Nintendo has settled on a release date of its upcoming musical gaming experience, Wii Music. The game will be launching across Europe on the 14th of November.
Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour, eat your heart out; Wii Music includes over 60 instruments to experiment with. You can play along and conduct over 50 tracks from music of various styles, including some classic gaming tunes.
Instruments will include everything from steel drums, bass guitar to saxophone and more. If you combine the Wii Remote with a balance board, you get a whole virtual drum kit, where stamping your foot acts as a foot pedal. Or, using just the Wii Remote, you can conduct the music like an orchestra.
Unlike the aforementioned rhythm games, Wii Music is much more about creation and experimentation than any previous music game. Nintendo boss Shigeru Miyamoto once described it as “more interesting than a video game”. But the fact that it doesn’t really have many obvious ‘video game’ qualities to it puts a big question mark over its potential to succeed against EA and Activision’s massive franchises.
Jam is Wii Music’s main mode, where you’ll be creating music or some kind of ear-bleeding cacophony that resembles music. Improvise mode lets you pick whichever instruments you like and let rip. Quick Play mode selects a batch of instruments and styles at random and Custom Play let’s you tailor your settings yet further for truly original creations.
Should you happen to produce something that doesn’t send pets and small children fleeing from the room in whimpering terror, you can connect to WiiConnect24 and share video clips (of your Mii instrumentalists in action, presumably) with your friends. There’ll also be a ratings system and the opportunity to remix it an integrate with other tracks.
Out Nov 14| £40| Wii Music
