It's well-established that most average gamers don't seem to think too much of Wii Music, but what about all the casual and irregular gamers in your life? Do they even know about Wii Music, and if so, what do they think of it? Heard anyone asking for it, or know anyone who's gone out to buy it? Nintendo seems to think the title has a lot of potential in the home stretch, and we want to try to measure that by what you've heard and seen.Posts with tag wii-music
Wii Warm Up: Wii Music -- and everyone else
It's well-established that most average gamers don't seem to think too much of Wii Music, but what about all the casual and irregular gamers in your life? Do they even know about Wii Music, and if so, what do they think of it? Heard anyone asking for it, or know anyone who's gone out to buy it? Nintendo seems to think the title has a lot of potential in the home stretch, and we want to try to measure that by what you've heard and seen.Wii Music makes slow start, Nintendo hoping it has legs
Nintendo isn't about to panic, however. Rather, Dunaway thinks it could have the same long-term appeal already displayed by Wii Fit, Wii Play, and Mario Kart Wii, all of which regularly show up in the monthly NPD charts. "We're predicting that it's going to be an evergreen title, she told MTV Multiplayer. "And if you look at titles like Brain Age, it's about the same as what Brain Age did during it's first few weeks and went on to sell 2.5 million copies. Wii Fit certainly had a larger launch than that. But I think that people are starting to understand Wii Music."
Gallery: Wii Music
Your shopping accompanied by Wii Music
Each location will feature a "family trio of music-makers" and a Wii Music station hooked up to a "rockin' sound system" to entertain shoppers who happen to pass by. The list of venues for each weekend is after the break!
Gallery: Wii Music
Wii Warm Up: Living room surfing
Have you taken part in any non-Wii Fit-related Wii wobbling? What did you think of the experience? Do you look forward to any future Board-compatible games?
Gallery: Raving Rabbids TV Party
Miyamoto: Guitar Hero, Beatmania are 'cover band' titles
Shigeru Miyamoto recently hosted a Wii Music roundtable with a select number of websites and magazines (clearly, our invitation was lost in the mail), in which the great man appeared to insult other music games! Shock! Horror! Headlines!
Of course, we understand Miyamoto probably wasn't trying to be mean when he compared playing franchises such as Beatmania and Guitar Hero to being part of a cover band. If anything, we suspect Shiggy was merely explaining how Wii Music is more freeform -- which it is, of course. "My goal wouldn't be to try and lull people to join the best cover band," explained Wii Music's dad, "but rather, to let them move beyond that rather basic level of music training."
He also found time to defend Wii Music's track list, which has come under attack from some critics, including IGN's Matt Cassamassina, who we like to think shifted awkwardly in his seat when Miyamoto brought the subject up. Apparently, a lot of modern songs don't have a suitable chord progression for Wii Music, while the harmonies and melodies of many contemporary tracks came across as too samey. So there you go: Nintendo didn't just choose a ton of public domain songs to save cash.
Gallery: Wii Music
Wii Music not so much of a joke in Japan
Gallery: Wii Music
[Via Joystiq]
Looking for more on Wii Music? You can catch an E3 trailer here, read about our time with the game here, and learn how to play the Famicom, banjo, steel drum, handbell, trumpet, timpani, acoustic bass, shamisen, harmonica, cello, harpsichord, cheerleader, saxophone, sitar, cowbell, electric bass, drums, dog, accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.Amazon using Wii Music as a gateway game
Right now, if you buy Wii Music from Amazon, they'll give you a $20 voucher that you can use on video games. To get the obligatory Wii Music joke out of the way, you can buy Wii Music and another game worth $20 and come out with a total of one game for the price of one. The deal is valid until Halloween, and the cards will be mailed out within ten days after that end date (yes, they're apparently mailing cards out rather than the sensible option of emailed coupon codes). That means it should arrive just in time for Animal Crossing!
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Miyamoto talks to Channel 4 about gaming and the current financial crisis
If you were to tell us that Shigeru Miyamoto could see into the future and fire rainbows from his fingertips, we'd totally believe you. We just love the guy so much that we believe he's not even human and some kind of freakish evolutionary leap for our species, as his mind churns out these amazing things on a regular basis. So, it's no wonder that Channel 4 in the UK interviewed him out of all of the prominent figures in gaming about the current financial woes and if they'll have an impact on gaming. He plugs Wii Music a bit, but, for the most part, tells us how Nintendo has and always will make gaming affordable.
Gallery: Wii Music
[Via CVG]
Metareview: Wii Music
We'll say this much for Wii Music: it's probably the game/toy/whatever that has become the most debated release of 2008. It's caught a lot of flak, particularly since E3 and that presentation, but it's also had its fair share of defenders. Unsurprisingly, this uncanny knack of dividing opinion has spread to professional reviewers.
- GameSpy (70%) concedes that the title isn't for everybody, but thinks it will appeal to families and the chil'n: "It is far from a traditional videogame, and more akin to a tech demo or social audio experiment. The fact that it is so very basic means it's completely accessible to anyone, but at the same time there's not much here to interest regular and core gamers. It'll be a definite hit with younger children and in turn, parents and family members will love to watch the reactions of this demographic."
- 1UP (A-) was the first online outlet to get its review up, and managed to get us nicely hyped for the game with an absolutely stellar review and score: "Wii Music may have a hard time winning over the skeptics who just want to laugh at it, but give the game the chance it deserves. You just might realize it's pretty damn fun being in on the joke."
- ... Only for IGN's (50%) Matt Cassamina to deflate our enthusiasm with a fairly crushing verdict: "I think most adults will quickly recognize that Wii Music is little more than a noise maker tied to a series of gestures and grow bored of the experience in a matter of hours, if not minutes. The controls aren't particularly intuitive, but gimmicky, and the selection of music is fundamentally flawed with dated public domain songs rendered in equally dated MIDI."
Gallery: Wii Music
Retail and download releases for the week of October 20th
It's a pretty big week for releases. On top of plenty of games available at retail, there's a couple of imports available on the Virtual Console, as well as one awaited WiiWare release (can you guess what it is?). Head past the break and start thinking about cracking open that piggy bank.
Gallery: Tetris Party
Continue reading Retail and download releases for the week of October 20th
Wii Music shifts 50k on day one in Japan
Don't they look happy? That's because they all bought Wii Music, along with 49,996 others. Yup, you read that right: the Wii Music day one sales data from Japan is in, and according to Famitsu publisher Enterbrain, the magical figure is 50,000 units sold. How does that compare to the Japanese launches of other large first-party Wii games? Not that well, as it happens; hit the break to see for yourself.
Gallery: Wii Music
Wii Music: Disappointed preview talks features, songs
With Wii Music very nearly out, we're starting to see, if not reviews, final pre-review previews. IGN's Matt Casamassina, who often seems quite motivated to stump for Nintendo, may be expected to provide the most glowing of writeups after his hands-on with the toy. That is not what happened. Despite the fact that it's not a review, Wii Music gets evaluated pretty harshly.
But in the process of mentioning that he still doesn't like Wii Music, Casamassina offers a few gameplay details we didn't know. For example, you can randomize the song and lineup for a "quick jam," allowing you to experiment even more freely than your brain allows.
Casamassina also lists some more songs found in the game, including (MIDI versions of) classics "Chariots of Fire, Daydream Believer, I'll Be There, Every Breath You Take, I've Never Been Me, Material Girl, Please Mr. Postman, September, Sukiyaki, The Loco-Motion, Woman, Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, Jingle Bell Rock."
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Musicians rock out with Wii Music
The Nintendo Channel updated today with some new videos for upcoming games, like Away: Shuffle Dungeon, Art Style: Cubello, World of Goo and, as seen above and past the break, Wii Music. Above, you can see rapper Cee-Lo rocking out with Wii Music's beatbox instrument. After checking out that video, cruise past the break for some footage of funkadelic artist G. Love enjoying some gameplay.
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Miyamoto shows the kids Wii Music
Since we all know Wii Music is not a game, but a toy, the target audience has to be the really young. Why else would Miyamoto be at a Japanese preschool, showing off the title? But, hey, we have to give it up to Shiggy and Nintendo. If there's a great way to gather interest in a title, it's with a dozen or so cute, smiling children.
Gallery: Wii Music
[Via Wiiblog]
Playing invisible instruments more complex than you think
That's according to Reggie Fils-Aime, at least. The Nintendo bossman thinks that his company did Wii Music a big disservice when it was displayed at E3, and feels the game is a lot more complex than people realize.
In fact, Reggie believes that Wii Music, like all the best music games, will be simple to pick up, but a tricky beast to master. "We may have done that title an injustice at E3 by showing something that looked so easy," stated Fils-Aime to technology and media site Venturebeat. "Now we're showing the tremendous variety of instruments and tones and how challenging it is to make music that sounds good."
Reggie also revealed that Nintendo expects Wii Music to become one of the "top sellers" on the system. We can totally believe that, but "challenging"? Really? We don't want to jump conclusions without a few major Wii Music sessions, but these assertions do seem to go against the evidence we've seen so far.
Gallery: Wii Music
[Via Eurogamer]
