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
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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. The assembly line has a variety of slogans for every month which instruct the workers to follow the rhythm while producing the widgets, but some workers have later found that even following the beat can lead to production suffering, and realising that following it doesn't matter much as 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 the nuts to form the complete widget. While these rods are never referred to as anything in-game, comments left in the internal data refer to them as Akai Mono (赤いもの?, Red Objects)[3] like the rods in Polyrhythm. Like before, this assembly line has a new slogan for each month, each one encouraging the workers to keep in time and generally be productive. A keyword in each slogan is highlighted in red[4], with one worker at the factory giving the police a tip: "It's July through November", and sending them a document with the slogans[5]. Entering these keywords in Police Call provides the police with a tip about a code word being hidden in one of the Endless Games. The company sometimes makes defective products, and a worker in product testing accidentally sold the bad parts to collectors for a lot of money[6].
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 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 |
 EnglishNOA |
Widget | |
 EnglishNOE |
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)
- ↑ Assembly Line Slogans, Rhythm Heaven
- ↑ "赤いもの" (Akai Mono) ~ comment left in the file "rcad_assembly_parts_labels.h", Rhythm Heaven Fever
- ↑ Assembly-Line Slogans, Rhythm Heaven Fever
- ↑ Investigation Notes, Rhythm Heaven Fever
- ↑ "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