Austin Jew

“Rhythm Doctor’s” current release version. The game’s highlights include the story mode, custom levels and the OST on YouTube.

“Rhythm Doctor” is an immersive experience in which the player’s role is to use the rhythm defibrillator system to regulate irregular heartbeats at Middlesea Hospital. 

7th Beat Games created the original Flash game in 2011. It was completely redeveloped and released to “Early Access” on Feb. 26, 2021 for $15.99 on Steam and $14.00 on itch.io. 

Despite almost four years of development since the “Early Access” release, new updates are constantly released with the latest update on Sept. 15, 2024. 

Gameplay

At its most basic form, the gameplay involves “slamming” the space bar on the seventh beat. 

Since the Flash demo, the game was created to be simplistic, eventually expanding on the mechanics and focusing on the rhythm section rather than other aspects. This way, it doesn’t include complicated inputs such as multiple notes to step on like in “Dance Dance Revolution” or the need to press on a mock instrument like “Guitar Hero” or “Taiko no Tatsujin.”

Sage Creek Senior and music student Hunter Trinh attempted to play “Rhythm Doctor” and expressed his first thoughts on the game.

“Rhythm Doctor to me was not as bad as I thought it would be,” Trinh said. “I thought it would be like those rhythm games such as ‘Osu!’ where you have to move your mouse at insane speeds but this game really only takes one finger.”

The idea of listening purely to the audio cues is inspired by Nintendo’s “Rhythm Heaven” franchise, but it takes this idea further. Players can play without looking at the screen because of its simplistic features. 

Because of this, the game loves to mess with the visuals and train your sense of rhythm making the game by no means easy. The game allows for the slow introduction of more complex beats to complicate patterns and switch between their mechanics with fluidity between sections without losing the central idea.

The game’s website informational sheet states that it, “aims to invisibly teach complex music and rhythm theory.”

“As a music student, I actually found the game to be good for training my sense of rhythm as it forced me to subdivide every beat in my head,” Trinh said.

User ironici commented on YouTube about their experience playing one of the levels.

“i’ve never had so much fun pressing the spacebar 118 times in a row,” ironici said.

Story

Although the gameplay is the main draw to the game, the story is also a very pivotal part of the “Rhythm Doctor” experience. 

The player is introduced to the world by being added to the Middlesea Hospital staff team as a remote intern introduced to their main coworkers. Then, the focus shifts to each of the many patients and their problems.

One of the most remarkable sections of the story, the second act of the game, is one example of an integrated story that shares the gameplay and story integration. 

The intern discovers two different patients, Cole Brew and Nicole Ting, who both have separate addictions to caffeine and smoking. Within the gameplay, the intern learns that their addictions are causing attacks represented by more difficult notes or patterns. 

At the height of their symptoms, the intern is put into an intense musical battle to the song “All the Times” by Fizzd, one of the game developers. After treatment, both patients realize that they can be each other’s inspiration and motivation to stop their addictions.

This story is only one of the five “acts” currently available and has captured the hearts of many players to love these characters through their problems and find their resolve to do better.

Music

The third draw to the game is the music, an integral part of a rhythm game. Aside from songs in collaboration levels, the majority of the music in the game is created specifically with this game in mind. Each piece has a fun way created around the mechanics of the level being various genres. Despite this, none feel out of place. 

“All the Times” discusses the resolve of Cole’s and Nicole’s addictions and finding each other through the lyrics. The line before the last directly states, “I’ve finally found in you/the key to set me free.”

The game’s soundtrack is difficult to express through words and should be listened to on its own. Some of their latest songs are listed on the 7th Beat Game YouTube channel and some of the first songs are on Fizzd’s SoundCloud.

Some recommendations include “Wish I Could Care Less,” “Dreams Don’t Stop,” “Classy,” “Distant Duet” and “Super Battleworn Insomniac.”

User Interface

Although not a main draw to the game, the User Interface (UI) is one of the main invisible reasons that keeps the player engaged and immersed in the story feeling as if they are the ones resolving these problems.

The game keeps the theme consistent around the player as a remote intern. It integrates heart monitors for song-select screens, a hospital atmosphere for the main hub, and most importantly, keeping the heartbeats as a visual asset when playing.

Little beeping sound effects when a player selects something and every visual distraction has a narrative purpose. 

The lead UI developer created an elaborate YouTube video describing how their UI continues the narrative past the cutscenes. It’s insightful if one is looking into game design or other related ideas.

Final Remarks

Overall, the game is a unique take on the rhythm game genre, allowing players creative use of rhythm theory while making it fun and enjoyable to learn and play. 

The game has high replayability due to it being a rhythm game. The game rewards the player by unlocking additional “Night Shift Levels” after achieving an A or higher on the original song. 

All the collaborations are elaborate and integrate the collaboration’s UI with “Rhythm Doctor’s” system while still being unique to the game.

The game also contains custom levels and a custom level editor within the game engine. Players can create and share their custom “Rhythm Doctor” levels through the Steam workshop if players buy the game on Steam or directly through files.

Overall, despite still being Early Access, “Rhythm Doctor” has an elaborate gameplay system and mechanics, an engaging story, exciting music and only more to come.