E308: Dog-suited hands-on with Wii Music

by JC Fletcher { Jul 17th 2008 at 8:45AM }

Even after playing three or four songs in Wii Music, I still don't entirely get it. Not Miyamoto's whole idea of making a vaguely game-like multi-instrument musical toy -- that's pretty neat. I mean how to play Wii Music.

Each instrument (there were 26 in the demo) has a different gestural play method in which you move the Wiimote and Nunchuk around to imitate the motions involved in playing the instrument. They range from normal (piano, guitar, violin) to unusual (taiko, shamisen, toy piano) to novel ("voice," beat box) to dog suit (dog suit). That's right, dog suit. When playing the dog suit, you lift the remote and nunchuk to trigger a bark. Push A or B to alter the tone of the bark. In a dog suit!

These instruments can be played in one of six positions: bass, chord, two percussions, harmony, and lead melody. The last three are considered "lead" positions, which set the rhythm for the other three. Some of the positions share instruments (chord and lead melody both have the melodic instruments, for example).

And then everybody shakes their controllers together, doing their best to adhere to a rhythm prescribed by some bouncing things on screen. But it's kind of hard to tell with something like the banjo just what the right rhythm is supposed to be, and in the cacophony of other people swinging their Wiimotes around randomly, it's pretty hard to figure out. Once I've had some more time to mess with it, maybe. But, then, with no penalty for missing rhythm, it basically doesn't matter as long as you don't mind sounding awful.

As it is right now, you try to do what looks like the motion for an instrument, and it sort of plays the song. The rhythm might be accurate, or it might not.

The full drum kit thing with the Balance Board is a separate mode entirely. The Balance Board controls the bass drum and a cymbal, with the other drums controlled by the Wiimote and Nunchuk. In order to play different drums, you have to hold a button on a controller and then drum. It's not really an accurate representation of drums, but it's fun. The crazier you get, the more stuff lights up on screen!

Tags: casual, e3-2008, e308, joystiqfeatures, music, wii-music

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Errol @ Jul 17th 2008 9:33AM

The drums is the only thing i'm excited about in Wii Music.

Taylor @ Jul 20th 2008 2:52AM

Did you not hear how bad they sounded at the Press Conference! It was horrid!

Mike H @ Jul 17th 2008 10:13AM

From what I've heard, Wii Music has no purpose.

It seems like those toy pianos you had as a baby that make a lot of noise and fun for a few hours...

Yet there are so many questions I have about this game:
Will there be an online mode where we can play songs with random people?
Can you compete against friends for the most accurate song played?
Is there any sort of points system at all?

Nintendo will have to do a lot to make me buy this game.

pjsingh @ Jul 17th 2008 11:17AM

To answer your "Can you compete against friends for the most accurate song played?" question, Nintendo already said that they will not rate songs or anything (which stinks, by the way), and no, Nintendo said there is no point system. I'll try to find you the link and the video if I can

pjsingh @ Jul 17th 2008 11:18AM

zchry @ Jul 31st 2008 7:01PM

The way I see it, the real point of this game is to make a lot of noise with many different instruments. If you got a few hours of fun out of a toy piano, you could get loads of fun time with all the instruments included.

Of course, it really depends on how well each of the instruments are fleshed out in the game. I'd expect to spend more time playing the piano than the dog suit, for example.

Overall, I think it'll be a fun experience for some people, but not for others. It's very sandbox-oriented--those who like to fool around without objectives and such will have more fun than those who like goals and missions.

Personally, I'm not sure whether I'll like the game or not. I'm defending it because I don't know how much I'll enjoy it, but I can see how some people will. I'm definitely going to have to try it out before I give my final decision.

You see, I really think it depends on if you like to have a point to your games or not. If you want to see a "purpose" in your games, then this probably isn't the game for you. I think that the purpose to this game is that it doesn't have a set purpose--it's whatever you want from it.

KeegdnaB @ Jul 17th 2008 11:07AM

As a musician (and I mean a REAL musician who plays several REAL instruments), as well as a hardcore music gamer (meaning I played DDR when it was a *buzzword alert* exclusive niche game, BEFORE konami dumbed it down for little girls and BEFORE GH/RB even existed)

I can say this looks totally awesome. I don't get why everyone's so quick to dismiss it. If i want something to challenge and test me, I'll play ITG or Pump or IIDX. This is just something fun to mess around with and have a good time with my friends (most of which are also musicians and/or hardcore music gamers who are just as exicted for it as I am)

pjsingh @ Jul 17th 2008 11:18AM

agreed

Mr Khan @ Jul 17th 2008 11:54AM

I too am in agreement. It's like a more exciting version of Electroplankton. No. You aren't doing anything meaningful, but you're having a lot of fun doing it. Although in this case you can share your music videos, and i think that's ultimately the point. Not how accurately you play, but how good of a show you can put on

If only for "conductor" mode, i'll have to buy this.

Shaq-Fu @ Jul 17th 2008 11:20AM

Bad news guys, You're buying this game, and so am I. Even if its only for the drum mode, which supposedly actually teaches you to drum, and since I'm a white man with no rhythm, this and the no score are big helps XD

PunchyMcJunk @ Jul 17th 2008 1:14PM

I'm not buying this.

I think RB and GH:WT will do a pretty good job of teaching someone the basics of drumming on something that could actually pass for a drum set. air drumming means nothing, because their is no reflex response to hitting the drum head/cowbell/tambourine/cymbal/etc.

samsmans1 @ Jul 17th 2008 12:07PM

as an actual musician, and a former band teacher, I can say that in no way will the game teach you to play drums. Its just going to teach you to play wii drums. Just like GH or RB doesn't teach you to play actual guitars. Personally I don't really see the point, but it might be fun to watch little kids or drunk adults mess around with it.