While the transition from Game Boy Advance buttons to DS stylus control made WarioWare Touched a far easier game than its predecessor, the same is not true of Rhythm Tengoku Gold. It’s painfully tricky at times, and with no clear difficulty curve linking its sequence of eclectic musical minigames there’s every chance of getting bogged down by frustration at a disappointingly early stage.

The control mechanic, though, is simple and ingenious. With the console held in the vertically hinged bottle, sliding to shake the contents in time with the beat, then flicking to pass it along the line, proves that the concept can work perfectly. On the other hand, a needlessly fiddly reworking of the karate round from Rhythm Tengoku highlights a lack of precision in the control system. Less forgivably, more than one minigame appears to rely entirely on learning from repetition rather than audio cues.

Although the relative complexity of Gold means it lacks the immediacy of the original, most problems can be overcome by persistence. The music is excellent, the presentation impressively polished, and the compulsion to see what bizarre scenario awaits in the next round arguably outweighs the odd moments of stylus-snapping irritation that Rhythm Tengoku Gold sadistically hands out.

7/10