Rhythm Doctor
Review

Rhythm Doctor (2021) is a rhythm game about shocking patients' hearts back in sync with their heartbeats to save their lives. You press a single button on the 7^th beat to defibrillate each patient. It sounds simple but each level has a unique illnesses based on complex music theory: polyrhythms, hemiolas, irregular time signatures.

Unlike other rhythm games that make things more challenging by adding more buttons and more beats to match, Rhythm Doctor ups the difficulty with unusual timing and various methods of distracting you from your task.

There are patients suffering from wi-fi jamming bacteria that mess with your connection and glitch out the beats you can see. There are patients with an irregular time signatures or unexpected remixes of the songs. It's fun and funny in a bonkers kind of way. At one point there's a song about overworked doctors and the politicians who are turning the public against them.

The combination of this unusual approach to gameplay, some great music, an overarching story to follow and the inventive distractions result in a completely joyous experience. Add to this the way the game introduces different concepts of rhythm theory in an accessible way and this is works very well for families. You can even make and share your own levels.

Our examiner, Andy Robertson, first checked Rhythm Doctor 2 years ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 21 months ago.