Rhythm Tengoku/Unused

Development History
In 2002, the director and chief programmer Kazuyoshi Osawa was working on a propotype for a drumming game for the Game Boy Advance, where the player would press buttons to play the drums. This prototype would later be developed into the Drum Lesson in the final game.

In 2004, Tsunku♂ brought in a proposal and conception for what would eventually become Rhythm Tengoku. He was influenced by his dissatisfaction with "sound games" which involved pressing buttons at specific times but not actual rhythm "そうなんですよ. 音、関係ないんですよね. そんなふうに、当時は感じてまして、でも、まぁ、そんなことをね、いちいち、ぼくらが言ってもしゃあないというか、こういうもんなんやなということでそのときは終わってたんです. で、数年前になりますけど、任天堂さんから『ドンキーコンガ』というゲームが出て、ぼくの楽曲をたくさん使っていただいたこともあってサンプルを送っていただいたんですね. それで、家でそれをやってみたときに、「あれ？　ここはこうじゃないんじゃないかな」と. で、その夜に、最初の企画書みたいなものをバーッと書きはじめたんです. これはなんか伝えなあかん、という気がして. ゲームをつくってる人たちになにか伝えないと、ぼくにとっても、世間にとっても、「音ゲー」というものが曲がっていくような気がしたんです. で、書き上げたんですけど、それをどうするかというのははっきりとは決めてなかったんです. うちの社員たちに話したんですけど、「いや、ゲームつくるなんて無理ですよ」「何曲つくらなきゃいけないと思ってるんですか」みたいな反応ばっかりで、軽く説教されて（笑）. 当時、いくつか、つき合いのあるソフトメーカーさんはあったんです. 社員は、とりあえず、そこへ相談してみる、ということを考えていたみたいなんですけど、ぼくとしては、もう、「ダメもとでいいから、任天堂に送ってくれ」と. それは、なんていうかな、ソフトをつくる会社じゃなくて、「遊びそのもの」をつくる会社じゃないとダメだと思ったんです. それで企画書を任天堂さんに送って、それがそもそものきっかけですね. " (That's right. Sound has nothing to do with it. At the time, I felt that way, but I thought that there was nothing we could say about it, or that it was just the way things were. Then, a few years ago, Nintendo released a game called "Donkey Konga", and they used a lot of my music in it, so they sent me samples. When I tried it at home, I thought, "What? This isn't right". That night, I started writing my first proposal in a flash. I felt like I had to convey something to the people making the game. I felt that if I didn't communicate something to the people who were making the game, "sound games" would become a distorted concept, both for me and for the world at large. So I wrote it up, but I hadn't decided exactly what to do with it. I told my employees about it, but all they said was, "No, it's impossible to make a game," or "How many songs do you think you have to make?" At the time, there were several software makers with whom we had a relationship. The employees seemed to think that we should consult with them for the time being, but I said to them, "Just send it to Nintendo, even if it's a dead end." I thought it would have to be a company that creates "fun itself," not a company that creates software. So we sent the proposal to Nintendo, and that was the beginning.) ~ Tsunku♂, 社長が訊く『リズム天国ゴールド』 (Iwata Asks "Rhythm Tengoku Gold") . It was decided to have the team behind the WarioWare series develop the game . Tsunku♂ was deeply involved with the development of the game, as the developers thought that simply using his name alone would be meaningless. Despite worries that he wouldn't have the time to contribute due to being a very busy man, Tsunku♂ planned ahead and gave a variety of opinions on the music production and content of the game. The developers did not want to put him in the forefront, worrying that it would imply that his involvement with the game was merely that of supervisor. To avoid this, he appears in the game as Samurai Drummer. The charicature's eyebrows are shaped like Tsunku♂'s own because of this "つんく♂さんには、『リズム天国』のプロデューサーとして、本作に深く関わっていただいていますが、任天堂にとっても、つんく♂さんにとっても、ただ、お名前だけ拝借させていただくのでは意味がないだろうと考えていました. もちろん、つんく♂さんのお名前を使用させていただくのは、プラスになるのですが、場合によっては誤解を生んでしまう可能性もあります. かたちだけの監修ということではなく、ゲームの内容に、しっかりと関わっていただきたいと私たちは思っていました.  でも、お忙しい方ですから、どうだろうかと心配していたのですが、つんく♂さんは、はじめからそのつもりでいてくださったようで音楽制作はもちろん、内容についてもさまざまな意見を出してくださいました.  つんく♂さんは、頭が良くて、気さくで、なんといっても非常に真面目な方なんですよね. モノ作りに対しても、すごくストイックにいろいろとよく考えて行動される方なんです. せっかくしっかりと関わってくださったのですから、たんなる監修ソフトと誤解されないように、あえて、つんく♂さんのお名前を前面に出さなかったんです.  「つんく♂さんが『リズム天国の』開発に関わっている」ということを、一番いいカタチで、みなさんに知っていただくため、ゲーム内につんく♂さんを登場させるにしても、どのように登場させるかということに気を配りました.  そこでゲーム内では、つんく♂さんだとは言っていませんが、仮の姿である、「ドラム侍」として登場していただくことになったんです.  実際、つんく♂さんに「ドラム侍として登場していただいてもいいですか？」とうかがったところ快く、「いいですよ！」とおっしゃってくださいました. よーく、ドラム侍を見ていただければわかるのですが、眉毛のカタチをつんく♂さんに似せてあるんですよ. " (Tsunku♂-san is deeply involved in this work as the producer of "Rhythm Tengoku" but we thought it would be meaningless for both Nintendo and Tsunku♂-san if we just borrowed his name. Of course, using Tsunku♂-san's name is a plus, but in some cases, it may cause misunderstandings. We wanted him to be involved in the content of the game, rather than just supervising the shape of the game. But he is a busy man, so I was worried about how it would go, but Tsunku♂-san seemed to have had that in mind from the start and gave us a variety of opinions on the content as well as the music production. Tsunku♂-san is a smart, friendly and, above all, very serious person. He's very stoic and thinks things through when it comes to making things. Since he was so involved in the project, we dared not to put his name in the foreground, so that it wouldn't be misunderstood as just a software supervisor. In order to let everyone know in the best possible way that Tsunku♂ was involved in the development of "Rhythm Tengoku", we paid attention to how we wanted him to appear in the game. So in the game, we didn't say it was Tsunku♂, but we decided to have him appear as "Drum Samurai", which is a temporary form of Tsunku♂. In fact, when I asked Tsunku♂-san, "Is it okay if you appear as Drum Samurai?", he kindly said, "Yes!" If you look carefully at Drum Samurai, you'll notice that the shape of his eyebrows resembles that of Mr. Tsunku♂.) ~ Yoshio Sakamoto, ほぼ日刊イトイ新聞 - 樹の上の秘密基地. (Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun - A secret base on a tree.) . He still let the development team make any final decisions, and was responsible for writing a large amount of music used in the game.

To help train their rhythm, Tsunku♂ had asked the developers to take dance lessons. They started with stretching exercises, followed by various dance lessons that lasted about two hours. The music used during these lessons was repurposed for Remix 1, Remix 2, Remix 4 and Remix 7 in the final game.

While the developers were creating various games, they weren't initially sure how to put them together. Tsunku♂ had originally proposed the name Rhythm IQ (リズムのIQ), but the team didn't have a concrete idea of what to do. As the Nintendo DS released towards the end of 2004, the team worked on the game with the idea of a verison for it as well. At the time they could not create a pleasing rhythm game that took advantage of the touch screen, so they focused on the Game Boy Advance version instead.

In 2005, the game Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day! was released, and the developers tried basing the game selection on it, such as separating Rhythm Games by genre, and setting up a progression test. They decided this wouldn't be very fun, and after much discussion decided to use a similar style to the microgrames in WarioWare "『リズム天国』の開発が行われていた最中に、『東北大学未来科学技術共同研究センター　川島隆太教授監修　脳を鍛える 大人のDSトレーニング』が発売されたのですが、おかげさまで非常に多くのユーザーに受け入れられました. で、その頃の『リズム天国』といえば、いろんなリズムゲームが徐々に出来始めているときで、それらをどういう風にまとめるか？という事を気にしていたときでもありました. 実は、その１年くらい前の段階で、「リズムのIQ」というつんく♂さんからアウトプットされたキーワードでまとめていこう、というイメージがあったのですが、具体的には、まとまっていませんでした. そんなときに『脳トレ』がヒットしたことは、ちょっと、気になりました. 「脳」の次は「リズム」みたいな雰囲気をどこからともなく感じながら自分達なりのまとめ方を模索しました. 基礎編、応用編、トレーニングみたいなジャンルにリズムゲームを分けて、進級テストみたいなものを設ける方向は、どうか？・・・とかでも、実際それらを作ろうとしたら、例えば、トレーニングであれば、単調で退屈なことを長時間行うのが効果的っぽいが、それでは あまり楽しくなさそう・・・だとか、リズムゲームの楽しいテイストをそのまま生かして、いわゆる『メイド イン ワリオ』っぽく、まとめていくで、いいじゃないか？・・・とかいろいろ話し合った結果、“やっぱり楽しいものにしたい”ということで、今の形に落ち着きましたが、これはこれで、よかったなと思っています. " (While "Rhythm Tengoku" was being developed, "Brain Training: Adult DS Training supervised by Professor Ryuta Kawashima of Tohoku University's New Industry Creation Hatchery Center" was released, which was well received by many users. At that time, "Rhythm Tengoku" was in the midst of the development of various rhythm games, and we were concerned about how to put them all together. Actually, about a year before that, I had an image of putting them together with the keyword "Rhythm IQ", which was output by Tsunku♂, but I did not have a concrete idea of what I wanted to do. At that time, the fact that "Brain Training" became a hit was a bit, well, curious. We felt that "brain" was next to "rhythm," and we sought our own way to put it together. How about dividing the rhythm games into basic, application, and training genres, and setting up something like a progression test? But if we actually tried to make them, for example, in the case of training, it would be effective to do monotonous and boring things for a long time, but that would not be very fun...or we could just keep the fun flavor of the rhythm games and put them together in a so-called "Made in Wario" style. We discussed this and came to the conclusion that it would be a good idea to keep the fun flavor of the rhythm game. After much discussion, we decided that we wanted to make it fun, so we settled on the current form, which I am glad we did.) ~ Katsuya Yamano, ほぼ日刊イトイ新聞 - 樹の上の秘密基地. (Hobo Nikkan Itoi Shinbun - A secret base on a tree.) . Until the middle of development, the game was still titled R♂IQ (Rhythm IQ) (Ｒ♂ＩＱ（リズムアイキュー）), but as this name was considered too confusing, the staff gathered for a meeting to decide on the title. During the meeting, one staff member suggested Rhythm Tengoku (リズム天国), which everyone agreed upon. It was learned later that the staff member fumbled their words and didn't actually intend on suggesting the name "Rhythm Tengoku". They don't remember what their suggestion was going to be . The original title was later referenced in Ringside, where the TV station broadcasting the interview is known as "RIQ-TV" in most versions, or "KRIQ" in the English versions.

Over 20 different games were removed from the final game, most of which are only known by their titles, though some have leftover sound effects. There is one game that exists unused in a fully playable form in the final game, though it goes unnamed there. Before release, the game was playtested, and the developers found that people of all ages responded similarly to each Rhythm Game, though they were surprised to see that Kokuhaku Machine was the most popular game among young girls.

Towards the end of development at the beginning of 2006, the Nintendo DS became a huge hit, so the staff revisited the idea of a DS version of the game. However it would've taken a long time to port the work they had already made for the GBA version, and as the game contained previously unreleased songs, they decided not to delay the game and so it was released only on the Game Boy Advance on August 3, 2006, and was received well by players despite the trepidation of the developers.

Presumably in 2007, Sega approached Nintendo with an offer for an arcade version of the game, as it was popular among their development staff. The staff at Nintendo, who initially thought it was a joke, were impressed, as they never thought Rhythm Tengoku was able to gain a following. The original staff naturally oversaw the development of the new modes featured in this version. This port was released in July of 2007.