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Wii Music Review -

Before we start, you should know that if you’re reading this review right now, chances are Wii Music is not for you. There might be a few people interested in it for sheer novelty’s sake, but the majority of people who visit gaming sites are not the intended audience for this game. Unlike Wii Sports or even Wii Fit, both of which appeal to a wide variety of age groups and sensibilities, Wii Music is meant mainly for kids and maybe older folks who want a quick and simple music fix. And that’s exactly what you get from this game.

The Flute is in Your Hands

Thanks to the far too long and unnecessarily mandatory opening tutorial, you’ll learn the basics for the four control schemes that control the wide selection of instruments in the game. For string instruments like guitars, banjos, and sitars; you hold the nunchaku as you would the neck of the instrument and you strum with the Wiimote. Using the thumb stick adds bending effects and the trigger buttons toggle pitch and delay. Classical string instruments like violins and cellos play the same way, only you drag the Wiimote back and forth like you would a bow. Pianos, xylophones, and percussion instruments (drums, tambourine, castanets, etc.) require you to motion down with both controllers, with the triggers acting much like they do for the string instruments. You can use both controllers to strike independent notes or double up for chords. For wind instruments (flute, tuba, futuristic trumpet, etc.) and voices, you hold the Wiimote like you would a clarinet, with your fingers resting on the one and two buttons and your thumb on the B button. The numbers control the notes, while the B button toggles the pitch. Tilting the remote up or down will cause your Mii to do the same and change the instrument’s volume.

All of these controls work fairly well, with the horn and wind instruments being the most satisfying. Pounding away on piano keys or steel drums just gets boring after a while and the string instruments aren’t much better.

If you own a Wii Fit Balance Board, you can access the game’s Drum mode. It’s basically just a series of lessons and a freestyle mode. To play, you use the board for the bass drum and hi-hat and the nunchaku and Wiimote for cymbals, toms and the snare, which you switch between using the trigger buttons. While it’s certainly a decent idea, it’s far too complicated, even for seasoned gamers, let alone the game’s target demographic. And since there isn’t a note chart like in Rock Band and Guitar Hero, you’re left to bang around without any musical structure. This can be fun for a little while, but then you realize how bad it all sounds, and you promptly move along.

Play That Midi Music Miiboy

Thanks to Rock Band and Guitar Hero, we’ve all come to expect high-caliber and high-quality music from our rhythm-based music games. Sadly, Wii Music takes about ten steps backwards. And it’s kind of a shame too, since Nintendo could have done for classical music what RB and GH did for classic rock. Instead, the game lets you play such beloved public domain tunes as “Happy Birthday,” “Twinkle-Twinkle Little Star,” and “My Grandfather’s Clock.”

Nintendo fans will get a kick out of putting a techno or reggae spin on themes from Super Mario and Zelda, but there actually aren’t as many Nintendo tracks as you’d expect. There are several famous classical pieces, but not nearly enough, which might actually be a good thing, considering how poorly they’re presented. The rest of the tracks are random pop tunes like “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” “Daydream Believer,” and “Material Girl” (because when I think wholesome family entertainment, I think Madonna).

There’s very little to be excited about in the game’s music department, which leads me to believe Nintendo put too much time into thinking about the controls and not enough time thinking about what people would actually enjoy playing. They really missed a great opportunity here.

(No Title. Writer Too Busy Jamming On His Pan Flute.)

There are three modes in the game: Jam, Lessons and Games. There is also a Video mode, where you can watch the music videos you’ve made from your play sessions. If you want to learn the more detailed aspects of the instruments and their controls, you’ll want to complete the lessons. They aren’t necessary for people who just want to mess around, but if for some reason you want to be the world’s premier Wii musician, they offer some welcomed instruction.

Most of the game’s sparse musical meat lies in the Jam mode. You can test out every instrument you’ve unlocked in the game in the Improve section, where you can flail around for as long you want with computer controlled Tutes joining in once you’ve found your groove. Like the rest of the game, you have limited control over the actual notes you play, which can make stringing together a respectable ditty a bit harder that it really should be, given the game’s intentions.

Custom Jam is where you (with the help of up to four friends if you want) get to show off your arranging skills. You can choose to have up to six instruments in your band, and each time you finish a song, you can use the game’s overdub feature to go back and play the other parts as well. This is probably the most appealing feature in the game since it lets you truly personalize every single instrumental part of every song. You can also share you recordings (in the form of music videos) over WiiConnect24, which your friends can then play. This is a very solid concept, but the poor song selection and limitations on the actual musical composition aspect mean it’s not nearly as robust as it could have been.

 The game’s three mini-games offer varied gameplay options. The conductor mode is the one most people are familiar with already, and it plays exactly as you’d think. You wave the Wiimote back and forth in time, and your digital orchestra reacts accordingly. Conducting too slowly or too quickly will result in a slower or faster tempo. The controls aren’t entirely responsive, so you will lose tempo a lot even if it feels like you’re keeping time. Like pretty much everything else in the game, you’ll play through this mode a few times and then be totally fine never playing it again. But a lot of kids will get a kick out of it, especially since things get pretty wacky when you mess around with tempos.

If you’re like me, you’ve been waiting patiently for a virtual hand-bell simulator, and thanks to the hand-bell mini-game, that wait is over. Each controller corresponds to a colored bell. When your color passes by, you motion down to hit the note. It’s everything you’re probably imaging it is and it’s just as thrilling as you’d expect.

For those looking for some musical training, there are a series of a exercises designed around hearing notes and picking the ones that correspond to the particular request (pick the note with the highest pitch, put the notes in order from lowest pitch to highest, pick two notes that form a harmony, etc.). These exercises could be a solid supplemental training tool for kids, and even people with musical backgrounds will find a decent challenge to be had with them.

The Music’s Over

Wii Music is obviously not for everyone. It’s not nearly as satisfying as Wii Sports and it fails to capitalize on its own potential. Sharing your musical creations with friends and jamming with fellow players can be enjoyable to a point, and it has a varied and well-rounded selection of instruments. However, the lack of quality tunes, somewhat gimmicky controls, and a $50 price tag will make Wii Music a hard sell for most circles. But, I bet there are a lot of kids who will enjoy it, and it seems that that is the game’s primary focus. To that end, it’s not nearly as terrible as it easily could have been.

Article by: Jake Gaskill