Nintendo introduces us to Wii Music

By Kristan Reed Published 15 July, 2008

Over 50 instruments to play.

Nintendo has given us lots more details on its ambitious-but-friendly Wii Music title.

Shigeru Miyamoto took to the E3 press conference stage playing a saxophone by blowing into the Wiimote and then spoke about the game. He said Wii Music was designed alongside Wii Sports right back at "the beginning".

Wii Music is designed for "everyone including people who can't read music and can't play real instruments". You don't have to follow rhythm guides or notes to play along. All you have to do is move your hands and body like you would while playing the real thing and the game picks up on that and plays a note that fits the song.

More than 50 instruments will be present in the game, including drums, guitar, piano, saxophone, and violin. The drums use the Wii balance board as pedals, which we liked. "Robbie Drums" demonstrated it.

Nintendo will be including a variety of well-known songs such as some from its best-loved games: F-Zero and Super Mario were shown.

Four of you can play at once, although Miyamoto and pals demonstrated it with five. You can also film your performances somehow, too, which we suspect is a reference to in-game recordings of your Miis going at it.

Mii support is in, of course,and the whole package looked hilarious. Look out for more on Wii Music soon.

Picture of Kristan.

About Kristan Reed

Kristan is a former editor of Eurogamer, dad, Stone Roses bore and Norwich City supporter who sometimes mutters optimistically about Team Silent getting back together.

Read more articles from Kristan by visiting the Kristan Reed archive page.

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Comments (12) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • quantumsheep #1 4 years ago

    ha!

  • cloud_ix #2 4 years ago

    looks rubbish, another throwaway game

  • flapps #3 4 years ago

    Anyone else find this the most pointless game of E3 so far? You don't even play the songs, you just randomly hit the buttons / wave your hands!

  • Deoden #4 4 years ago

    @ flapps:

    The coverage actually said there would be additional modes, including a note-matching one for all you lucky bastards with a shred of rhythm in your bodies.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #5 4 years ago

    That looked laughably awful. They could have at least made it sound like it produce a tune.

  • flapps #6 4 years ago

    @Deoden

    But you're can't really match notes can you? You strum the guitar like a guitar, there aren't really buttons to press. I can see you matching rhythm, but it just seems as though it'd be really unsatisfying and hand-holding.

  • Killerbee #7 4 years ago

    If this becomes a rhythm action game a la Guitar Hero then it could well be awesome. Unfortunately, by the sound of it, it's not. Waving my arms around pretending to play sax just sounds lame. Where's the game?

  • canIdoyabombsforya #8 4 years ago

    Maybe you get to kick old ladies or something

  • siro #9 4 years ago

    I thought it looked absolutely amazing. (And yes, I do understand the downsides)

  • Deoden #10 4 years ago

    @ flapps:

    I can see your point, but the fact that you need to focus on rhythm rather than hand-eye co-ordination is precisely what makes it so appealing to me. Managing to make my body move in time with a song for once in my life is a much more exciting prospect than having a game like Guitar Hero repeatedly tell me how rubbish I am.

    Edited by 1 at 15/07/08 @ 21:32

  • zzyzx #11 4 years ago

    Yes, Rock Band is for babies.
    Oh, wait . . . .

    Here's my problem with rhythm games. I like music, and I like games . . . but I like music a little bit more. So I've never found the whole Guitar Hero / Rock Band formula to be fun. Rock Band?!? There's nothing rock about trying to play a song just so, every single time. Can anyone name any self-respecting rock musician who, after performing a song, said: "$#@! I only got 94.67% correct notes."

    "Sting," you say? Okay, I'll grant that. But nobody else. And Sting is, well, don't get me started.

    Wii music may be rubbish, but it least it has the chance to be more. Worst case scenario, it gives third parties something to improve on. The rhythm games, on the other hand, those are just irredeemable.

  • thedaveeyres #12 4 years ago

    Sounds pretty cool to me.