Rhythm Girl (Rhythm Heaven) Discussion: Now with Chorus Kids, please resupport

After posting the initial idea, Athorment and I collaborated on a new idea that I think we're both happy with. It took a lot of discussion and disagreement on ideas, but I'm now pleased to present ... Rhythm Girl + Chorus Kids!




Series Icon

Take the R and the H, put them together like DK. They must be styled the same way as the picture. Something like this.




Height comparison
Huge shout-outs to Athorment for making this for me.

Incidentally, I think this is the perfect way to portray this character. The long hair from the more recent incarnation with the white skin of the earlier ones. It also makes her a little more visually distinct. Headphones are a nice bonus.



Gimmick/Creation challenges
The character is from a rhythm game, so of course timing needed to be crucial to the moveset. I've seen many ideas on how to incorporate an idea like this into Smash, but I think the best way is to make her smashes unique and make her specials a timing game.

Smashes would be able to charge for MUCH longer than most other characters. The Chorus Kids would act as damage and a guide, helping you time your smashes for MASSIVE damage. Her smashes normally wouldn't be crippling bad, as not to require needing to land a basically full charge smash just for a KO. However, charging past the time needed results in a weaker smash than noncharged.

Specials work sort of the same way. Needing to press the special button to "play" the minigame, and pressing again to perform your actions.

Anything requiring a charge should deal a flat percentage. For example, up smash uncharged and up smash near perfect should deal the same damage. Up smash perfect release should deal a lot more, and anything after the perfect release timing should do much less.

Then came the making of the actual moveset. Originally I had some inspiration from the games Karate Man, Samurai Slice, LumBEARjack ... but then I realized. Rhythm Girl pulling out weapons and basically punching people just didn't look right or fit the style. She needed to be more "family friendly", because I feel that's how Rhythm Heaven would be represented in an actual smash game. No karate, no punches, no axes. Just pure randomness of attacks that happen to cause damage.




Moves
Finally, the all-important moveset. What this character would attack like. I'll be starting off with specials. All moves will be accompanied with a video to the matching rhythm game. It's a lot to ask to watch them if you need to understand what I'm talking about, but you also need not watch the entirety.


Neutral Special: Munchy Monk endless

Spoiler:

A Chorus Kid puts a handful of peas in Rhythm Girl's hands. She brings the peas to her face. A properly timed second press would release a shotgun spread of peas. Peas continue to travel in a forward arc until colliding with opponents or the ground, where they'll disappear. Peas deal about 1-2% each, but provide no hitstun.

Pressing earlier would result in much less peas being shot out. Releasing late or not releasing at all causes the peas to fall out of your hands.

This move could be used to try to sprinkle some damage on your opponent while they're recovering, or just to spit peas in their face up close (the closer they are, the more peas will hit!).



Up special: Launch Party

Spoiler:

One of the rockets appear and Rhythm Girl holds on to it. Press the special button again once the counter reaches 0 to get a massive height and damage boost. All rockets go the same height and only go vertical.

Pressing early would result in half the maximum height. Not pressing/pressing late results in half of THAT distance.

Each rocket would have different stats.
Counts from 1: Does one massive hit, more horizontal/diagonal knockback.
Counts from 7: Does lots of small hits as it rises. More vertical knockback.
Counts from 3: Does more damage at the launch stage.
Counts from 5: Does more damage at the peak height.

If used on the ground, the rockets become a vertical projectile. She doesn't hold on and launch with them.

You have to be extra careful, as the rockets could be reflected downward regardless of if you're on them or not.


Side special: Hole in One

Spoiler:

A Chorus Kid tosses a golf ball in a style similar to the little monkey. Timing your second press properly allows you to fling a golf ball across the stage at great speeds.

Pressing early results in the golf ball going a bit slow and not traveling very far. Pressing late results in just a low powered swing.



Down special: Munchy Monk

Spoiler:

Pressing the button makes a Chorus Kid place a dumpling in Rhythm Girl's hand. She'll launch it in her mouth. If you press again at the right timing, Chorus Kid will place another dumpling. Rather than playing for the launch, you're playing for the placement.

If you press the button twice in one cycle, the dumpling will miss her mouth and hit her in the face instead.

Each dumpling will heal Rhythm Girl for a certain percent. Rhythm Girl will try to swallow every dumpling at once, though. So the more dumplings you launch, the longer it takes to receive your heal. If you get hit before you finish swallowing, no heals.



Jab: Tambourine

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl pulls out a tambourine. She'll stomp the ground and slap the tambourine, slap it again, and then perform infinite shakes.



Up tilt: Cheer Readers

Spoiler:

Just tapping would result in Rhythm Girl flipping a book over her head. Holding it down results in the "Okay, it's on" cue, doing a few hits as the book spins. The final hit has considerable knockback.



Forward tilt: Lockstep

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl performs the step, creating a hitbox in front of and behind her. It's performed very quickly.



Down tilt: Blue Bear

Spoiler:

A Chorus Kid tosses a donut over Rhythm Girl's head. Rhythm Girl juts her head out quickly to eat them. You can queue up multiple down tilts by tossing multiple donuts as long as you keep pressing the attack, but you're stuck until hit or you finish off the donuts.



Dash attack: Nightwalk

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl performs the roll/jump from the Wii game. It has a set knockback, so you'll be able to air combo out of it. As a bit of flair, a flower heart or a lollipop from the GBA game appear on the jump up point.



Neutral air: Space Dance

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl performs the "Let's sit down" cue, hitting both sides of her.



Up air: Air Rally

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl pulls out a racquet and hits a shuttlecock above her. The shuttlecock would fly out like a projectile, doing about 2% with minimal knockback. Enemies could hit it back if they wished, allowing the players to play badminton.



Forward air: Packing Pests

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl would slap in front of her. It has a bit of startup, you would hear the cue of a spider coming up first. If you hit in the sweetspot, it meteors opponents and a spider flies off of them.



Back air: Frog Hop

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl performs the "Yahoo!" cue. It has a minor hit in front of her, but the real damage comes from the hip swing behind her.



Down air: Monkey Watch

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl holds one of the Chorus Kids underneath her, who performs a high five slap. Enemies hit would be launched at some angle behind Rhythm Girl.



Up smash: Clappy Trio

Spoiler:

The Chorus Kids snap in place behind Rhythm Girl. As you charge, they'll clap. The claps do damage and lead your opponent into your own clap. Releasing the smash on time results in great damage and knockback.

Releasing the smash early results in the kids giving you the evil eye. You'll also do less damage/knockback.

Releasing it too late/not releasing makes the kids look at you. Your clap will do almost no damage/knockback if it even hits, your opponent would have time to react if you don't release perfectly.



Forward smash: Kitties!

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl assumes the laidback position of the cats. While charging, one of the kids should snap into place in front of her, in the same position. Then the other. A perfectly timed release of your smash results in all of you spinning and then posing, doing massive damage.

Releasing early results in two claps for you and whatever kids are also in the position, dealing okay damage/knockback. Releasing late/not at all results in nothing even happening.




Down smash: Board Meeting

Spoiler:

This one's a bit hard to explain. I'm sure you realize all the smashes are trying to be on a "beat" system. For this smash, the characters line up like Kid/Girl/Kid.

Before beat 1: Any start up animation required

Beat 1: Rhythm Girl starts spinning in a chair, dealing constant damage. Releasing here results in her stopping, dealing knockback.

Beat 2: Both Chorus Kids start spinning in a chair. Releasing here results in all of them stopping at once.

Beat 3: Time your release here to deal massive damage with your stop. Releasing late results in Rhythm Girl and the kids getting dizzy.

Beat 4: If beat 3 was done correctly, the kids stop spinning on this beat.



Grab/Pummel: Glee Club

Spoiler:

Rhythm girl grabs her opponent. For the pummel, the Chorus Kids take turns singing loudly.



Up throw: Pajama Party

Spoiler:

The Chorus Kids snap in place, one on each side of Rhythm Girl. The Chorus Kids are now also holding a pillow. They all jump upwards in unison, and then throw their luggage straight upwards.



Forward throw: Bossa Nova/Toss Boys

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl performs the Bossa Nova hit forward. This leads directly into a somewhat distant Chorus Kid, who bounces the opponent into the other Chorus Kid in the style of a Toss Boy, who finally launches the opponent diagonally upwards in the same way.



Back throw: Shrimp Shuffle

Spoiler:

The characters line up like Chorus Kid - Opponent - Rhythm Girl - Chorus Kid. Rhythm Girl and the Chorus Kids perform the "ABC" cue. The A and B hops forward deal slight damage and the opponent gets carried by it. The C launches the opponent backwards.



Down throw: Tap Trial

Spoiler:

Rhythm Girl performs the "OOEEEEE" cue, tap dancing on her opponent. The Chorus Kids also do it, but it's just for show.



Taunt: Ringside

Spoiler:

The Chorus Kids stack on top of each other and ask a question into a microphone, holding it out for Rhythm Girl to respond. She responds with the "Heh".



Final Smash: Remix! Flockstep, Sumology, Micro Row, Kitties

Spoiler:

The Final Smash performs a "Remix", which is a Rhythm Heaven term for combining multiple games into a single song. The games chosen for the Smash Remix are Flockstep, Sumology, Micro Row, and Kitties.

Flockstep: Multiple birds pick random spots on the stage and march in unison. They sometimes perform the "Tweet, twe-twe-tweet, tweet, squawk!" cue. Marching carries opponents with them, while the special cue launches them straight upwards.

Sumology: The Sumos from Sumology appear on the stage. They'll start slapping each other, which would do damage if an opponent got near enough. But they really shine when they slam the ground, launching all opponents touching the ground anywhere on the map. They alternate back and forth between those states.

Micro-Row: Three germs from Micro-Row start flying around the stage, dealing damage as they flap their arms. They will heat seek the closest opponent, but have trouble turning around. They will perform their cue to do three super fast flaps, which makes them cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time.

Kitties!: Cats from Kitties! will randomly teleport around the stage, performing two claps. Sometimes they may even appear on the camera.




Playstyle/Stats

Rhythm Girls ends up being a wacky fighter, doing very strange motions and attacks. Despite having a few projectiles, she's mostly an up close fighter. That's how I see this moveset working anyway. Players could opt for kills in a few ways outside of getting perfectly timed smash attacks.

Forward air to meteor, back throw, or up tilt I imagine would be some of her stronger kill options. You could even down air an opponent away from the ledge if they've used up their jump.

While the opponent is off stage, Rhythm Girl could try to go for some ledge guarding. Maybe opt to sprinkle her opponent with some peas offstage. Even self heal with her down special! This girl got options.

However, her recovery is super weak. It holds her place like a Fox's special, and it only goes straight upward. I feel like it'd be easy for an opponent to gimp her.

Of course all this is up to the balancing team if this idea gets accepted in its current form with absolutely no alterations to attacks.



Rhythm Girl should be around absolutely average walk/run speed, average roll length, average roll speed, average weight, average fall speed, and average air speed.






Everything, of course, is subject to change. Thank you for reading this mess. If there's something I forgot, leave a reply. If you support the character being in Crusade, leave a reply. If you absolutely loathe this character, leave a reply. If you think you have a better idea for certain moves, leave a reply.

Supporters:

Pre-redesign supporters:

This suggestion is so well done I almost feel bad about laughing at the fact that this will never happen.

Support!

I would change a few things here and there, but I'll definitively push because i love the essence of the moveset and also to spite Nix's Terrible comments :3

I'm still leaning towards Chorus Kids and Marshal, but Rhythm Girl is better than no Rhythm Heaven rep at all. Support.

It's Karate Joe
Out of everything that's what stuck out like a sore thumb to me

Braystar wrote:

It's Karate Joe
Out of everything that's what stuck out like a sore thumb to me

I'm not quite sure if I know what you're talking about. If you mean the final smash, I 100% agree.

My only other idea was initiating a "Remix". A flock of of the birds from Flockstep would swoop by and activate a cutscene if any players were hit. Many minigames would play out and finally send the opponent flying. This feels pretty like a pretty lazy Captain Falcon copy.

Or just Flockstep in general. The stage is swarmed with the birds, each doing their march. Every step is a hit and the "Tweet twe-twe-tweet tweet, squawk!" cue would launch players.



In the end I decided on Karate Joe and Samurai, because I think it would be criminal to not include Joe somehow. While it clashes with the style of Rhythm Girl (to actually throw punches, kicks, sword slashes, etc), I think Joe as the final smash is perfect for honoring him.

You called Joe "Karate Man"

Braystar wrote:

You called Joe "Karate Man"

That's the name of his rhythm game. When I refer to Karate Man, it's referencing his game.

Rhythm Heavven is one of my favorite franchises and I'd rather have her over the Chorus Kids.
Support!

Kirb-Star wrote:

Rhythm Heavven is one of my favorite franchises and I'd rather have her over the Chorus Kids.
Support!

Well, this is awkward. The post just updated to feature the Chorus Kids as part of the character.

If you still want to support it, go ahead. I'd love to know if you still agree with the character choice.




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Beyond this line lies discussion for the newly updated Rhythm Girl + Chorus Kids.