Wii Music

Nov 16, 2007

Bad news first: there's still no confirmed release date for Wii Music and there's not that much new info. Still, what this month's Nintendo conference did give us was a set-in-stone 40 instruments (guitars, drums, bass, trumpets, folk guitars, er, maracas), further glimpses at how the controls work and the sight of the AI supporting you on stage.

Yep, looks like there'll always be six "characters" in your performance (despite the fact that the game only supports a maximum of four players), which means some C++2 performers will be gettin' "jiggy" wit' it in the background. Undeniably, though, it's players with actual human brains that Wii Music promises to deliver most for. Like Guitar Hero, controls are timing based, so tunes are constructed by hitting notes with the right button at the right time.

However, in a rather unique twist, what buttons you hit and how you use the nunchuk and remote depends on what instrument you're playing. Drums, where you shake the controls to simulate drumsticks, react very differently than trumpets, where you just hit A and B. There is more functionality than just that, though - for example, raising the remote while playing trumpet simulates a lung-busting long blow. It's just a shame the release is still such a song way off! Eh? Oh.