NextGen Player Reader: Blaine Barber reviews Wii Music.
Much has been written, mostly negative, about Wii Music in the few short weeks since its launch. I would venture to guess that this is probably one of the most controversial games to be released in quite some time. In the prevailing reviews, however, we seldom get down to what, from a gaming perspective, Wii Music is.
First off, there are several different "styles" of play in Wii Music. You can use buttons for horns, waggle actions for Bass, etc. It has to be said, that the Wii is the only console that can easily offer all of the features in use for the input. Please consider this - while you are playing an instrument you can change both the rhythm and the volume of that instrument. You can also slightly affect the pitch of some instruments (bending notes on guitar) or change the note somewhat implicitly (using the B button on trumpet). You cannot, however, choose any of the notes that the game is playing. Rather, they are offered up for you to discover as you bang, press, and shake your controllers. The takeaway here is that the input system is complex and unique to the Wii, but also limited in how it can change the game. With Wii Music the feedback is, for the most part, aural rather than visual. I often find myself wandering around the room with my eyes closed trying to find some hidden line of music in the game. Uniquely, the visual portion of the game is of little importance while you are playing.
This week Drew(@Nintendrew_) from Youtube and Ben(@BCTerps) join Tiny (@Tiny415) and Aaron (@Ind1fference) talk about: Nintendrew, Source Film Maker, Too Many Games, Walker Stalker Con, Mindfare, RetroCon, Andre the Giant, GPD Win, Radar Scope, Virtual Boy, Donkey Kong, Punch-Out!, Force Friday, League of Heels, Wrestlemania 2000, The Defenders, Iron Fist, Earthworm Jim 3D, WireWay, MC Groovz dance craze, Splatoon 2, Sonic Mania, Bio Force Ape, Diddy Kong Pilot, The Shadow, Sound Factory, Sim Tunes, Wii Music, Electroplankton, Gauntlet DS, Destiny 2, Pop Tarts, Uncharted Lost Legacy, Breath of the Wild Hard Mode, X-Com 2: War of the Chosen, Mario + Rabbids, Piczle Line DX, Boost Beast, Necrosphere Deluxe, Skeleton Boomerang, MagiCat, Songbringer, Stereo Aereo, The Lost Bear, Time Recoil, Planet of the Eyes, Resident Evil 4, All-Star Fruit Racing, Life is Strange Before the Storm, XBLIG, Creator Club, Brave, Mr. Shifty, Hotline Miami, Wrecking Crew and more.
NLife:
As tradition mandates every year, I sat watching the Nintendo's 2008 E3 presentation with high hopes of a new F-Zero being finally announced. As the presentation moved along, Cammie Dunnaway kept pushing products that were clearly not targeted at me and my generation of core gamers, bought up in the mean streets of 8- and 16-Bits. No harm there, since Nintendo's and the late great Satoru Iwata's new vision of "games for everyone" meant that there was a whole new audience to whom Nintendo had to push product presentations. I understood that, and was feeling positive because surely there had to be some sort of killer app being shown at the end of the presentation, right?
I couldn’t help but be surprised when I began noticing (from time to time) patterns in the way music is used within games. The following short list of game soundtrack stereotypes and patterns are by no means the result of a scientific process, but I do think it would be interesting to dip the metaphorical toe in the water and start this discussion!
I was expecting an article about the entire industry. This is sort of the norm for these types of games though.
