If you have a gamer and/or musician on your Christmas gift list this year you better jump on Wii Music. It’s poised to be a top seller, and will not likely be on the shelves the closer Christmas gets. 
When it comes to music and rhythm games, Wii Music stands in a class of its own. Unlike other music games, which penalize players if they don’t play perfectly, Wii Music is a musical playground where there are no mistakes. Here anyone can pick up and master the huge array of instruments available, through simple motions like strumming and drumming. Musicians in your band jam by simply playing their instruments to the beat of a song or by improvising to their heart’s content. Play faster. Play slower. Skip a beat, or throw in 10 more. No matter what you do, Wii Music automatically transforms your improv stylings into great music.
There are three different game modes you can play in. There is a way to play whether you are alone or with friends.
- Solo Play: When you play by yourself, you can add one part at a time to arrange the whole song exactly how you want. The Tutes are on hand to back up your band in any parts you need filled.
- Multiplayer: When in a band with friends, up to four people can be band members.
- Wii Friends: Using WiiConnect24, you can send your jam videos to Wii Friends who own Wii Music. They can then watch your performance, modify it to their liking and send their jam videos back to you.
Your very own back up band. When you’re playing alone and you need some great back up you can count on Tutes ~ you own backup band. They’ll join a session playing an instrument that each thinks is strong for a specific song. You can simply enjoy the musical camaraderie, or pick up instrument tips by watching them jam. If you choose to watch, the Tutes will show you lots of techniques for many of these instruments, then ask you to follow their examples. They’ll start with the simplest techniques, then as you master each one, show you even more nuanced ones.
Play 60 Plus Instruments!
You can play most of the 60-plus instruments in Wii Music using simple motions with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers. Strum to play guitar, banjo and sitar. Drum to play jazz drums, congas and marching drums. Hammer away to play piano, vibraphone and marimba. Unlike most music games, Wii Music doesn’t make you use complex buttons. You only need to imitate playing the instrument. Wii Music offers virtually endless ways to make music.
“I love the recent string (no pun intended) of musical games coming out from Guitar Hero to Rock Band. Problem is, those kits are flippin’ expensive and I’m not too keen on storing either plastic guitars or bulky drum sets. Don’t get me wrong, I own them anyway but lugging them to a friend’s house is no fun task.
Enter Wii Music.
Wii music is pantomime meets Rock Band. The bulk of the game revolves around the player mimicking gestures to simulate sound according to the actual song being played as the notes are hit automatically unless the player’s timing is off. The player does this up to six different instruments to simulate melody, bass, percussion etc. When the player is done, he or she can make a CD jacket to label the track and make a music video of it. On top of this, there are three minigames.
1: Wii Conductor. Move your arms similar to a conductor to make an orchestra go.
2: Hand bells like the ones some people use in Christmas musicals or church services.
3: Music quiz thingy similar to the memorization game on Wii Play.
That’s it! That is, in a nutshell, the entire game.
While the game itself is simplistic, that is also the idea. Nintendo, in it’s grand scheme of marketing to the casual gaming audience, has created a very simple, yet elegant, game to allow the player to easily mimic music without real lessons or going nuts while trying to play Through the Fire and Flames on Guitar Hero 3. In doing so, Nintendo has appealed to anyone who desires a musical experience but either A) doesn’t have the time to master easy, medium, hard, and extreme mode and/or B) does not have at least $80 to spend on a Guitar Hero set. All that is needed is at least one full Wii remote and nunchuck set although more sets with more players make it more fun.
While up to six instruments may participate in a song, only four players can go at a time although this does not mean the player can record tracks for all six instruments. This means four people at a time can go nuts with over 60 instruments including cowbell (which we all know we need more of), a DJ turntable, recorder, flute, sitar, and much more.
This game is very addicting. My graduate students friends are playing the game in my apartment as I type this, not only having a blast but hogging the darn TV in the process. They’re hooked on Ode to Joy, which we arranged with sleigh bells, a flute, and a clarinet. When working on my thesis for more than five hours at a time gnaws at my brain, I love saddling up the Wii and playing Twinkle Twinkle on the piano.
Now, with all the goodies in Wii Music there are a few drawbacks especially with the sound and selected songs. Unlike Guitar Hero, Wii Music’s musical selection is mostly derived from the public domain track list. This means it’s very generic songs like Twinkle Twinkle, Yankie Doodle, Ode to Joy, and Swan Lake. This constitutes the bulk of the soundtrack. There are a few good licensed songs like September by Earth, Wind, and Fire along with Loco-Motion. The real songs that everyone bought Wii Music to play are the Nintendo mixes like Legend of Zelda and the Mario Bros Theme Song. Unfortunately, there are only seven Nintendo songs and of that only three are any good (the aforementioned two and F Zero Mute City).
The soundtrack could have been soooo much better even with more licensed songs by Nintendo such as Castlevania, Star Fox, Metroid, and Paperboy. Anything would’ve been better than the ragtag bunch of songs from Europe that were used. Not to mention they could’ve used some greater public domain songs like Greensleeves or Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The next con is the sound itself. While the majority of the woodwinds and drums sound magnificent, several other instruments do not. The most notable bad sounding instruments are the trumpet, saxophone, violin, and viola. Don’t even get me started on the more… interesting instruments like the cheerleader, the black belt, cat and dog suit, and the rapper. Those wacky things seemed to have carried over from Mario Paint despite a 15 year gap. While having an all-male cheerleading squad sing the Legend of Zelda theme song was disturbingly amusing, I would never be so bold as to show that in public.
The only other cons are basic Nintendo ones such as the use of weird instructional characters. The Maestro instructor looks and talks like a more flamboyant homosexual version of Beaker from the Muppets. The other issue is how the remote distinguishes movement for the cursor and that of the instrument itself. It can get very annoying but I find that if I want to switch, just hold the remote in front of the TV for two seconds and the cursor switches over from the instrument.
All in all, Wii Music is a really fun game for the whole family and your friends if you’ve consumed enough alcohol… seriously. I give it a solid A- as it fully utilizes the Wii interface but lacks in some sound and musical selection issues. It’s too bad you can’t really go heavy metal… *sigh* party on Wayne!”
“While the past year, we’ve really seen the outrageous success of music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band deliver with the hype and the gameplay for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360, there actually hasn’t been all that much for wannabe musicians to jam to their hearts too. While Rock Band and Guitar Hero have the excitement, there just is also the gimmicks of playing with more than just guitars. Well Nintendo has shown that recently with Sambe De Amigo with songs to download to, and now they are about to show that all over again with a little help from your favorite Mii’s and just a little imagination, you can jam to any musical instrument, and anyway you like to play is here on the Wii, with Wii Music.
Wii Music, one of the more surprisingly hyped games showcased at the E3 Video Game Expo earlier this year, is finally available for the Nintendo Wii. The game features no outrageous gimmicks like a guitar controller or a dance mat like the ones from Dance Dance Revolution, but just the simplicity that anyone can play and make your own music. The graphics look great and bring in a more natural way of playing to your favorite songs from Nintendo’s past like the themes from Super Mario Brothers and The Legend Of Zelda, or classical standards, and even guilty pleasure pop songs like Wham!’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go.
There are over 60 different kinds of insturments to jam to from conga drums and violins, all the way to cow bells, yes I said cow bells. There also are great games to play with including Mii Maestro, where you can conduct your way through the simplicity of an orchestra, and drum solo mode, which you could play to the beat of a drum. But, you’d need the balance board from Wii Fit to play for that game, and improv jams you can custom make and record and save for your Wii viewing pleasure. Also, you can play alone, or with others to your favorite songs online through the WiiConnect online, which is a treat die hard Wii fans had wished for that even Rock Band couldn’t deliver.
All in all, while hard core music video gamers are more aniticapated for the releases of Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour for the Wii, Wii Music is a unique musical experience for young and old gamers that is sure to please your wallet and the casual gamer alike, at a affordable price. It really takes my breath away, and is a fun and unique musical game that is well worth the money and in more than one musical note after another with all the different ways to can strum your heart away.
Graphics: B+
Sound: B
Control: B+
Fun & Enjoyment: B+ for solo player; A 1/2- for multiplayer
Overall: B+”
“I picked up Wii Music on Wednesday and have been having a blast every night this week.
One thing that I realized is that besides the 3 minigames, it isn’t really a game. If you go into it thinking it’s a game, you may be disappointed. There’s no score, no levels, no character development, no plot. When you finish a song there’s on one telling you “Great Job!” if you win or “Fail!” if you lose… In fact you score yourself based on how well you think you did. “Gamers” expect all of these things, and when they don’t find them they say that it sucks.
There’s the obvious comparison to Wii Sports and Wii Play. As a game, Wii Sports blows it out of the water, but you really can’t compare the two at all because they’re completely different. Personally I don’t think that Wii Music is much of a game at all, it’s more of a Musical Toy, and a darn good one at that. It’s just as much fun as Wii Sports, and has more replay value than the boring games in Wii Play! Who cares that the game doesn’t tell you how good or bad you did. Smart people can figure it out for themselves!
Grab some beer and some friends, and make a fool out of yourselves! That’s what Wii Music is all about, it’s just plain fun!”
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