Wii Music

[BardicKnowledge]

I'd like to encourage anyone that got this early to post reviews and critiques to help inform the rest of us -- it's a product that should in theory be interesting to the community, and the review I read (Gamespot) wasn't helpful at all.

How much control over notes do you actually have, for instance? Is it worth the money?

[Tex]

I don't like it. I prefer FruityLoops.

[halc]

I am playing it right now, but we did not pay money for it. There's only like 4-5 Nintendo songs in the game, most of them are orchestral. The jam sessions and maestro features are pretty goofy and fun but I'm pretty stoned so who knows.

aka I definitely would not spend $50 on this if I were you, give it a rent or get a copy of it some other way

[SirChadlyOC]

I played this game for about 2 hours last night. It's kind of fun to tool around on for a bit, but there's really not enough depth to this game. I'm very curious to try this with 4 people though.

In-depth review:

I was disappointed to learn that there are only 3 ways to play each instrument: like a piano, like a clarinet, and like a violin (which is used the least). I was hoping for more variety. although they claim that there are over 60 instruments, it feels like there are only about 8: piano, drums, silly percussion, brass, woodwind, string, bass instruments, and funny sounds. They actually have many variations of these types of instruments, but the sound quality on each is pretty horrible. The instruments all sound like Midi files and not orchestrated instruments, which makes the overall sound less appealing, which makes the entire game less appealing.

Also, the Wiimote is too inaccurate to really play the rhythms exactly how you want to play them, which leads me to get so angry that I frustratedly shake the controller until all you hear is something worthy of OLR. Playing the rhythm and bass lines yourself (instead of by a computer-controlled "tune") really just makes the whole piece wacky because you can't keep time accurately enough.

As for picking your notes, you really can't. It's pretty frustrating that I hear the note I want to play in my head, but the game picks a different note. It feels pretty limiting considering it's such an open-ended game (in theory).

The minigames are all totally sweet though, but I wish they were perfected and much longer. Unfortunately, there are only 5 songs for 2 of the 3 minigames, which suddenly makes them rather worthless. On the other hand, a fully fleshed-out version of these games would be worth purchasing. It kind of feels like I downloaded a demo of Wii Music, and the full version is coming out later.

The Handbells minigame, for example, let's you read music exactly as if you were playing in a handbell orchestra. (I've actually played handbells for several years, and it works pretty well, except the Wiimote is a bit too sensitive, which causes miscues.) I bet it would be tons of fun with 4 players. It helps that you can set the tempo and even make it more complex.

The maestro minigame finally allows me to conduct an orchestra like they've been promising me since the old man in the original Wii demos. But unlike for the old man, all you need to do is wave the Wiimote up and down, not conduct in actual time. Conducting in 1 is actually really boring, and you're not really sure what you did wrong that prevents you from getting higher scores, but the basic idea is a blast. It's too bad that it's not more hardcore.

The Pitch Perfect minigame is fun until it's quickly over. It's not much of a challenge until 3/4s of the way through, and even most people on here would say it was still easy at that point.

Summary:

The game is probably a blast for 5-year-olds who still love bashing pans together just for the sake of loud noises. But for the rest of us, playing the instruments just isn't fulfilling enough to make you want to come back for more.

The funny thing is, after all the bad things I've said about the game, I still want to own it so I can show it to my family during the holidays. I want to play 4-player handbells with the rest of my musically-talented family, but I don't know how much more we would enjoy the game after that. I'd guess the game is insanely fun with 4 players, but only for and hour. I'd pay $20 for that hour of fun, but not $50.

[Overflow]

The game is a ton of fun with four people. I've been playing with my family and it's a lot of silly fun(like my dad taking ten minutes to pick an instrument and then playing after the song is over) or when we (rarely) actually get the song to sound right and in rhythm, there's a nice sense of accomplishment.

My sister and I played a lot yesterday. We did Over the Waves, and for most of the song we were horribly off time with each other (I was melody, she was harmony) but every now and then we would randomly sync up perfectly and end the song on a good note. That was a lot of fun.

[I-n-j-i-n]

I think Miyamoto blew it on this one. It seems Nintendo's super casuals-only mindset lately is getting into Miyamoto's head. I barely thought it was worth the rental or my time. I never felt that way about most of Miyamoto's games. It felt even more gimmicky than usual. Controller? Why is that a factor? I don't get it..

Oh yeah, and the music aspect? AWFUL. Rockband and Guitar Hero has way better audio sensibility and music quality.

[NNY]

The news sucks, but I still need to try it. I've never seen any screenshots, but seeing Miyamoto demonstrate how it would play way back made it look extremely fun. I didn't imagine it as playing an instrument, I thought it would be more like a conductor game, like Mad Maestro. Conduct fast, band plays fast. Conduct slow, the band plays slow. Conduct in a certain areas to make different sections play, little things like that. Does wiimusic have this? If it does, I don't care how bad the instrument playing parts are, I'd still say this is worth a purchase.

[Tex]

Conduct fast, band plays fast. Conduct slow, the band plays slow.

Yes. Wii Music has such feature.

[Antipode]

In Wii Music though I believe it's only based on speed and only on moving it up and down. If you try to actually conduct with it you do worse.

[NNY]

Yes. Wii Music has such feature.

That is the bitch. I'm gonna have to try it soon.

In Wii Music though I believe it's only based on speed and only on moving it up and down. If you try to actually conduct with it you do worse.

Hmm. That sucks. I'll still have to try it.

It seems like all the fun music game ideas I have never make it to fruition.

Jam With The Band? Each DS plays a different instrument, get together with your friends and all play a song as a band? Kick ass. Rock Band precursor there. Too bad it never came to the States.

I don't care what anyone says, my idea for Rock Band is much better. That game's garbage until they add a rock organ. They don't even need to call it "Rock Band." Rename it to "The Doors" and it would be gold.

[SirChadlyOC]

Yeah, the conducting would be much cooler if there were more than 5 songs you can conduct. And if you could effectively conduct in 4 instead of 1.

I tried the drumset today using the Wii balance board, and I got my ass kicked. I am a sucky drummer. I suppose that's a good sign that it's a good feature, though. Too bad it doesn't do multiplayer too much.

[NNY]

ZoHLgaG7aS4

I've wanted this game for so long. I don't care if it's "casual" or whatnot. Each button assigned an actual note? Getting to play an instrument that isn't either a guitar, drumset, electric bass (the most boring kind of bass.).

The songs can range from easy:

0wm0XBm2qfg

To hard:

bEKYgigzPEQ

The instrument samples sound very dated, sure. Very much like a first gen OCRemix (Oh snap!), but the game did come out in 2005 after all.

I'm gonna have to import this eventually. I'm pretty sure it's got wireless single cart support.

[Glenn565]

Yeah, Daigasso! Band Brothers is pretty awesome.

That's one of the best that I've seen.

[Xenon Odyssey]

Obviously everybody just needs to sample the sounds from Wii Music and then make their own OLReMiXeS.

Puh-weeze?

[SwordBreaker]

I'm still on the fence whether to buy this game or just skip it all together. There are some that praise what it's trying to do, while others say it's just a glorified noise maker. The latter view is getting more convincing. Either way, the track list is just pathetic. That's the major weak point of this game in my opinion. Why not give us more Nintendo tracks or cooler stuff? There are a few nice picks here and there, but it's just not satisfying overall. It's kind of childish to play Twinkle Twinkle or Yankee Doodle, even for 5-year-olds.