Samba de Amigo

24 Oct 2008 at 10:59:22 by Aisha Ragel
Systems used to review this title: (WII)

Samba de Amigo is a superb game. I found myself getting lost in learning the rhythm and the different maraca movements in the game. It’s musical, it’s lively, it’s colourful and will have anyone getting out of their seat to bust a few maraca moves.

To begin with you’re introduced to a crazy monkey that loves to shake it like a polaroid picture, in the words of Outkast. He dances while the music is playing, gets excited and happy for you when you get good points and is sad when you’re not doing too great. Basically he’s right there with you sharing the tears, the laughter and the madness of the game. You can chose your own Wii avatar to play in the game, and when it’s someone else’s go you can see your Wii-self in the background on the screen looking like you’re having the time of your life dancing away with the rest of the characters in the game. The buildings join in, the locals join in, the sun bounces around in the sky, the whole Samba de Amigo world is bopping to this insane party on the screen. It’s great fun all round. The Wii-mote and nunchuck are used as maracas, and for those that are waiting their turn, you get to watch the party going on beyond the actual challenge while the other person concentrates on getting the points and staying in rhythm with the music. There is, of course, always the option to sabotage your opponent. But this is a fun and friendly game, so why would you do that?

Samba de Amigo involves shaking the Wii-mote and nunchuck (or the official maracas) in time with the on-screen prompts. It does take a short while to find your rhythm and to match your movements to the top, middle and bottom system. Simply point your maracas at the appropriate pair of hexagons to get your “perfect”, “yeah”, “amigo”, or indeed a“boo” if yur timing isn’t great. You get marked from “A”, which means you’re doing really good, to “E” which is well..very bad!

At the beginning, you can choose which level to play and this is the standard Easy, Normal, Hard and Extra Hard. Easy, obviously for beginners, eases you into the game, with some songs and challenges that get progressively harder. Complete Easy and you unlock more songs and more maraca noises, and it’s actually quite a good way to get warmed up and into the spirit of the game.

The Normal option is a bit more challenging, the songs are harder and you have to really nail the rhythm. Even though, you’re always still unlocking songs and challenges and even challenging yourself.

Hard is really difficult, I won’t mention how I got on with that one. Let’s just say that by the end of it I’d lost all the weight I’d wanted to, only to put it back on because I was so thirsty.

Then there’s Extra Hard, which is impossible to do. You’d have to be a serious maraca shaker to get through that level or have an extra pair of hands growing out of you.

Samba de Amigo really comes into its own in Party Mode. Like Donkey Konga, Samba works best when you have a few people in the room at once and, inevitably, laughter will ensue.
The lively soundtrack is perfectly suited to the game, all very Latin in style, from “Livin’ la Vida Loca”, to “Pon de Replay”. No matter how cringe-worthy some of the songs are, you’ll be having too much fun to care how much of an idiot you look. Once you get past the embarrassment of knowing people are watching you as you make a complete fool of yourself, you won’t really care or question those dancing skills that keep scoring you those A’s.

Samba de Amigo is good, honest party fun. The gameplay is simple but engaging, and the world it creates is colourful and vibrant. At first glance it may appear too casual for the hardened gamer, but they’ll be missing out on one of the better rhythm action games the Wii has to offer.

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