Nintendo Wii Fanboy

Samba de Amigo ships out next week and we're still scrambling over the maracas situation. We once thought that a retailer's mocked-up bundle box was proof that a maracas peripheral would be bundled with the game, but that image was taken down and, in fact, Sega denied that a peripheral would be produced. And then that statement was seemingly excised from the original source. And then actual pictures appeared of some Wii maracas, along with standalone retail listings. It's been a bit confusing.

It would appear that you'll be paying an extra $14.99 for the first set of maracas and not the second, because looking at the box, it is quite clear that these Wii maracas are not official Sega products. Gamestop lists them as being produced by Cokem International. That, and the fact that no retailer mentions a bundle (and the fact that Sega said they weren't making any) makes it very likely that you'll get a disc with Samba and nothing else.

The good news is that it's basically just a bulb with a Wiimote-shaped slot (and hopefully some rattly stuff inside), and so it doesn't really matter who makes the thing.