Blue Birds

"The captain might seem a little intense. He'll get mad if you mess up, but just let it roll off you like water off a duck's back."

- Blue Birds Description (Rhythm Heaven)

"The captain is a little intense. He'll get mad if you mess up, but just let it roll like water off a duck's back."

- Blue Birds Description (Rhythm Heaven Megamix)

Blue Birds (ブルーバーズ burūbāzu) is the 8th rhythm game in Rhythm Heaven and the 24th game in Rhythm Heaven Megamix. In this game, the player controls a member of the Blue Birds, following orders from Captain Blue Bird, a duck. A sequel is later unlocked in Rhythm Heaven called Blue Birds 2.

Gameplay
The objective of this game is to remain in sync with the other two birds when Captain Blue Bird says "peck your beak" or "stretch out your neck!" React just in time to make the rightmost blue bird peck his beak to the ground together with the other two blue birds. Hold down to make him hold his beak to the ground, and then flick the stylus/release the A button/the tap to stretch up his neck along with the other two. When Captain Blue Bird slides out of the player's view, flashbacks can be seen above the blue birds, showing the three members undergoing training, among other things.

Rhythm Heaven

 * Tap: Peck
 * Hold stylus and flick: Stretch neck

Button Mode

 * A button: Peck
 * Hold A button and release: Stretch neck

Simple Tap Mode

 * Tap: Peck
 * Hold and release stylus: Stretch neck

Timing Notes

 * Hit: The Captain looks pleased. On the neck stretches, the Captain blushes.
 * Barely: The blue bird stretches his neck too early or late and will cramp his neck. A "boink" sound can be heard when the player doesn't peck in time. A barely counts as a miss.
 * Miss: The Captain gets angry and angrily huffs.

Header

 * "The captain says..."

Try Again

 * "Where's your team spirit?"
 * "That last part didn't look too good."

OK

 * "Hm..."
 * "I don't know."
 * "Good enough..."
 * "I guess that was all right."

Superb

 * "Nice pecking, waaugh!"
 * "Those last three were good."

Header

 * "The Captain Barks"

Try Again

 * "Where's your team spirit?"
 * "Your stretching was a bit of a reach."

OK

 * "Eh. Passable."

Superb

 * "Nice pecking, waaugh!"
 * "Nice stretching, rookie!"

Skill Star
At the very end of the game, the player has to hold the A button or stylus after Captain Blue Bird says "stretch out your neck!" and release it at the right moment to collect the star.

Trivia

 * Missing any of the last three "Stretch out your neck!" cues will cost the player the Superb.
 * Missing all three of them will give the player a Try Again.
 * This game has "Fin." in Rhythm Heaven Megamix instead of "To be continued." like in Rhythm Heaven at the end of the game because the sequel does not appear in Rhythm Heaven Megamix.
 * Ironically in Samurai Slice, it still says "To be continued..." despite its sequel not appearing either.
 * Blue Birds is one of the only two games whose songs are imported to Super Smash Bros. For Nintendo 3DS/Wii U in the Miiverse stage, the other being Monkey Watch from Rhythm Heaven Fever.
 * The miss animation for when the Blue Bird stretches his neck too late or early was redrawn for the international versions for unknown reasons. All versions of Rhythm Heaven Megamix use the original Japanese animation.
 * This was also done for Remix 2 and its sequel.
 * While the captain has a yellow music note in Heaven, it was removed in Megamix for unknown reasons. However, the sprite is still in the game files.