Wii Music is the first music game. Rock Band and Guitar Hero? Those are song games. Those are games made by music aficionados who like songs. Specifically, rock songs. Wii Music was made by composers - Nintendo's men of music gathered together and put in charge. And so they made a game about what they know: how music works.
Wii Music is an arrangement sim. It is not an instrument simulator. Yes, flicking the remote to play the different guitars imitates strumming, but only a lunatic would equate presses of 1 and 2 with the contortion required to fart a song from the bagpipes. This isn't a bad thing, it just means anyone can do it. Which means Wii Music can get on with the business at hand: being an arrangement sim.
Songs can be 'made' in that six strands - melody, rhythm, chords, bass and two percussion slots - can be layered. Changing the instruments in the slots alters the shape of the song. The Super Mario Bros theme played by four accordions has Gallic charm; four Miis in cat suits will transform it into a twisted MIDI pet shop. This alone is great fun. Like a mad musical scientist you add parts to your aural potion. Violin? No, cello. Now a drop of snare drum and... KAZAM! The tune is made.
That is Wii Music at its broadest. Let's take it down a level. Hit the note timings and the correct note will play. Improvise in between those notes and the game inserts notes that will technically 'work' in the given musical surroundings. Add flourishes by pressing A or B (instrument-specific effects too varied to list here) and each note earns a little bit of character. Fundamentally the tune will always be Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but by arranging it from instruments down to single note sounds it becomes yours.
Pleased with the tune? Burn it to virtual CD, complete with an album cover crafted by positioning your Mii band members on set backgrounds. The competition to recreate famous covers begins here. If it wasn't for the lack of bare-chested Miis we'd have the perfect Nevermind. Send the tune over WiiConnect24 and friends can listen or hack up the tune to improve it. You scratch my Bach, I'll scratch yours, if you will.
Want the game to be more? It can be more. Wii Music's tutorials don't stop at instrument lessons. Guided by the Muppet-like Sebastian Tute, you're taken through Wii Music functionality and general music functionality. The interface may be bright and colourful, but behind the chirpy bouncing on-screen notes (the Be-Bops) lies a full-on musical education. Rhythms that define musical styles, the relationships between certain instruments, timing changes - we felt pretty dumb playing it.
Not everyone wants to be back in school, however, and we'll concede that the music does skew young, and the transition from Through The Fire And Flames to Yankee Doodle might be asking too much. But as we said, the songs aren't important. If anything, the selection of childhood classics and broad pop hits (Material Girl, Every Breath You Take - stuff like that) are there to inspire confidence in messing with them: you can't tweak what you don't know.
The childish complaint has never curried much favour with us. Shrugging Wii Music off as a children's toy is unwise; it taps into a universal musical satisfaction that we can't, nor would want to, deny ourselves. Wii Music goes for a timeless quality: the pulsating bombast of the crescendo, the hairs on the back of neck at an awesome key change, the fun of hearing instruments communicate and work together.
Ultimately, a review in a games magazine is not going to nail what it is about music that has kept mankind enraptured ever since Ugg the caveman composed his 'Ode To Not Being Eaten By A Velociraptor' on his performance flints.
Annoyingly, Wii Music is exactly about that thing. It sounds totally pretentious, and all it takes is one passer-by to sneer at the MIDI roughness of our latest masterpiece (harpsichord and human beatbox do Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go) and the bubble bursts, but while we're in there we couldn't be happier.
Time will tell if we've got this one wrong - a game this experimental demands more time, and will get it in a feature next month - but for the time being we'll march to the beat of Wii Music's drum. And if you find yourself marching to a different drum, don't worry about it. After all, that's how music works.
At the end of the day, who can explain musical taste? Some things soar, some things crash and burn. Prepare for either, but we're in the former (band) camp.
It still sounds guff. If I got the opportunity, I'd give it a go, but no WAY I'd buy it. Give me Rock Band any day of the week. Calling it a 'music arrangement game' rather than a 'rythmn game' doesn't make it any better.
It just sounds like a disastrous game. The advert, even filmed to look as good as possible, looks absolutely dreadful.
The only person who seems to have any kind of control over what they play is the drummer.
The audio sounds like the bloody N64, or worse, C64 and it just generally look dreadful.
Now I know the review says that it is actually quite fun - I can't comment on that - but as far as drawing new users in, i don't think they've got a hope in hell.
Put it this way, my girlfriend, who with most Wii adverts (eg. those dreadful Phil and Fearn, The Redknapp family and Girls aloud ones) gets interested and says "that looks really fun" until I tell her how much it is, and when she realises that it costs more than Ł20 loses all interest. But when she saw the Wii Music advert just sneered.
She is basically their key demographic for these games, and that response isn't a good one.
Calling it a 'music arrangement game' rather than a 'rhythm game' doesn't make it any better.
You mean a 'music arrangement game where it's impossible to actually put notes in the wrong place and therefor completely defy anything remotely arrange-y about it'. Choosing whether to add in or drop out an instrument? Hours of fun, clearly.
It's like a Mario game where you can't miss platforms or a FPS where you get nothing but headshots.
Isn't there some kind of arrangement where Nintendo magazines must score Nintendo first party games 80% or upwards?
there must be because after reading that review there's no way that even the person doing the review believes it should score that highly. probably looking at the chrimbo no1 though
agreed, a rubbish review. is the writer reviewing "wii music" or "music", sounds more like he is whistfully saying how music can change your emotion and mood.
then he says wii music makes you part of the music and it SEEMS good, until you realise all you can make are poor sounding MIDIs.
I must say, this review is totally NOT what I was expecting. I've seen a few reviews, by professionals, and the highest I've seen was a 5/10. And now CVG gave it a 8.9 - I am very surprised. And to be perfectly honest, the review itself was not written to top standard.
Wii Music 8.9 (Wii) Guitar Hero World Tour 8.8 (PS3)
lolwut?
Since when does a nintendo mag review sony games.... Look at where the reviews come from eh?
I know that but this Nintendo magazine is saying Wii Music is of the same quality as Guitar Hero World Tour, it doesnt matter if they are for separate consoles.
Anyway, why so defensive? Did I insult you by posting?
Guitar Hero is also not a sony game as it is a multi platform game.
I must say, this review is totally NOT what I was expecting. I've seen a few reviews, by professionals, and the highest I've seen was a 5/10. And now CVG gave it a 8.9 - I am very surprised. And to be perfectly honest, the review itself was not written to top standard.
TBH its not CVG thats reviewing it, its been ripped from the pages of NGamer magazine. and i don't even think they're an official mag. still reckon that they see first party Wii gmes through rose tinted specs, either that or the reviewer had Miyamoto standing there with a gun leveled at his head.
Wii Music 8.9 (Wii) Guitar Hero World Tour 8.8 (PS3)
lolwut?
Since when does a nintendo mag review sony games.... Look at where the reviews come from eh?
I know that but this Nintendo magazine is saying Wii Music is of the same quality as Guitar Hero World Tour, it doesnt matter if they are for separate consoles.
Anyway, why so defensive? Did I insult you by posting?
Guitar Hero is also not a sony game as it is a multi platform game.
Agreed. The source is irrelevant, but the scores should be equally comparable. Is Wii Music really better than Guitar Hero: WT, irrespective of the format its on? I highly doubt it.
Isn't there some kind of arrangement where Nintendo magazines must score Nintendo first party games 80% or upwards?
The same mag gave Wii Fit 68%, which was the third lowest review anybody gave it according to Metacritic...
Hah, even I would score Wii Fit higher than that Makes you wonder what's going on over there - or have they got a monkey writing these reviews (the same one that wrote the complete works of Shakespear).
Wii Music goes for a timeless quality: the pulsating bombast of the crescendo, the hairs on the back of neck at an awesome key change, the fun of hearing instruments communicate and work together.
That statement right there goes to show what complete bulls**t this review is. Hands up anyone who's ever had their hairs stand up on the back of their neck whilst listening to midi versions of kids tunes.
If you want a true version of what Wii Music is really like listen to the 1up podcast where John tells you what his 3 and 5 year old children made of it (here's a hint: they got bored pretty quickly)
Wii Music goes for a timeless quality: the pulsating bombast of the crescendo, the hairs on the back of neck at an awesome key change, the fun of hearing instruments communicate and work together.
That statement right there goes to show what complete bulls**t this review is. Hands up anyone who's ever had their hairs stand up on the back of their neck whilst listening to midi versions of kids tunes.
If you want a true version of what Wii Music is really like listen to the 1up podcast where John tells you what his 3 and 5 year old children made of it (here's a hint: they got bored pretty quickly)
Wii Music = exactly the same feel as playin in a band according to what you quoted lol.
But which one of us hasn't want to ring a cow bell along to 'Row Row Row Your Boat'....
<vomits>
s**te, if i'd known you could ring cow bells i wouldn't have got rid of my Wii. thats always been my life long dream, that and balancing on bathroom scales pretending to ski.
anyone that gave Wii-Play 91% deserves to be taken round the back of the tool shed and shot. christ the only reason so many people bought it was to get an extra Wii-mote. i had it on once, went to trade it in but was told that nobody would take it.
anyone that gave Wii-Play 91% deserves to be taken round the back of the tool shed and shot. christ the only reason so many people bought it was to get an extra Wii-mote. i had it on once, went to trade it in but was told that nobody would take it.
Aye. In fact, I looked at it as a slightly more expensive controller with a free game, rather than the other way round. I think I got about an hour of pleasure from the game in total.
And it spent 30 minutes as a coaster for my hot chocolate.
At the end of the day they gave Manhunt 2 92 odd percent and also Red Steel got in the 90s in their mag, so I think people should take their reviews witha pinch of salt.
They've scored this higher than Mario kart Wii and last years Pro Evo Wii which is just bizarre in my opinion.
You read the review and you just cant figure out how or why they came up with that score. Rather than an analysis of how the game plays, its more a theoretical debate as to whether the concept should work or not.
It truly saddens me to see so many people that have not even tried the game making so many closed minded comments. It is for this very reason that so few unique Japanese games never make it to North America or Europe.
While this review might be a bit high on the score side, even for me, it is a good review. The complete s**te review at IGN USA (keep in mind, IGN UK gave it a 7.0 and praised many things in the game) was done in haste and shouldn't be trusted for anything. This is a unique and challenging game, and it's the first of the "Wii" games to have any depth whatsoever.
I played the demo at an exhibition and got bored. It takes no skill to play and the music isnt the best.
I do think its games like these and Wii Fit that have made gamers alienate the Wii. There are more shovelware titles than AAA titles on the Wii.
I think a lot of people like myself bought the wii at the spur of the moment. We got drawn in by the first proper wireless motion control (or at least the best marketed) we got hooked on Wii Sports, played it for a while then suddenly realised how truly basic and patronising it really is.
I have given my Wii to my brother and am now happily playing the games I like on the 360, PC and PS3. I havent looked back since.
This is a unique and challenging game, and it's the first of the "Wii" games to have any depth whatsoever.
How is it challenging then? Guitar Hero:World Tour or Rock Band - play a song on one of those on Expert. Now they are challenging (and you can, and most likely will, fail).
And depth??? Just what depth does Wii Music have? Me thinks you need to look up the meaning of the world before you start throwing it around, clearly you don't know what it means.
No its not. Music was published by codemasters about ten years back on Playstation. Even that is probably pre-dated by some ancient C64 software.
That was a music creation game, which even today, dumps on Wii Music from a great height in every way. And it was a game. I'm not trying to compare Wii Music to Reason or some other high tech soft-synth sequencer thing.
You could cobble together pre-recorded samples and visualisations, or create original user-generated content (to use the parlance of our time) from scratch.
To put into context just how much more powerful Music was in 1998, my mate used it to write backing tracks for demos, would line out the audio to an 8 track recorder, and whack guitars and vocals over the top. It sounded pretty damn convincing.
Can I do that with Wii Music? Nope. Does it teach me anything about actually playing an instrument, or arranging and mixing compositions? Does it invovle dexterity and intensive muscle-memory (which even Rockband and Guitar require on expert difficulty)? Nope.
Like Wii Fit and Brain Training, this is pseudo-educational pap designed to appeal to that part of the non-gamers' mind that needs to justify why they're playing video games.
Complete rubbish, and I don't need to play it to see that a mile off.
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Contrast this review with today's Gamecentral review. I know which one I'd be more inclined to believe.
Wii Music (Wii)
Review by David Jenkins – Although we fully understand why they infuriate the hardcore, we've happily rated the likes of Brain Training and Wii Fit as some of Nintendo's most innovative games.
This though is a triple A stinker. We've never used the term "non-game" as an insult but in this case we will. This isn't a game at all and the only important lesson it has to teach about music is to buy a real instrument.
Some of Nintendo's best games have resulted in taking a previously oversubscribed genre and putting their own idiosyncratic spin on it. This is as different from Guitar Hero as Pikmin is from Command & Conquer or Super Smash Bros. from Tekken.
You aren't judged on the quality of music you play and even following a pre-set series of notes is optional – so there's nothing to fail at. There are over 60 different instruments, most of which use one of four basic control systems: piano, guitar, violin or horns.
For the piano you wave the remote and nunchuck up and down, for the horn you hold it like a flute and for the guitar and violin you pull the remote through the air as if moving along the strings. The game then interprets your movements and button presses into notes. Keeping a decent rhythm is just as hard as in a more prescriptive music game and yet here you've got full freedom to alter the speed, pitch and tone.
You can fine tune your performance by adding things like tremolo or arpeggio, but underneath you're still playing one of the 50-odd in-built songs. Which is a bit disconcerting when you realise your freestyle jazz solo is just a remix of Oh Christmas Tree.
The real problem here is Nintendo's appalling penny-pinching. The MIDI sounds are all fairly cheap and nasty, but that seems to be a purposeful stylistic choice. The real problem is the dreadful collection of music, in which The Loco-motion and Wake Me Up Before You Go Go are the two modern highlights. There's not a single song any right-minded adult would ever want to play.
What's really upsetting is that there's some clever technology at play here and the drum simulator works very well. This is the only instrument to get its own set of lessons (if you own a Balance Board) and it feels far more realistic than in Rock Band et al.
Alas the rest of the (non-)game has no interest in being anything but a cheap novelty that will struggle to entertain anyone for more than a few minutes.
IN SHORT: Nintendo's assault on the casual market finally hits a snag with a title that puts the non in non-game.
PROS: Playing around with each of the 60 instruments is fun at first. The drum simulator is excellent.
CONS: Diabolically awful selection of songs, with cheap MIDI music and absolutely no structure or challenge.
@_Marty_: Yes yes, clicking away to colourful dots on a screen is much more deep than defining your own 6 piece arrangement where you can either follow the song or make up a bit on your own and then save it, go back later and change it, etc. etc. You are a fool if you think that. And as to easy, if it's so easy, please be my guest and beat my Swan Lake Improvisation on youtube... it's not easy... Good luck and open your mind a bit.
Wii Play is a Ł5 game, do you think Portal would have scored so well if it was full price?
No its not. Music was published by codemasters about ten years back on Playstation. Even that is probably pre-dated by some ancient C64 software.
That was a music creation game, which even today, dumps on Wii Music from a great height in every way.
No, it was a creation program (like KORG on the DS) and had no gameplay whatsoever. You actually play something in Wii Music, which makes it an actual game.
So much hate here, Wii Music does far more for the ideals of music than those shiny simon says games complete with fisher price instruments many are unfairly comparing it to. It is the sandbox game of the music genre (with admittedly more depth), if people are happy to mess around in GTA (and in most cases ignore the missions) with no purpose then why not here?
@Mappman: So essentially you haven't played the game and yet you are passing judgement on it? I would agree that it's not an educational tool except for the very young... after all, it is a console game... but as a music game, it adds a whole new avenue apart from those modeled after Samba de Amigo... Would you compare GHIII against those older programs? Is GHIII an educational game? This is not an apples to apples comparison.
@somniumxxx: And of course, you, unlike a lot of the other haters out there, have actually devoted some time to playing this game, correct?
Honestly, I've never seen so many people passing judgement on a game whilst either never playing it or having put little to no effort into playing it. My experience so far is that the haters either have not played it or completely suck at it for lack of experience.
Does anyone see a problem with that? I think there's a word for commenting on something you have little or no experience with...
And no, the press are not falling all over themselves... review scores are all over the map from 3.0 to 9.0 out of 10. Keep in mind that review scores are actually going HIGHER as people have more time to play the game, NOT LOWER. Maybe that should tell us all something.
Who put you in charge of the sanctimony brigade?! You've more than likely never played it either!
I think people have as much right to form a negative opinion based on the wealth of reviews out there as they do a positive one.
And how do you know review scores are getting higher as people play it? What possible evidence do you have to support this? Have you looked at the "date modified" column in every word doc containing a Wii Music review, just to see how the scores have improved day after day?!
Oh and Biggwedge, you're probably right to be fair; Music wasn't really a game. But then from what I've read, neither is Wii Music, only in a much more sh|t way.
@Mappman: Well, I'll agree that I am sanctimonious... not sure if that's any worse than what a lot of ppl are doing on here.
As to me not playing the game, that's a cheap shot and an especially silly one since I've already said that my vids are on youtube... so I don't know what you're on about.
I own GH, Samba de Amigo, AND Wii Music. Samba de Amigo was fun but took only 3 days to beat, GH isn't for me because I've already spent too much time practicing piano and don't need the pain with no gain, and Wii Music is unique and very challenging... but I can agree that's not for everyone. But to not invest any effort into the game and then to continue to speak venomously of it as so many haters are doing doesn't help anyone.
Everyone keeps asking for something new and different, but when it arrives it is hated... I can understand after Wii Fit and Wii Play... people are expecting that this is the same casual stuff... but this game is different... and yes I've played Fit and Play as well.
As to how is this game challenging - the game challenges you to create something that is unique whilst not sounding like crap. The point in this game is to NOT follow the melody/harmony/bass etc., but to discover your own. It's easy to fail... you make something that sounds like crap.
Honestly, what did people want? Another Guitar Hero game? We already have two of those and Samba de Amigo for Wii now to boot. This game is almost exactly what I would expect from Miyamoto... you get to explore the music - which is key to all of his great games.
@_Marty_: Yes yes, clicking away to colourful dots on a screen
I can only assume you mean Rock Band/Guitar Hero here, which is far more than 'clicking colourful dots' (unless you're drumming, in which case, you are actually drumming...). You have played GH/RB, right?
is much more deep than defining your own 6 piece arrangement where you can either follow the song or make up a bit on your own and then save it, go back later and change it, etc. etc. You are a fool if you think that.
Then I, and it seems many on this forum alone, are fools. Meh, I've been called worse.
And as to easy, if it's so easy, please be my guest and beat my Swan Lake Improvisation on youtube... it's not easy...
But who's to say I 'beat you' if I tried? Is it down to opinion, or is there some clearly defined goal or some other way we can tell who won? We both know the answer to this...
Good luck and open your mind a bit.
Thanks, but I'd rather spend my cash on one of the many GAMES that are coming out of late rather than this which is more musical toy than game.
Defend it all you want, and you clearly love it. However, can you not even vaguely see why people might be having an issue with this?
It's sad to me that so many people seem to view Guitar Hero as THE standard for a "music game," since all it really is is the "falling numbers" game from my old Motorola cell-phone, set to a musical backdrop. It has NO concept whatsoever. As for the idea that playing it requires an understanding of music--complete and utter trash! All it requires is very very fast visual processing, or memorizing the game.
As for Wii Music, I think it's a positive step. Yeah, I'd like to see an expanded song list and of course a fuller set of features is always welcome, but at least this game focuses on some of the things that make music what it is, like this reviewer says. "Music" games that focus purely on finger speed might as well be telegraph-operator games. !! Get it? !!
I saw in ngamer this month and then I saw that wii music got 89 in verdict on a scale from 0 to a hundred,but in a newspaper in my country(which is Norway)It got 2 on a scale from 1 to 6!.So I am wondering is wii music a good or a bad game
gregus: One of my friends got this game and we tried it out. I found it quite funny, but as many wii games, its more fun if you got some friends to play with and it can get boring after a while, but i think its a nice game, better than guitar hero, but i dont think i'm gonna buy it.
a lot of ppl hav sed this is rubbish but i agree with Matthew on this. guitar hero is awesome but its annoying that u cnt really alter tunes. this lets u do that. u cannot fail. Wii Music=better than guitar hero world tour.
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Well, I'll agree that I am sanctimonious... not sure if that's any worse than what a lot of ppl are doing on here.
