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Samba De Amigo: Wii vs Dreamcast shake-off

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Samba De Amigo: Wii vs Dreamcast shake-off

VIDEO: One works superbly, the other fails spectacularly. Can you guess which?

Words: Justin Towell, GamesRadar UK

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By now you'll likely have read our review of Samba De Amigo on Wii or seen the mean score on Metacritic and wondered whether the controls really are that much of an issue.

How can we show you? By recording ourselves playing the 'Strike a Pose' minigame on both the Dreamcast and Wii versions of the game and letting you decide for yourself which one works.

The idea in 'Strike a Pose' is to match your arm positions to the picture on the screen as many times as you can within a time limit. But it's hard to score heavily when it won't register double-low right. Take a look:

Above: Sorry we didn't have a sombrero to hand

As you can see, all three GR team members reached double figures on the Dreamcast version, which uses ultra-sonic sensors dangling from the maracas to accurately judge distance and position. Sure, it's not quite perfect and there were a few minor hiccups, but it's incredibly solid compared to the Wii game, where the best we managed in the time was 5 poses. Verdict? Dreamcast wins.

Perhaps the problem is that the Wii's calibration screen (which we used for each player) doesn't really calibrate anything at all. Instead it makes you hold the controllers how it wants you to hold them and then says 'OK you did it'. That is not calibration. Calibration would ask you to hold the wii-mote and nunchuk 'low', save that position, then 'high' and save that.

Above: The offending 'calibration' screen

So... if you really want some Samba fun, get the Dreamcast version. It's more expensive, but at least it works.

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17 Comments

Sherminat0r - 1 month 22 days ago

First!

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Slim_Ady - 1 month 22 days ago

The exact reason why I refuse to buy a Wii - apart from the kiddie games it just isn't proper motion sensor control (no wonder they changed the name from Revolution!)

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Mainman - 1 month 22 days ago

Samba de aWii-go is the first game containing Ulala/Space Channel 5 that I've refused to buy.

I almost feel ashamed.

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-gonzo- - 1 month 22 days ago

Is this video supposed to prove that you are all just crap at both Wii and Dreamcast versions?
Ive just had a go on Strike a Pose on Wii and got 17 poses which turns out to be more than your Dreamcast efforts.
The thing about the Wii version is that you need to learn how the controls work which is what all the reviewers seem to have not done.

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FuzzyBee - 1 month 22 days ago

One present I won't be buying my boyfriend for Christmas! It is such a shame seeing as the DC version is a lot of fun to play.

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GoldenMe - 1 month 22 days ago

Cogratulations, Gonzo. You managed to bring a one page article down with your obvious trolling.

Now go to your poor excuse of a Nintendo E3 coverage and go be a prick there, you fanboy.

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masewindu - 1 month 22 days ago

Wow it is sad when a game from 8 years ago works that much better today.

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-gonzo- - 1 month 22 days ago

GoldenMe. Im no fanboy, but if you mean a fan of Samba de amigo then yes I am. I love both the Dreamcast versions of Samba much more than the Wii version, but if an article gets posted saying that the Wii versions controls do not work properly by doing a comparison and I do the exact same test on the Wii and get a better score than what had been achieved on the Dreamcast version proving at least to myself that the controls for the Wii version are not as bad as being demonstrated then why is that so wrong to let others know about it as they are being mis-informed by some reviews?

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Patius - 1 month 21 days ago

looks like Sega screwed up, again.

It looks like every single thing they have churned out lately (excluding NIGHTS) has sucked.

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Iffo - 1 month 20 days ago

Gonzo, I got the Wii version and I can't get anything better than C on hard. I am also pretty good on the DC version though - I get more than 98% on most of the songs on hard!

I really don't want to throw away the Wii game yet, I've struggled with the controls for over a couple of hours but no matter what I do it takes a lot of time for the game to register when I'm moving the wiimotes to the top positions (thus missing every first shake in a top stream, if I don't have time to move them up early)

So I really want to know HOW do you do it properly? I tried a lot of stuff - wide motion; just tilting; shaking horizontally so it won't recognize the shaking as a change of position... nothing helped!

Thanks!

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phil44 - 1 month 20 days ago

GOLDENME in sorry but gonzo is correct and before you say it im not a fanboy only a fan of the game i have both on the dreamcast too. The people in that video really didn't spend time to learn the controls i dont think because if they did they wouldn't have that problem.
For everyone else this game is fun to play the control system is actually very forgiving when it comes to hard and super hard but obviously reviewer's didn't take the time needed with this game. By the way it taken me about 10hours total to master the controls maybe even less. If people would stop trying to compare the controls to the dreamcast and actually learn the controls ten they would see what a good game this is, yes there are minor flaws(not enough to destroy game the way claimed above) but its the same with any control system.

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TENAXIS (PSN) - 1 month 20 days ago

hahahah, looks like sometimes devolution is better!! :D

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-gonzo- - 1 month 20 days ago

In reply to Iffo.
Using 2 Wiimotes does improve things over using a nunchuck.
The main thing to remember is that you need to perform a shake for each individual ball rather than just continuous shaking unless its with the rolls as it will not register you hits when moving to different circles.
Try not to take too much notice of what the white circles are doing so as long as your Wiimotes are in the correct possition for the corresponding circles then it should still register.
With calibration ive found that with the lower circles just do as monkey shows, center circles hold just above waste hight with the remotes pointing slightly outwards just like what monkey is doing on screen.
Upper circles hold wiimotes at about head hight with them slightly pointing outwards again like how monkey is doing.
Now with the poses that the video was having problems with ie the two bottom circles with two maraca on one of them you have to meke sure that when using two wiimotes that both of them have the speaker facing the TV screen and with the top circles both wiimotes neeed to have the B button facing the TV.
This game definatley comes into its own once you have mastered the controls, but im affraid it one of those games that your either gonna get to grips with first time or its just a case of practice makes perfect.
In all honesty I find the Wii version on Hard mode is alot easier than the Dreamcast version on Hard mode as on the Dreamcast the balls move at a much faster pace.

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Iffo - 1 month 20 days ago

OK, any of you guys who claim the controls work, care to explain how do you do it? For example how do you manage to move fast from middle to top position and shake... and get the game to detect it every time?

BTW 10 hours of learning curve for a casual, and fun rhythm game is far from acceptable!! Hey, Guitar Hero takes less time to get used to!

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Iffo - 1 month 20 days ago

Thanks, Gonzo... I'll give it another try now!

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-gonzo- - 1 month 20 days ago

Have you seen this review on you tube.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XKtgNJ2DBgU

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Iffo - 1 month 20 days ago

Got it finally!! For everyone who has trouble with the controls here's a tip:

Do NOT SHAKE the wiimote up! Instead do a stabbing motion (pointing up). That's the only way I found that doesn't confuse the game when you're doing rapid motion.

The stabbing also works perfect for mid and low circles but isn't much needed then as these work with shaking most of the time. Yet this is the only move I found that never gets confused by the game.

Enjoy!

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