Wii Music

12 Nov 2008 at 15:18:20 by
Systems used to review this title: (WII)

Wii Music was first revealed at E3 in a vague, confusing and disappointing demonstration. We didn’t really see what Wii Music was until a few months later when we strolled down to Nintendo’s flat in London and were given a one-on-one tutorial with a game that had completely changed guise from its E3 debut.

But there was still something wrong, and it was something that stayed with me until we received the code and put it back in the Wii for another jam.

Wii Music, if you don’t know already, is not Nintendo’s answer to Rock Band or Guitar Hero.  It was never meant to compete with them and, frankly, it never will.  It’s a completely different kind of rhythm action game, and certainly does not sport the same impressive music catalogue as any of the big players.  Instead Wii Music primarily offers classic music from iconic Nintendo games, such as Zelda and Mario Bros as well as classical and public domain tunes, such as Frere Jacques and Twinkle Twinkle.  Sure you get the odd hit such as Madonna’s Material Girl or Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go Go but, let’s face it, they’re not exactly the kind of songs you want to rock out to with your friends.

And this is where Wii Music works best, or rather, should work best.  In a party atmosphere, in a party environment.  Whether it’s a kids’ party, or a collection of over-grown, hairy drunken adults shaking the Wiimote like maniacs, this is where Wii Music should shine.  And it does, but unfortunately not for long as the novelty factor soon wears thin.  This is not due to the limited music catalogue so much as the basic mechanics at the heart of the game.  Playing instruments in Wii Music involves simple movements of the Wiimote combined with button presses to tweak the sound. The jamming mode (easily the best the game has to offer) offers a visual metronome at the bottom-right of the screen to assist your timing but you’re free to improvise by inserting or removing notes whenever you like.  However, this freedom does not extend far enough. You can’t choose the notes you play, you can’t change scale for harmonies, you’re not always able to hold the notes you want to hold and you’ll often lose your instrument in the muddy band sound. For anyone who has played the main music games on the market, Wii Music will feel limited in comparison.

As you would expect from Nintendo, Wii Music contains a few mini-games which offer something different to the main jamming game.  Mii Maestro sees you control an orchestra using the Wiimote as your baton; Hand bell Harmony allows you to play in a quartet of ...erm... hand bellers and Pitch Perfect judges just how tone deaf you are.  They are all initially fun, vary in difficulty and can be played with up to four players.  But again, the novelty is short-lived and, having quickly progressed through Pitch Perfect within an hour, we found ourselves bored again, feeling frustrated there was no real structure or reward (other than the occasional unlocked track or instrument).  The same applies to the other mini games, and this is where we started having real problems with Wii Music.  We weren’t sure exactly what it is, and who it’s aimed at.

The simple fact of the matter is Wii Music doesn’t seem to have any real structure to it.  For example, when you complete a jam you are asked to score yourself and it would be much more compelling if there were some kind of reward, or at least a score, on offer.  There is no involving single player mode, so there’s no real impetus to move on to another song, other than to hear it. Which will inevitably be disappointing, given the awful sound quality of both the songs and the instruments.  Simplicity was clearly Nintendo’s aim for Wii Music, but it’s sadly not coupled with the level of depth that we’ve seen in other Wii titles.

This really is the crux of the issue.  Yes, Wii Music offers over 60 instruments, including beat-boxers, meowing pussies and barking bitches, as well as an assortment of novel instruments such as ukuleles, banjos and harmonicas.  But all this isn’t enough to make the game fun. And fun is what we expect from first party Wii titles.

Nintendo’s own Shigeru Miyamoto said, right from the start, that this was not a videogame so much as an interactive toy.  He’s absolutely right.  It’s a novel idea and, yes, it shows what the Wii can do with its Wiimote and polyphonic sounds, but it doesn’t really feel like a videogame.  It doesn’t have structure, it doesn’t reward the player, it’s not particularly challenging and it has little in the way of longevity. Wii Music is a novel distraction at best that is clearly aimed at the casual market. It’s a game which parents might buy for their kids in the hope that it will encourage some musical creativity.  It’s a game which casual gamers might buy for each other in the hope they’ll play together.  It’s a game which promises little and delivers even less.

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