Timing Display

"If you're curious, you can look at the Touch Screen... to see how you did on your timing. Use that to practice."

- Introduction

The Timing Display (タイミング表示), also called the input-timing display (入力タイミング表示), is a feature introduced in Rhythm Heaven Megamix meant to help the player practice their timing. It displays the player's accuracy using a set of stars as a visualization on the Touch Screen. It can be turned on or off from the Settings (せってい) at the Café.

Timing Names
During the explanation in the Introduction, the words (from left to right) Early! (はやい), Perfect! (ジャスト) and Late! (おそい) are used to describe the timing. The Challenge Train uses Ace! (ジャスト！) to indicate a perfect input, and Miss (ミス…) for when the player goes too early, too late, or misses completely. Being a little early or a little late is not indicated. Internally throughout the series, the names just (ジャスト)/success (成功), miss (ミス) and through (スルー) can also be found.

Each step gives a different amount of points, where getting "Perfect!"/"Ace!" on every single input would result in a 100 score, which although incredibly difficult, is not impossible.

For the purposes of the, the following is used to describe the timing on Rhythm Game articles:

Missing during a Perfect Campaign will end the run, forcing the player to restart for another try. Missing in a game with a lives counter (as in certain Endless Games or during a Lives Goal in Challenge Land) reduces the amount of lives by one.

Skill Star
The Skill Star (キメ星) is a collectable in Rhythm Heaven Megamix, serving as an optional challenge for the player. Obtaining a Skill Star requires getting a "Perfect!" input during a crucial moment in a Rhythm Game. Doing an early or late ace input or missing entirely during the run up to the Skill Star will cancel it, meaning the player will need to restart to try again. Getting all Skill Stars is commemorated with a Badge.

Although most Skill Stars are given for a perfect input during a certain part of the game, due to Quiz Show's unique gameplay, its Skill Star is awarded for having "great flow with the rhythm", which is when the contestant follows the host's pattern and scores 90 points or more. Additionally, the Introduction gives the player a go at collecting a Skill Star, but it doesn't count towards anything.

Skill Stars don't appear during the Perfect Campaign nor while riding the Challenge Train.

Bonuses
When the player completes a Rhythm Game and sees the Results in Rhythm Heaven Megamix, they can get a Skill Star bonus and a No Miss bonus through self-explanatory means. These bonuses give the player more coins.

If the Skill Star is collected for the first time, it is acknowledged with the message First Skill Star!

Trivia

 * A similar display appears in Drum Lesson in Rhythm Tengoku known as the "Timing Lamp", which uses five colored lights to indicate how accurate the player's timing is.
 * During the 2 Player games in the arcade version of Rhythm Tengoku, the word "Miss" appears to make it clearer which of the two players is mistiming.
 * In Rhythm Heaven only, the games Shoot-'Em-Up, Frog Hop, and Lockstep (as well as their arrange versions and in Remixes) do not end a Perfect Campaign if the player goes too early or too late, but it does negatively affect the rating all the same. These exceptions, along with Rhythm Heaven not explicitely defining how timing works, led to a popular misconception that early/late mistimed inputs are counted as a successful input, despite that they are misses by definition.
 * Although the timings can be applied to the Rhythm Games in all installments of the Rhythm Heaven Series, this display only appears in Rhythm Heaven Megamix.