Widget

Widgets (組み立てキット^?, Kumitate Kitto) are recurring objects in the Rhythm Heaven Series. A widget is composed of a rod and one or two square nuts.

Story

Fun is the universal language.

While the title of this section is official, it comes from a non-English source.
If an official name from an English source is found, the section should be changed to its appropriate title.

While Widgets do not appear in Rhythm Tengoku, rods known as Akai Mono (赤いモノ^?, Red Objects) do appear in the Rhythm Game Polyrhythm. They are industry products whose details are kept a trade secret. They are considered hazardous because they explode when colliding with walls^[1]. In the game, the rods roll along two raised paths, and the player must press the corresponding button to raise the blocks when they reach a gap.

Widgets make their first actual appearance in Rhythm Heaven in Built to Scale, where they are portrayed as a white rod and nuts. The player must wait for the nuts to roll into place, then launch the rod into them to form the Widget. They later appear in Built to Scale 2, this time colored red. Workers are instructed to follow the rhythm while producing the Widgets, but they get paid the same regardless^[2].

The square mass-produced objects appear again in Rhythm Heaven Fever and Rhythm Heaven Megamix in Built to Scale, where the player must bounce around a rod while waiting for two nuts to come into place, after which the player must launch the rod into them to form the complete Widget. The company sometimes makes defective products, and a worker in product testing accidentally sold the bad parts to collectors for a lot of money^[3]. While these rods are never referred to as anything in-game, comments left in the internal data refer to them as "Akai Mono"^[4] like the rods in Polyrhythm.

Appearances

Akai Mono

Widgets

Gallery

Artwork from Rhythm Tengoku
Artwork from Rhythm Heaven
Sprite from Rhythm Heaven
Artwork from Rhythm Heaven Megamix

Trivia

Although Akai Mono and Widgets are presented as the "character" of the Rhythm Games they appear in, there are actual human characters depicted in the epilogues to each game. In Rhythm Tengoku, the factory is depicted, with what may be the owner standing outside. In Rhythm Heaven, a person is depicted inspecting the completed Widgets. In Rhythm Heaven Fever and Rhythm Heaven Megamix, the worker behind the building process is depicted standing outside the Widget Factory.

In Other Languages

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	赤いモノ	Red Objects

Language	Name	Meaning
Japanese	組み立てキット	Assembly Kit
English^NOA	Widget
English^NOE	Widget
French	Le bidule	The contraption
Spanish	Cachirulo	Cube
German	Herr Utensil	Mr. Utensil
Italian	Mr. Congegno	Mr. Device
Korean	조립 키트	Assembly Kit

References

↑ キャラクターアルバムステージ４ (Character Album Stage 4)
↑ "Slogan for March: Turns out you get paid the same whether you're on the beat or not." ~ Assembly Line Slogans, Rhythm Heaven
↑ "I work in product testing. My company doesn't make a lot of defective products, but when we do, I'm NOT supposed to sell the bad parts to collectors for a lot of money. Oops." ~ Defective Widget, Rhythm Heaven Megamix
↑ "赤いもの" (Akai Mono) ~ comment left in the file "rcad_assembly_parts_labels.h", Rhythm Heaven Fever

[1] キャラクターアルバムステージ４ (Character Album Stage 4)

[2] "Slogan for March: Turns out you get paid the same whether you're on the beat or not." ~ Assembly Line Slogans, Rhythm Heaven

[3] "I work in product testing. My company doesn't make a lot of defective products, but when we do, I'm NOT supposed to sell the bad parts to collectors for a lot of money. Oops." ~ Defective Widget, Rhythm Heaven Megamix

[4] "赤いもの" (Akai Mono) ~ comment left in the file "rcad_assembly_parts_labels.h", Rhythm Heaven Fever

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