Wii Music – Trailer
Tuesday, July 15th, 2008 at 5:06pm by Jake
Hit the jump for fact sheet
Format: Wii™
Launch Date: Holiday 2008
ESRB: RP (Rating Pending)
Game Type: Music
Accessories: Wii Remote™, Nunchuk™, Wii Balance Board™
Players: 1-4
Developer: Nintendo
KEY INFORMATION
Create a musical masterpiece with up to four players. Anyone can play the huge selection of instruments in Wii Music with simple motions—like strumming and drumming.
• It’s easy to play improv jams. Musicians in your band jam by simply playing their instruments to the beat of a song or by improvising to their heart’s content. Play faster. Play slower. Skip a beat, or throw in 10 more. No matter what you do, Wii Music automatically transforms your improv stylings into great music. There are no mistakes—just playing for the pure joy of playing.
• Wii controls immerse you in the music. You can play most of the 60-plus instruments in Wii Music using simple motions with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers. Strum to play guitar, banjo and sitar. Drum to play jazz drums, congas and marching drums. Hammer away to play piano, vibraphone and marimba. Unlike most music games, Wii Music doesn’t make you use complex buttons. You only need to imitate playing the instrument.
• Wii Music offers virtually endless ways to make music. You choose the song and instruments and decide whether to blaze through a rock take on classical songs, put a jazzy spin on folk tunes or transform Nintendo classics like the Super Mario Bros.® theme into Latin-flavored numbers. The song list is only a takeoff point—it’s how you improvise with the songs that matters.
• Send your band-jam recordings to Wii Friends who have Wii Music. They’ll see your Mii™ band members, your players’ improv styles and your instrument selections. They can watch your recordings, or play over parts of your song, then send their modified recording back to you. Improv jams can be sent back and forth over WiiConnect24 and changed again and again.
Beyond the Jam:
Wii Music includes many other modes besides the main band jams, including several musical games and an enhanced video playback mode for recorded jams.
• Play it again: Use the playback mode to see your jam recordings brought to life with dramatic camera angles.
• Pick up the baton: Command an orchestra in the conducting game where you’ll wave the Wii Remote controller like a conductor’s baton to lead a Mii orchestra through orchestrated music. Make them play quickly, slowly, strongly or gently.
• Ring a bell? Play a handbells game where you’ll swing your Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers to play your two handbells as part of a larger ensemble. Everyone on the team has a job to do: Play one of your notes only when the tune demands it.
• An ear for music: Take a tone quiz that tests your musical ear by giving you challenges, like putting note-playing Miis in order from lowest to highest pitch.
• Bang the drum: Play a virtual drum set in the drumming mode, the one mode in Wii Music that also uses the Wii Balance Board accessory (sold with Wii Fit™). You’ll use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers as drumsticks, and place both feet on the Wii Balance Board—which work as virtual pedals for the bass drum and hi-hat cymbal.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:10 pm
I think this E3 can be summed up quite nicely: “The Finalization of the Completion of Total Abandonment of Veteran and Hardcore Gamers the World Over.” We’re screwed. I have no reason to keep my Wii other than Gamecube games. This sucks. Thanks for nothing, Nintendo.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:16 pm
Yeah, but whether we like it or not, so far Wii Music is the only thing that the mainstream media down here in Brazil has deemed worth to mention. Meaning: Nintendo wins again.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
This just really, really looks like something that will hold my attention for about 10 minutes.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:28 pm
Wow. I think I’ll stick with Rock Band.
I wonder how long it will be until my Wii is completely covered in dust.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
I’ve been waiting for this forever. Thank You Nintendo, In will most definitely buy this. Now I actually have a reason to get two more wiimotes.
. Thank you, moons, stars and kisses. Oh ya, and big b’s too.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
looks great for seniors and little kids, but really needs better music to hold the attention of the 13-65 demographic. Get some arrangement/remixes of Punch-Out, Zelda, etc. and we’ll talk again.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
I blame all Rock Band an Guitar Hero monkeys for this game. DAM YOU ALL!!!
But, I’m buying this. *hides in shame*
Nintendo stated a new Zelda was in the works, but that has always been a given.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
First of all, I can see WiiMusic selling a billion copies the first month it is out. This looks like an all-around great addition to the Wii library (maybe I should say the Wii casual gamers library).
But I do have a few questions about this game.
First of all I wonder how the memory storage will take place, and if it will cause even more memory problems. Recording and storing of the videos you do is sure to require a lot of free space.
secondly, I wonder how many people can actually play this game at once. In the above description it says 1-4, yet at the E3 conference, there were 5 people jamming away at once to Mario’s Theme (4 on stage, and the drummer dude). Will this game support more than 4 people at once, and if so how?
Also, I wonder if there will be Downloadable content for this game, seeing that it is an on-line game.
I’m also still a bit confused about the actual game play. Watching the E3 conference, the drummer seemed able to have complete control over what he was playing, yet the Sax and the band seemed to only be swaying to the music, and pushing random buttons. How much control will you have, or is it just a fun way to jam to different tunes, without actually controlling anything?
July 15th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
I seriously doubt they were really playing at all.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
@Joshdad I really don’t know the answers to anything, but here are my thoughts.
Videos aren’t going to take up much space. Like Brawl they’re more than likely just going to save all input data, and have fixed variables so that the exact same result will repeat itself.
Also like Brawl, it may allow for saving to an SD card, if so, that’s the memory problem solved for this (if it uses the SD card in-game as easily as Brawl does, then the so-called problem is solved).
To everything else, I really don’t know, but I’m more excited for it than I’ve ever been. All I knew before was the orchestra part, with the hints for all the stuff that was just revealed. Now I want the game in my house now.
July 15th, 2008 at 5:55 pm
I guess this will come packed in with the Wiimote plus thing. If not, I’m not buying it.
July 15th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
“I’ve been waiting for this forever.”
Me too. Ever since I saw it, I’ve been excited for information about it. Now, after seeing it, I want it even more. As for the 5 player thing, I think the air drummer was hooked up to a different wii and just playing the drumset over the 4 musicians.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Huh – 60 instruments?
Wired.com’s site says Wii Music has 50 instruments.
Which is the right number?
July 15th, 2008 at 8:36 pm
“I think this E3 can be summed up quite nicely: “The Finalization of the Completion of Total Abandonment of Veteran and Hardcore Gamers the World Over.” We’re screwed. I have no reason to keep my Wii other than Gamecube games. This sucks. Thanks for nothing, Nintendo.”
“I wonder how long it will be until my Wii is completely covered in dust.”
“I guess this will come packed in with the Wiimote plus thing. If not, I’m not buying it.”
“looks great for seniors and little kids, but really needs better music to hold the attention of the 13-65 demographic.”
“This just really, really looks like something that will hold my attention for about 10 minutes.”
Wow.
This site is a Nintendo Fan Site and we are getting comments like THESE? Now, imagine a GAMER site, one that is not just one brand but a site filled with people who love all systems.
Imagine the comments there… yikes.
This game looks decent, but I don’t think I will buy it.
I will probably get Wii sports resort and a few Wii ware titles for my mini game / casual game quota and spend the rest of my money on games for the 360 and DS.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
@Wii Wii: At least it’s not a Nintendo fanboy site where we all unquestioningly lap up everything and anything Nintendo throws at us. There’s no question that Nintendo is gearing itself more and more towards the casual crowd, and it’s not fun as a hardcore gamer to be pretty much left in the dust. There’s been such a drought of good looking games this year that I haven’t played my Wii for months. I’m getting tired of it.
July 15th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
True neko =)
I do enjoy infendo very much.
July 16th, 2008 at 1:39 am
at least i was satisfied by their conference. put so much time into animal crossing gamecube. city folk adds plenty to excite me.
then theres wii resort, which sadly wont come til next year. oh well. at least it gets me excited about the next evolution in motion controls. next holiday will be great also for sure.
July 16th, 2008 at 10:03 am
if its priced reasonabley then hell yeah. should be more fun thank tickling a penguin with a racoon on a stick!
July 16th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
The motion+ is be enough for me now they just need to get that into my current list of future games I’m going to get in JAN.
I did not want the speaker and animal crossing will be used with really really far away gaming friends to send pictures and stuff with out getting lost in work email. The Wii music maybe not for me but if they some how put sampling in there I’m there all day long.
Man am I so glad it was just not a laundry list of games. I know what I’m going to buy already any thing else would be extra. Developer wise the SDKs are on the way for the new stuff it’s like xmas if you are making a Wii game right now! I just hope HVolt puts out an 3rd party engine with nintendo’s help of course.