale for fans in Japan, with the Nintendo Tokyo store listing eight new items based on the music-themed franchise, including apparel, bags, keychains, and coasters. The range is mainly based on the series in general, though characters from Groove pop up too — the Clappy Trio is referenced in a keychain, Rhythm Tweezers’ onion appears as a coin purse attached to a keychain, and the new Hoop Trundling characters show up as an acrylic keychain.
Pricing runs from pocket change to a proper splurge. The lineup, as tallied by Siliconera’s rundown of the storefront, spans The Clappy Trio Castanet Keychain for 1,540 yen, Flake Stickers for 660 yen, Hoop Trundling Acrylic Keychain for 1,760 yen, a single Record-Shaped Coaster for 660 yen, a full box of Record-Shaped Coasters for 5,280 yen, a Rhythm Tweezers pouch for 3,080 yen, a T-shirt with Silicone Band for 5,280 yen, and a reversible Tote Bag for 4,950 yen, or roughly $4 to $33 in converted terms. Those goods are only at Nintendo Tokyo according to the official site, and it is unknown if they’ll show up in US storefronts eventually.
Seven Songs, 15 Minutes: The Nintendo Music “Special Release”
To celebrate Rhythm Heaven Groove’s launch, the Nintendo Music app was updated with a “special release” that adds seven tracks from the new game with a run time of 15 minutes. The addition coincided directly with the day of the game’s Switch release. The setlist covers title-screen music and a handful of the new minigames’ signature cues, giving subscribers a free taste of composer Tsunku♂’s score without needing to own the game itself.
This isn’t the first time Nintendo has used its music app to hype a launch. Nintendo has previously updated its music app with “special releases” based on Star Fox, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Kirby Air Riders. Whether the rest of the Rhythm Heaven Groove soundtrack eventually joins the app remains an open question, with My Nintendo News noting it’s unclear if and when Nintendo will expand the selection.
A Fifth Rhythm Heaven Entry, Eleven Years Off the Beat
The promotional push lands at a genuinely notable moment for the series. Rhythm Heaven Groove is the fifth mainline installment, following Rhythm Heaven Megamix on 3DS back in 2015, and it’s the franchise’s first all-new entry in roughly a decade and a half. The game packs over 80 single-player rhythm minigames plus more than 30 multiplayer variations, alongside a new RPG-flavoured “Beatspell” mode where players cast spells in time with the beat rather than simply pressing buttons on cue.
Rhythm Heaven Groove is priced at $39.99 in the US, a figure that sits well below Nintendo’s standard first-party tier of $59.99 to $79.99. The budget pricing has fed speculation around the title’s place in Nintendo’s release calendar: multiple outlets, per Wikipedia’s compiled reporting, have floated Rhythm Heaven Groove as the last Nintendo-developed game built specifically for the original Switch before the platform’s software focus shifts fully to Switch 2, though it remains fully playable there via backward compatibility.
Budget Pricing Down Under, No Merch Confirmed Yet
For Kiwi and Australian players, the rollout has a distinctly local flavour of its own. New Zealand and Australian outlet Vooks framed the arrival of a new Rhythm Paradise game as bittersweet, noting it might be one of the last Nintendo Switch games Nintendo puts out and is currently the last announced Nintendo game for the console. Vooks also confirmed the game landed as a budget title locally, with Big W having already sold through its stock and Officeworks matching Target’s pricing shortly after launch.
The Nintendo Tokyo merch wave, however, carries no confirmation of a regional rollout for ANZ shoppers any more than it does for North America. Fans locally keen on the castanet keychain or the onion-shaped Rhythm Tweezers pouch will, for now, need to rely on import sellers or wait for word from Nintendo’s regional storefronts. The free Nintendo Music tracks, by contrast, are already accessible to any Switch Online member in New Zealand or Australia who wants to sample the soundtrack before deciding whether to pick up the full game or its free eShop demo.
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