Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure for Nintendo 3DS Reviews by Gamers

Rhythm Thief delighted me as much as any game lately, with gameplay that is generally challenging and fair as well as varied, an overall strong score, and a healthy dose of whatever is the gaming equivalent of charisma.

The game has its flaws. Some of the rhythm games will take practice just to figure out how to use the controls or what timing you are aiming for; the targets are not all as clear as in other rhythm games I've seen. The story leaves way too much unresolved. It took me about 10 hours to beat the game and improve some of my scores, but if you cared only about passing through you'd probably find this way too short and way too easy. Walking around town and solving minor puzzles could easily be considered wasteful filler. Perhaps the biggest problem for completionists- a rating of A on each song is required to unlock the last song. As hard as that can be to begin with (and some motion-controlled games really don't help), there's another catch. The game only obviously saves your highest score, which is calculated differently from your grade. If you get a high score but not an A to go with it, you could have a hard time bettering it to save your A. Maybe your As count even if they're not saved in the final list. I didn't want to try to ace all the games and find out otherwise.

The list of flaws looks long, but most are ultimately minor or are easy to overlook in view of the original and exciting gameplay on offer. This is my favorite rhythm game I've played, I'd recommend it to fans of the genre as well as to sidescroller fans as the two genres secretly have similar qualities. I'm hoping there will be a sequel. I also have visions of a "we steal cuz we can" crossover between Phantom R, Sly Cooper, and Carmen Sandiego. They can be investigated by Professor Layton and Phoenix Wright after they complete their own, real crossover. But now I'm just getting silly.

Have fun!