Rhythm Tengoku Control Panel

Beautiful cabinet design for a rhythm game that doesn’t try to be a new musical instrument.

Rhythm Tengoku (Rhythm Heaven) is like a Bishi Bashi / WarioWare for rhythm games. It’s bite-sized, funny, and polished by little Japanese cultural influences. It also rocks enough to deliver that Bemani sugar-rush.

Nintendo made it for GBA in 2006, then Sega brought it to the arcade in 2007.

Amusingly, this pristine banana of a Naomi cabinet is sitting right next to a filthy, nicotine-yellow Naomi cabinet that looks almost identical.