Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Nintendo
Multiplayer: Yes (4)
Online Multiplayer: No
Review by Predat0r + Wrecker
Since its first appearance back in 2005 at the Tokyo Games Show, Wii Music has been one of Nintendo’s most eagerly anticipated titles for the Wii. Originally suggested as a launch title, it has taken until now for Wii Music to be fully refined and subsequently released. Nintendo’s creative genius Shigeru Miyamoto describes his latest creation as “not quite a game and not quite an instrument”, and it will be interesting to see how the creator of ‘Mario’ and ‘Zelda’ has tackled this genre, taking into account the growing number of music and rhythm games now hitting the market.
Gameplay: 5.5
The gameplay in Wii Music revolves around the player mimicking an instrument by moving the Wii remote and nunchuck as if they were playing the real thing. There is a wide array of instruments to choose from; in fact Wii Music has a selection of over 60 musical instruments. Unlike other titles such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, there is no need to push buttons in time to on-screen prompts. Players are free to play the songs as they see fit and there is no wrong way to play.
There are five basic ways in which to play instruments. The guitar is played by strumming the Wii remote and holding the nunchuck like a fretboard. The violin is played by holding the nunchuck away from your body and mimicking the movement of the bow with the remote. The trumpet and similar instruments requires only the wiimote, which is held in front of your mouth and you push the ‘1’ and ‘2’ buttons to play. The piano can be played by shaking down with the nunchuk and remote. Percussion instruments are fairly straight forward, hold the remote and nunchuck in each hand and hit away. If you happen to own the Wii balance board it can used for the drum pedals. The controls do have a natural feel to them and have been implemented quite well.
The game starts with a lesson from ‘Sebastian Tute’, one of several ‘tute’ music teachers who will introduce the basic instrument styles and explain how a ‘music video’ of your performance can be created. The player will be shown onscreen with the selected instrument and a metronome ticking from the Wii remote speaker as well as on-screen bouncing ‘Be-Bops’ help to keep the beat. After the first lesson is complete the other game modes become available.
‘Jam’ mode consists of three main modes; improvisation, quick and custom jams. ‘Improvisation’ is a practice mode that allows players to select any instrument to play, ‘quick’ jam selects a random song to play along to and ‘custom’ jam has a 6-person band that everyone can take part in. The ‘custom jam’ provides the ability to play the different band parts (melody, harmony, chord, bass and two percussions), one at a time then ‘overdub’ them to create a final band track. This can be done either in solo or multiplayer mode. Once you are happy with your song you can then create a video, album cover and then rate it. It is funny to watch your recording session turn into a little music video production. These videos are saved and a chart is created using the ratings you’ve given them. You can even share videos online via friend codes and WiiConnect24.
The ‘Games’ mode consists of three mini-games that can be played with one or more players. ‘Open Orchestra’ has you conducting an orchestra of Mii’s. The orchestra responds to your waving of the Wii remote in intensity and speed. This is good fun, especially in multiplayer mode as you have to time your swings in unison and you’ll receive a rating on your combined performance.
Handbell Harmony has four players playing hand bells to the one tune. The remote and nunchuck are used to play notes to the corresponding coloured bells that scroll across the screen. Once again this is better fun with more human players and can become quite competitive with individual ratings given after each song.
Pitch Perfect is a 10 round game involving Mii characters matching pitch to notes, harmonies, and songs. Among the different tasks, players will have to identify specific notes by selecting the Miis onscreen that are playing them or arrange Miis playing notes in order of lowest to highest pitch. In multiplayer mode, players are selected randomly for a round, but are combining their efforts to pass the level.
Completing the various lessons and mini games unlock additional songs, instruments and stages to play on. Later lessons teach you more complex ‘instrument’ styles such as percussion and ‘jam mastery’ which includes arranging a jam with similar instruments (i.e. rock instruments). These lessons also introduce the players ‘music sheet’ which, (in addition to the be-bops), gives an indication of when a note should be played. The lessons are a good idea but can become tedious. For example, ‘jam mastery’ can require you to practice and record each of the 6 instruments and then create a video which mean you have to listen to the same song being played more than a dozen times.
As already mentioned the game includes an option to use the Wii balance board. Drum lessons are given when calibrating the board and they include the use of the hi-hat and bass drum pedals. You can adjust the tempo and learn different drum patterns. Ironically, these controls can become quite difficult; in some instances they are harder than playing on a real drum kit. Although the concept is pretty good, it is no substitute for the Rock Band or Guitar Hero drum peripherals. Then again, Wii Music should be given credit for making use of the balance board as it is still not yet featured in many games.
Graphics: 6.5
The graphics in Wii Music are very much aligned with the other ‘core’ Wii titles such as Wii Sports, Wii Play and Wii Fit. The style is clean and simple but well designed and presented.
As you would expect from a Nintendo title, Wii Music features excellent ‘Mii’ integration and Mii’s created on the console are used at every opportunity. In addition to selecting Mii’s for players, local Mii’s will be in the front row of your performances, play instruments in the mini games and make up the ‘open orchestra' when you are conducting.
The stages that you select when playing instruments are rudimentary but still fit it well with the ‘Mii world’ and often dynamically interact with the music being played; lights flash in time with the beat and flowers open and close to the music like a fancy media player ‘visualisation’.
Each ‘video clip’ that is created from your performances is presented in a rather amusing take-off of a standard music video, featuring your song ‘sleeve’ and the name of your band, as well as various pans and shots of the musicians in action. The graphical interface for actually designing the covers/sleeves for your songs is innovative, but doesn’t really offer enough freedom to make truly unique creations.
Although the graphics are simple and ‘cartoon like’ (and by no means ground braking), there is a lot of visual ‘attention to detail’ (even more so than Wii Sports or Wii Fit) with little features such as Mii’s in the Mii selection screen ‘looking’ at the each other (not unlike a Mii “Brady Bunch” ). Even the menus feature interactive Mii’s which can be controlled using the Wii remote and one can play their instruments on the menu selection screens.
Sound: 6.0
Sound is the key element in Wii Music and with over 60 instruments and 50 songs it is obviously a critical component of the game. The songs available in Wii Music are an eclectic mix of well known public domain classics (nursery rhymes and classical ensembles), themes from some notable Nintendo games (such as Zelda and Mario), and a dozen or so licensed pop songs from various eras including “Daydream Believer” by The Monkees and Madonna’s “Material Girl”.
Each of the instruments that are featured in Wii Music are sampled in a MIDI style. While this was obviously a conscious choice to facilitate the wide range of effects and playing styles available, it does reduce many of the instruments to a poorly synthesized version of their real life counter-parts. The piano and drum sounds are quite impressive but other instruments such as the guitar do not sound very convincing at all and at times it is hard to distinguish the instrument you are playing from the rest of the band.
The use of MIDI sound also takes a toll on the quality of the songs in the game which sound a little lifeless and manufactured, similar to the ‘demo music’ available on a synthesizer. On the other hand, the upside of this sampling is that many different music styles can be applied to the songs, and Wii Music offers several different variations including ‘Pop’, ‘Jazz’, ‘Rock’ and ‘Calypso’.
For a title that revolves around sound as a central theme, Wii Music still seems to have some elements missing. While the overall sound is quite polished with background music and sound effects similar to Wii Sports or Wii Fit, the songs and instruments are somewhat lacking. There is a variety of songs available but it is quite a strange mix of often uninspiring music which tends to lean more towards young children.
Difficulty: 4.0
Mr. Miamoto’s core game design for Wii Music was to create a fun family experience and as a result the game is simple to pick up, and no matter what your skill level you’ll be able to play some pretty decent sounding music.
Wii Music is an easy game to play, perhaps too easy. The mini games can be completed almost effortlessly (even when increasing the difficulty), and in the ‘jam’ modes and there are no consequences for smashing your instruments wildly (like the Cadbury gorilla) for the entire song. The ‘pitch perfect’ mini-game provides somewhat of a challenge but only gets a little difficult at level 7 of 8. ‘Pitch perfect’ also allows you to change your incorrect answers and still get rewarded with a time bonus, making the harder challenges (such as picking 3 and 4 part harmonies) quicker to complete through trial and error rather than actually listening to the notes.
While it is acknowledged that the game does focus on musical creativity and intends to “help get kids interested in playing real musical instruments”, seasoned gamers and fans of previous Nintendo installments on the Wii will be disappointed with the lack of a challenge here.
Value: 5.5
Unfortunately once you get past the novelty of Wii Music, there really isn’t much more to the game that will keep you coming back. Most of the inaccessible content is easily unlocked by simply attempting the different modes in the game, as opposed to offering them as a reward for completing challenges. In addition to this, all of the mini games can be completed in a couple hours.
Wii Music is aimed at younger kids and families and this is the audience that will get the most value out of this game. Young children will have no problem listening to “Yankee Doodle” 600 times in a row while they bash incomprehensible beats out of their synthesized steel drums; the same may not be said for their parents. There are only so many times you can hear “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” regardless if it is in the “Calypso” or “Hawaiian” style. This is not to say that older players cannot enjoy the game, but it is unlikely that it will keep their interest in the long term, particularly without downloadable content.
Wii Music may have been a huge hit if it was released with the original launch of the Wii or perhaps bundled with a controller as it has the hallmarks of Wii Sports or Wii Play. However, as a standalone full priced title it may be asking too much for what it actually delivers.
Overall: 6.0
Rhythm and music games have now become a well established genre and Wii Music has some stiff competition. It will compliment Guitar Hero and Rock Band (which are aimed at an older audience with more gaming experience) as it will appeal to younger players. It allows videos to be shared and created and offers an array of instruments that have never been used in modern music titles.
However, the philosophy of the game being ‘not quite a game and not quite an instrument’ seems to contribute to the game’s lack of direction; the instrument playing parts don’t really have a goal (other than creating and sharing videos) and the game elements are almost too easy to take seriously. In addition, quirky song choices and song styles are only really going to appeal to young players. This makes Wii Music feel like it is an elaborately designed technical demo rather than a fully functional game.
Older players may get a few laughs out of making a band with friends or playing some of the multiplayer games, but will soon tire due to the game’s lack of depth. Wii Music offers a unique take on rhythm and music and there is no question that this is an innovative game, but overall it delivers a bit of a ‘flat’ performance.