Wii Music « Isegoria

Wii Music

Wednesday, July 16th, 2008

I’ve been wondering how long it would be until someone came out with a free-form version of Guitar Hero or Rock Band, where you could play your own music. Now it looks like Nintendo’s leading the way, with its upcoming Wii Music:

Nintendo this morning announced a new addition to the Wii family: Wii Music. Instead of your musical creativity being confined by the limitation of the number of plastic instruments that can fit in your living room, Wii Music uses the Wii Remote, Nunchuck and Balance Board to let the user play more than 60 different instruments.

But don’t get confused: Wii Music isn’t trying to compete with Rock Band and Guitar Hero. Instead, the game’s more like an open jam session where players improvise as they go—there are no notes to follow, no one to boo you off stage, no Star Power to reward you for a 100-note streak. It’s a non-judgmental way to rock out through your TV.

We heard a drum and sax solo, and then a few Nintendo executives demonstrated full-band play onstage by gracing us with a calypso rendition of the Mario theme song. But we’re still unsure how much skill is actually required to “play” each instrument. In fact, Nintendo’s press release says “the music always sounds great,” so we’re pretty sure anyone can pick up the controllers and put on an impressive show.

The drums were the most interesting instrument demonstrated. The remote and numchuck are used like drum sticks, so you need to move your arms around like you’re air drumming to get your sound. The Wii Balance Board is used like the drum pedals on any drum kit. It manages to seem very realistic without requiring a physical set the way Rock Band does. And the game gives you lessons, so theoretically you should learn how to play an actual drum set in a few weeks.

Wii Music also lets you record multi-track videos, so you can be your own one-man band. Or you can be like indy band The Postal Service and send tracks back and forth with friends through WiiConnect24. Bottom line: Even though it might not be as demanding as the other music-making games out there, Wii Music looks like a lot of fun. It will be in stories in time for the holidays—let’s just hope that Nintendo ships enough copies to satisfy all the Wii Fanatics out there.

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