Game Reviews

Wii Music

I’m a huge fan of the Wii. As a device that includes the entire family in my gaming, its fantastic. I’ll blog more on it, and go into some detailed analysis of why this console is the most exciting one for me this console generation later.

For now I want to talk about Wii Music.

Compared to some of the other brilliant Nintendo products to come out recently, Wii Music has been getting rather weak ratings.

After having owned it for a couple weekends I can’t disagree with the low scores but… it is one of the most played Wii titles we own!

Why is that?
Because while its a weak game, it is a fun activity.

My 3 year-old son, loves playing the music, either alone or with me or mom. He really enjoys making videos aftewards and making us watch them.

I actually enjoy it somewhat to, I have fun playing the Conductor game (even though the better I conduct, the worst I do… see shortcomings, below). Some of the instruments are more enjoyable than others too… the violin can be a lot of fun. 

 

Summary

Game Rating: 6/10 (how good of a game is it)
Value Rating: 9/10 (what you get for your money)

Good Stuff

  • Fun for children and adults to play around with
  • Videos are neat
  • Some instruments, like violins, make you feel like you’re actually playing music
  • Unlike most “real” musical instruments you can easily turn the volume down!
  • Has games (though too few) that unlock more songs/stages

Shortcomings

  • Not enough songs… I wasn’t expecting popular music but I was expecting a wider selection of classical faves
  • It is not clear how you play instruments and get better…  random flailing seems the best choice which immediately kills it as a game. The conductor is a good example of this… trying to time your conducting to what the music should be seems to make the musicians play more poorly than just flailing aggresively
  • The lessons are too long (especially for children). I’m sure I could understand the gameplay behind this better but the lessons are too boring and long because you have to go through such a long series of steps… when you have children underfoot you don’t get the opportunity to do that

– Brent Knowles

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Former lead designer at BioWare (Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights). Creator of Raiders of the Serpent Sea.

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