Publisher: SEGA
Developer: Gearbox Software
Multiplayer: Yes
Online Multiplayer: No
Review by Predat0r + Wrecker
Hola Amigo! It is time to dust off your maracas as Gearbox Software gives the 1500 year old Puerto Rican instrument a makeover in ‘Samba de Amigo’. One of the original ‘rhythm games’ (and only maraca games!) it was released in arcades in the late 90’s and on the Sega Dreamcast in 2000. Now, ‘Amigo the monkey’ returns to shake it up – this time on the Wii.
Gameplay: 6.5
The core game play of Samba de Amigo (like most other rhythm games) is simple – it involves holding the wiimote and nunchuck in various positions and shaking them (like ‘maracas’ of course) in time to the music and patterns that appear on the screen. The player is presented with six targets arranged in a circle: two red, two yellow and two green each representing ‘shake high’, ‘shake middle and ‘shake low’, respectively. Blue dots appear in the centre of the circle and move towards the ‘targets’ in time with the music. The player must shake the wiimote or nunchuk in the corresponding position when the blue dot reaches the center of each target. Variations on this gameplay are then added, including continuous lines of dots for rapid shaking and ‘posing’, for which you must hold your ‘maracas’ in positions shown on-screen. The player is rewarded with a score for correct shakes, as well as multipliers and bonuses for synchronized and consecutive shakes. If a player is doing well then Amigo the monkey and his cast of background characters get lively and start to dance around, otherwise they get depressed and leave.
Samba de Amigo provides a number of different options for game play including ‘career’, ‘single player’ and ‘multiplayer’ modes as well as online play via ‘Nintendo Wi-Fi connection’. A training section (similar to Guitar Hero) is also included. The game is also ‘profile based’ with the ability to choose you Mii characters to create a profile for storing your personal settings and saving high scores.
The game does provide a good high score chart that encourages players to beat their friends maraca shaking records. Player’s scores are recorded against their profiles in both single and multiplayer modes to ensure that each score is recorded individually for each player (a feature lacking from games such as ‘Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games’).
Career mode is a new mode in the Wii version and can be played in ‘easy’, ‘normal’, ‘hard’ or ‘superhard’ (initially locked) difficulty levels. Career mode requires you to complete several songs per level and also features stages based on other Sega characters, such as ‘Sonic the Hedgehog’. Completing stages also unlocks a variety of other game content including extra songs, mini-games, bonus features as well as maraca and dance sound effects. Interestingly, many of the locked options appear out of order in the in game menu’s which can be a little confusing.
Both ‘Single Player’ and ‘Multiplayer’ modes offer gameplay options such as ‘Quick Play’ and ‘Classic’, as well as variations such as ‘Love Love’, ’Survival’ and ‘Battle’. Each mode also features ‘Mini-Games’ including ‘Guacamole’, ‘Power Rush’, ’Strike-a-Pose’, ‘Dance Dance Amigo’,‘Piñata’ and 'Volleyball'.
Whilst playing Samba de Amigo, it becomes obvious that the controls are not as precise as they perhaps should be. The movement of the Wii remote and nunchuck it is not always convincing and can sometimes feel slightly out of time with the beat of the song. The game does assist by highlighting the target if you are in the correct position to shake, but you are still left with the feeling that sometimes your ‘shake’ was not correctly registered. In addition to this, the movement of the characters in the background is often not in time with the current song and is directly underneath the targets, which is very distracting (as opposed to Guitar Hero where the fretboard clearly separates the background animations from the core gameplay). Another frustrating feature is that you are rarely punished for missing a beat or shaking too early. In fact we played some games by shaking the controllers continuously in any which direction throughout the song, and completed successfully completed it.
The game does however add some unique variations to the control styles – if you are fortunate enough to have some spare Wii remotes lying around, you can choose to use two Wii remotes for you maracas instead of one Wii remote and the nunchuck. This is an innovative option and does assist somewhat with the precision and also reduces the risk of the nunchuck cable being ripped out of the wiimote ‘mid-shake’. This option is a must for those who fork out for the deluxe version of the game that comes with some ‘authentic’ maraca-like attachments for the controllers.
The game does grow on you after a while and definitely has some fun moments, especially when playing with other people and can be a good laugh. However the game modes can often become quite repetitive. The mini-games don’t offer too much more to the game – ‘Power Rush’ offers a good work-out by shaking in a particular position to break as many ‘rocks’ as possible, but other games like ‘Guacamole’, ‘Strike-a-Pose’ (dare we say ‘there’s nothing to it’?) and ’Dance Dance Amigo’ come off as very poor cousins to other Wii mini-games like those featured in Wario-Ware Smooth Moves.
In addition to the ‘Career’, ‘Single Player’ and ‘Multiplayer’ modes, Samba de Amigo also provides an online multiplayer mode. Although this mode doesn’t offer an online matching system to automatically select a random player to play against, it does feature a 'friend roster' to select specific friends with a copy of the game to challenge.
Downloadable content (DLC) is another welcome addition to the game (as it is a rare as far as Wii games are concerned) and new song ‘packs’ can be purchased for 500 Wii points. They come in packs of three and the first one includes “I Want Candy!”, ‘Mambo Mambo’ and you can swap your tambourine for some maracas with an interesting addition of ‘Are You Gonna Be My Girl?’ by Aussie rockers ‘Jet’.
Graphics: 6.5
The maraca wielding Latin-American’s are not afraid to use loud and vibrant colors and neither are the developers of Samba de Amigo. The rainbow of color and movement leaping off the screen will have you fumbling for your sunnies.
Once you get over the initial ‘color shock’ you will see that Samba de Amigo’s graphics are bright, neat and clean with the uncomplicated shapes and models being reminiscent of some of the Wii’s most popular games. The ‘intro’ movie is great and has some good animations of the game’s characters.
Mii’s are a welcome addition to the game (if only used to a small degree) which indicates that some ‘Wii specific’ thought has gone into this game instead of it being a direct port from other versions. Mii’s can be selected as part of your player profile as mentioned, and appear next to your score when playing the game and also randomly feature in the background action.
Although the obvious primary focus of rhythm games is playability, the graphics do (of course) play a part and Samba de Amigo does lack a bit of polish in this area with some pixelation evident in some cut scenes and backgrounds (particularly evident on higher definition TV’s). We also noticed that on some TV’s the difficulty setting displayed at the bottom of the screen was also cut off.
Sound: 7.0
The sound of a rhythm game is obviously going to be scrutinized and Samba de Amigo successfully delivers a pumping soundtrack of mainstream ‘Latin themed’ tracks with the likes of ‘Ricky Martin’ and ‘Jennifer Lopez’ as well as some classics from ‘Tito Puente’ and ‘The Gypsy Kings’.
The Wii version of Samba de Amigo doubles the number of songs found in previous games in the series by adding 23 exclusive songs with a further three downloadable songs currently available. Although some songs are predicable for a Latin music game like ‘Hot Hot Hot’ and ‘La Bamba’, there are also some unusual additions like a version of ‘A-Ha’s – Take On Me’.
The soundtrack is great, however a trained ear will notice that the majority of the tracks are covers and don’t feature the original artists. Although the ‘WaveGroup Sound’ team (responsible for music in other rhythm games such as Guitar Hero) does a good job, the use of covers does take some shine off.
Another disappointing aspect to the game’s sound comes from the wiimote when shaking the ‘maracas’. The wiimote sounds are loud, tinny and irritating, especially when performing ‘poses’ and although different ‘maraca’ sounds can be unlocked during the course of the game and customized, we eventually switched the maraca sound setting to ‘none’ which thankfully was available immediately and didn’t have to be unlocked.
Difficulty: 5.0
Samba is easy to pickup. Literally. If you can shake a maraca you can play this game. Given the fact that sometimes it doesn't seem to matter when you shake the maraca either, you can guarantee that even your grandma can shake to Ricky Martin in no time. However, on the tougher difficulty levels the inprecise controls make the game that much harder and consequently quite frustrating.
Value: 7.0
As has been mentioned previously there is fun to be had with Samba especially with more than one person (and perhaps more than one margarita too!). The maraca wiimote addons are a novelty but add a bit of fun to it all. There is a generous amount of songs provided and the game also has downloadable content (at a small fee) which is also welcome.
Overall: 6.8
So should you say ‘Hasta la vista’ or ‘Muchos Gracias’ to Samba De Amigo? The answer lies somewhere in the middle. When the original Samba De Amigo debuted in 1999, rhythm games were still relatively new, but eight years on, people have higher expectations; this type of game is no longer a novelty and has some stiff competition.
Samba de Amigo is a good game which does grow on you and you will get some enjoyment from shaking to the beat with friends after a few tequilas. However, on the down side, it does get repetitive and the lack precision in the controls (which you never feel that you have quite right) will probably mean that only die-hard Latin music fans will keep returning in the long term. Regardless of whether ‘Samba de Amigo’ is the game for you, you can be assured that you will still have ‘Mambo No. 5’ and ‘Macarena’ stuck in your head long after you lay your maracas to rest.