Wii Music is an upcoming music video game for the Wii that simulates playing musical instruments using the Wii Remote. The game is part of Nintendo’s Wii Series, which includes Wii Sports, Wii Play , Wii Fit and Wii Chess. Wii Music was originally suggested as a launch title, but no new information regarding the game or a release date had been given, except for an unspecific 2008 release for Japan. Shigeru Miyamoto also re-confirmed in July 2007 that Wii Music would be released in 2008, preferring to currently focus on Super Mario Galaxy and Wii Fit instead of trying to develop all three games at once.
On October 16th 2008, Nintendo’s first music game, Wii Music, was finally released in Japan (and will be released in the US on Oct. 20th 2008). Though there was no Famitsu scoring for this game, the sales figures told a part of this game’s quality: about 50,000 copies for the first day. You may think this is not a bad result. However, when compared to its predecessors like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, which all sold over 100,000 copies on first day, it was really not an acceptable figure for Nintendo.
On October 17th, IGN gave out a review of Wii Music, with an overall rating of 5.0(out of 10).(http://wii.ign.com/articles/921/921024p1.html)
Presentation: 6.0 – Polished interface and music video backdrops, Mii integration and WiiConnect24 support. List of songs is awful. MIDI renditions even worse.
Graphics: 5.0 - Similar to Wii Sports, Wii Music rocks a style so simple that it borders on barren, but it’s also very clean and fluid.
Sound: 4.0 – Ugh. Really disappointing. A soundtrack fit for an elevator, all rendered in archaic MIDI. The entire track list could fit easily on an N64 cartridge.
Gameplay: 5.0 – Gimmicky. At times, seemingly pointless. Kids will love making noise, but everyone else will grow bored with the experience shortly after it begins.
Lasting Appeal: 5.0 – 60 instruments and just as many songs, not to mention the ability to trade renditions with friends. There’s even a four-player jam mode. It’s all there, but the core package just isn’t that fun.
OVERALL: 5.0 (out of 10 / not an average)
In the Close Comment the author wrote:
“I wouldn’t qualify Wii Music as an abysmal failure. The truth is, I like some of the concepts powering the game. The ability to dynamically alter music using a variety of instruments. The fact that you can layer together different songs and really create your own style. And the integration of Mii avatars, not to mention WiiConnect24 support, definitely add further polish to the fun and simple presentation. I think for all of the above reasons, kids may really latch onto Nintendo’s latest effort (although I feel a little sorry for parents who must endure the cacophony of noises coming from their child’s bedroom).
That said, 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 both dated public domain songs rendered in equally dated MIDI. That Guitar Hero World Tour’s complementary modes — namely Mii Freestyle and advanced studio — completely obliterate the entire Wii Music package is proof just how much Nintendo’s game either doesn’t do or doesn’t do well. ”
As far as I remember, this is the first controversial game for Shigeru Miyamoto. In his career of over 27 years, Miyamoto created a number of top-class quality games such as Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, Nintendog and Pikmin, all of which proved that he’s one of the most successful game designer in the world. Though to assert this game is a failure is way too early, there is a great possibility that this game becomes the first waterloo for Miyamoto.
I disagree with y’all. I think the sound and gameplay is great. How ’bout we see you make a game……exactly!