Wii Music

[Somebody]

Wii Music Orchestra

Nintendo

Genre: Rhythm / Music

Release: TBA 2008

 

[Somebody]

E3 06: Wii Music Orchestra Hands-On

 

We unleash our inner Leonard Bernstein in our hands-on...err, make that batons-on look at this conducting game for the Wii.

 

LOS ANGELES--Who hasn't had the fantasy of being a famous conductor guiding a world-class symphony through some of the world's greatest classical music? Who, secretly in their hearts, hasn't yearned to mimic great conductors like Leonard Bernstein or Michael Tilson Thomas? Anyone? Anyone at all? Okay, for those of you that have, Wii Music Orchestrator might help you unlock you inner maestro. We played a demo version of the game at the Nintendo Wii booth, and it left us musically enriched and physically drained.

 

The demo, which uses the Wii remote as a conductor's baton, let you conduct a cute-looking orchestra of thimble-shaped musicians through two songs: the theme from the Legend of Zelda series and the theme to Bizet's Carmen. Once you calibrated the Wii remote, a hand holding a conductor's baton appeared on screen. After a few seconds, the hand began conducting at the tempo the song would be taken. To start the orchestra on their musical adventure, you had to tap out four beats at the required tempo.

 

 

Once the music began, it was up to us as the conductor to keep the collection of musicians on their musical path. The biggest responsibility was to keep the tempo moving by vigorously moving the Wii remote up and down. And when we say "vigorous" we mean it--no dainty conducting movements here; the quicker your movements, the louder and more enthusiastic the orchestra would play through the number. The coolest part of the demo was how the orchestra would react immediately to any shifts in your tempo, slowing down and speeding up in conjunction with your conducting movements. There wasn't much in the way of cueing of specific sections of the orchestra--such as the brass or violins--but perhaps that will make it into a final version of the game at a later date.

 

With cute visuals, a camera that seemed intelligent enough to focus on specific portions of the orchestra during the correct moments (such as the brass during a particularly bright trumpet flourish), and an interesting control scheme, Wii Music Orchestra seems to be yet another interesting use of the Wii remote. Our only complaint was how physically drained a single song left us; by the end of one tune, our arms were aching and we had to take a break. We'll keep you informed on how Wii Music Orchestra develops in the coming months.

[Somebody]

Previews

 

Why the slightly more fleshed-out version of the game on display this weekend at Penny Arcade Expo has won us over.

 

Surprisingly, I like Wii Music.

 

Maybe that's not surprising to you, but it certainly caught me off-guard. When Nintendo revealed its upcoming music game at E3 (if indeed it can be called to be a game; creator Shigeru Miyamoto regards it more as a toy), I was skeptical. When I actually played it, I was even more doubtful. It lacked focus or structure; it was, in short, fairly pointless.

 

But Nintendo has a slightly more fleshed-out version of the game on display this weekend at Penny Arcade Expo, and despite this version sporting only a few modest tweaks, I think it has won me over. The difference: A sense of purpose. While the game's primary mode remains the same -- a group of faux musicians jamming together and playing individual notes or beats of a predefined music track -- the single-player mode now has added depth. Rather than simply pantomiming music with a phantom backing band, you can record their own personal renditions of each tune's six tracks, including melody, harmony, rhythm and percussion. You can save performances, then splice them into the standard rhythm tracks, allowing you to effectively create a complete custom performance of each track. This also works for group performances, although it has more impact with a single performer.

 

 

I sat in for a show floor jam session with 1UP's very own Andrew Pfister and developed a better sense of how Wii Music's cumulative music feature works. Andrew took percussion (a drum set) while I sat in on harmony with the NES Horn (a woodwind shaped like an NES controller which emits 8-bit square and triangle waves). You play the drums by mimicking drumming motions with the Nunchuk and Wii Remote, while you use the NES Horn like a flute, with the Wii Remote held at mouth level while you tap the 1 and 2 buttons to create notes. Our initial performance of the Super Mario Bros. theme seemed fine, so we played through the tune a second time. This time through, the game used our previous performances for the percussion and harmony tracks...which made for a cacophonous din once we began performing with our second set of instruments.

 

The instrument selection has expanded drastically, with some unconventional choices. Besides the NES Horn, the new build of Wii Music features such oddities as the cuica (a wheezy samba percussion instrument), the Cheerleader (a teenage girl in cheerleader get-up shouting cheers in time to the music), and the Cat Suit (a cat costume which causes your in-game avatar to belt out cat noises). In other words, it's going to become the bane of parents everywhere with its vast and discordant "musical" possibilities...but on the other hand, it's non-violent and might even foster creativity, so they probably won't complain too vigorously.

 

Wii Music is hardly a me-too music game, and there's no guarantee that gamers will accept its unstructured approach to collaborative tunesmithing. Then again, everything Nintendo develops seems to turn to gold these days, and Wii Music's simple track-mixing feature seems like a potentially addictive element that could reel in even the skeptics.

[Hahaman]

cant even think of how wil we play this game

[ps4geek]

I liked the concept. Lets see how it shapes up when the thing is out!

[Emo-Iwata]

I liked the concept. Lets see how it shapes up when the thing is out!

 

really???

i'm yet to be convinced

[Hahaman]

Rock Band 2 BEWARE

[Somebody]

Wii Music Gets More Cowbell

 

[gt]39960[/gt]

 

We had our doubts about Wii Music after the "dog incident," but we're skeptics no longer. Nintendo, you had us at "dink dink dink dink dink dink DOONG! dink dink dink dink dink dink DOONG! dink dink dink dink dink dink DOONG!" See you there on day one.

[Somebody]

Wii Music Lets You Play "The Cheerleader"

 

[gt]40020[/gt]

 

You know, I actually used to be a pretty good cheerleader player back in high school. Thought about forming my own band, dropping out, taking it "on the road," but couldn't hit those high "Pretty!" notes consistently. Eventually I just lost interest in cheerleader playing, because all the chicks go for the tuba player in the end, and because every composition sounded like the soundtrack of insanity. Thank God for Wii Music, which captures that dissonance perfectly. I really can't wait to play the Super Mario Bros. theme in the key of "shrill pep."

[argruid]

The more i read about this game, the more sceptical i am.

This just looks utterly horrid to me.

[ThirdOne]

The more i read about this game, the more sceptical i am.

This just looks utterly horrid to me.

Nintendo will still sell 10 million copies. Just like Wii Fit. :eyebrow2:

[Hahaman]

bye bye wii m selling u had a good time though

[Somebody]

Wii Music strikes up the band October 20

 

Nintendo dates upcoming open-ended jamming utility for retail release next month.

 

When asked during the E3 Media & Business Summit if the lack of goals in Nintendo's upcoming Wii Music made it more of a toy than a game, designer Shigeru Miyamoto explained, "That's right. And that's why it's more interesting than a video game."

 

Regardless, Wii Music will be appearing on game store's new release shelves October 20, as Nintendo today confirmed the official launch date for the title. The game will have some thematic competition on shelves; retailers expect Rock Band 2 to begin its migration to non-Xbox 360 platforms that week, with World Tour projected for release on October 26.

 

Unlike those titles, Wii Music was designed around the idea that there shouldn't be any "incorrect" input. Built with the goal of allowing anyone to appreciate the joy of creating music, the game allows players to mimic more than 60 different instruments in improvised jams or playing along to more than 50 well-known standards and licensed songs. For those with a Wii Balance Board and a desire to make some noise, the game also includes a virtual drum kit using the board in tandem with a Wii Remote and Nunchuk.

[argruid]

Gamespot's Wii Music Review

 

Overall : 6.5

 

The Good:

Wide variety of instruments

Easy to pick up and play

Fun.

 

The Bad

Not worth full retail price

Gameplay is too simple

Not enough game modes.

 

Very young children (from 3 to 6 years of age) will probably get the most out of conducting an orchestra, waving controllers to mimick playing steel drums, and using their Miis to make a goofy arrangement of the Super Mario Bros. theme song, but even a group of adults can get a few hours of joy from Wii Music before the novelty wears off.

 

You don't have much control over what you're playing--though you can decide how often you play a note and add some flair by holding down a button--but somehow, some way, the results sound pretty good.

 

The game is charming and can be fun for short periods of time, but unless you're buying it for a young child, it's difficult to recommend as a purchase because older children and adults aren't likely to get more than a few hours of entertainment out of it.

[killroy]

This game is a disgrace to any hardcore gamer. of course it will sell tonnes of copies, but its for kids who cant play guitar hero on easy or elders who just want to have some fun.

 

Just get Guitar hero WT(awesome peripherals, game not as good as RB2) and Rock band 2(awesome game, sucky plastic sh*t) for your music pleasure.

 

Miyamoto needs a break to think better ideas. I hope he stops churning out this crap and gets out that new Zelda and Mario that we need.