Submission Text Full Submission Page
Overview:
Rhythm Heaven for the DS is a collection of rhythm minigames developed and published by Nintendo. Depending on how well you did on each minigame, you will be graded with a Superb, OK, or Try Again. Resulting in an OK or higher is the passing rating to move on to the next minigame.
Each minigame keeps track of 1-5 types of input. For every type of input, if you successfully hit enough inputs and do not miss too many, then you will be good enough to pass the minigame. Each minigame not only keeps track of how many inputs you've successfully hit or miss, but also the total number of available inputs. This means that any unavailable inputs will not be counted into your overall rating. Each minigame has their own set of strategies to register as few inputs as possible in order to save as many taps as possible.
Objectives:
- Complete every minigame (including the credits game Airborder)
- Aim for as few taps as possible
- Get the lowest possible OK rating on every minigame
- Have an understanding on how the rating system works
- Manipulate RNG by pausing the minigame
Rules:
What’s considered a single “tap” is when you press and hold the Touch Screen and follow up with either a release or a swipe
Pausing and unpausing the minigame with the Start button does NOT count as a “tap” (due to admittedly unoptimized pause strats)
Pressing the L/R button also counts as a “tap” for the one minigame, Rockers 2, that requires it
Score:
26 - Built to Scale
12 - Glee Club
8 - Fillbots
22 - Fan Club
20 - Remix 1
47 - Rhythm Rally
90 - Shoot-’Em-Up
32 - Blue Birds
18 - Moai Doo-Wop
31 - Remix 2
1 - Love Lizards
46 - Crop Stomp
25 - Freeze Frame
19 - The Dazzles
30 - Remix 3
57 - Munchy Monk
13 - DJ School
72 - Drummer Duel
33 - Love Lab
47 - Remix 4
12 - Splashdown
25 - Big Rock Finish
45 - Dog Ninja
249 - Frog Hop
56 - Remix 5
88 - Space Soccer
155 - Lockstep
25 - Rockers
105 - Karate Man
128 - Remix 6
37 - Built to Scale 2
19 - The Dazzles 2
314 - Frog Hop 2
83 - Fan Club 2
79 - Remix 7
88 - Rhythm Rally 2
25 - Fillbots 2
113 - Blue Birds 2
155 - Lockstep 2
113 - Remix 8
45 - Moai Doo-Wop 2
122 - Karate Man 2
19 - Glee Club 2
111 - Space Soccer 2
57 - Remix 9
98 - Shoot-’Em-Up 2
17 - Splashdown 2
117 - Munchy Monk 2
35 - Rockers 2
113 - Remix 10
16 - Airborder

ViGadeomes: Claiming for judging.
ViGadeomes: This is an interesting movie for sure.
The submission has been made on a bad dump but the movie syncs on a good dump so it's not really a problem. Spiking one frame at the end.
Now the Goal: the taps is reduced at its minimum in each stage on top of that, the ones used makes it the lowest ranking that you can get (it is for entertainment purpose but it's still a fact)
The game is a rythm game, the only available definition of a full completion for most rythm games is maximum score, so the lowest score could then be considered the only low% completion definition. In this game, I think what fits the best the definition of low% is the lowest "good" ranking in each stages, which this movie does with its minimum taps goal.
Tanks to adelikat for their Sync verification.
Accepting as a low% branch.
Spikestuff: Publishing. Some Battle Agents need to join in on this action.


TASVideoAgent
They/Them
Moderator
Joined: 8/3/2004
Posts: 15629
Location: 127.0.0.1
This topic is for the purpose of discussing #9156: yamalpaca0412's DS Rhythm Heaven "minimum taps" in 1:45:38.71
Joined: 6/7/2008
Posts: 124
Location: Portugal
It's difficult to make a worthwhile TAS of a rhythm game, but this challenge is fairly well-suited for a TAS! The scoring system behind the DS game has always been shrouded in myths and misconceptions, so it's interesting to see exactly how the game can be contorted when one knows exactly how it works. From my understanding you didn't need to do any "early/late"s, but you also chose to go for the lowest possible score, right? Was it to save time? This way there are no scoring comments at the end of each stage, and Superbs are bad because they create Perfect opportunities later on which slow down the menuing. Or did you just do it for entertainment? I gotta say it's downright hilarious seeing stuff like Crop Stomp being accepted with 0 crops collected. Or is there a technical reason with the scoring that I didn't catch? This is something I feel should be elaborated in the submission details. What is the purpose of the RNG manipulation? I only ever knew this game as being random in one spot, which is the order of the ditties in Big Rock Finish. Is the "invulnerability period" you get after a miss random?
I'm Espyo from the SRB2 Forums. Current project: A Pikmin fan engine, Pikifen
Player (21)
Joined: 7/2/2024
Posts: 1
Espyo wrote:
It's difficult to make a worthwhile TAS of a rhythm game, but this challenge is fairly well-suited for a TAS! The scoring system behind the DS game has always been shrouded in myths and misconceptions, so it's interesting to see exactly how the game can be contorted when one knows exactly how it works. From my understanding you didn't need to do any "early/late"s, but you also chose to go for the lowest possible score, right? Was it to save time? This way there are no scoring comments at the end of each stage, and Superbs are bad because they create Perfect opportunities later on which slow down the menuing. Or did you just do it for entertainment? I gotta say it's downright hilarious seeing stuff like Crop Stomp being accepted with 0 crops collected. Or is there a technical reason with the scoring that I didn't catch? This is something I feel should be elaborated in the submission details. What is the purpose of the RNG manipulation? I only ever knew this game as being random in one spot, which is the order of the ditties in Big Rock Finish. Is the "invulnerability period" you get after a miss random?
Achieving the bare minimum rating in each minigame is purely for entertainment purposes. Calculating the minimum # of taps is still the top priority. I didn't even realize about the Perfect Champaign feature until halfway through development. The RNG in Big Rock Finish does not need to be manipulated, since it only determines the order of each section. What does need to be manipulated is the "invulnerability period", or "cooldown" as I would call it. The cooldown always starts with a set # depending on the leniency of the minigame. However, the subtrahend is RNG dependent for every frame. This basically means that by manipulating this RNG (by pausing and unpausing the minigame), the cooldown can last longer by about two frames; which, under the right circumstances, can save an extra tap.