Wii Music

I'm going to admit that I am musically un-inclined... I don't play any musical instrument, I don't sing well (enough) and I listen to too much trash. But I also must admit - I LURVE MUSIC! I want my own rock band but I know I will be totally non committed. Thus, I stick to things I know best... animation, art, drawing, digital effects, video, web...
On an (totally rare) occasional basis, I mix my own tracks on Adobe Audition, formerly known as Cool Edit Pro. Mainly digital, techno stuff, close to tracks from Orbital or Moby. I really should lay more tracks in the New Year and at some stage, get myself a decent keyboard.

Wii Music is Nintendo's latest release for the Wii console released around October 2008. Reviews for the game were mixed with numerous video gaming sites such as Gamespot and IGN rating it average. Following in the same music genre of Guitar Hero and Rock Band, both or which enormously popular; I was also initially sceptical on the kiddish nature of game. The 60 odd songs featured in the game also appeared a tad unexciting...


Legendary game designer Shigeru Miyamoto demonstrates the new game, Wii Music, by playing virtual guitar during the Nintendo E3 media briefing in Los Angeles

Still I am a HUGE fan of Shigeru Miyamoto and have read that he had a big hand in the development of Wii Music in the Wii Series, I thought I will put it on my Amazon Wishlist. Soon after, Wendy SMSed that she will be shipping the game in from the States as my Christmas present from Celeste and herself! Swell!

On Saturday, Wendy popped over for some catching up and Christmas gift exchange. We made some yummy spaghetti for dinner. Before ending the night, we had to try our hands on Wii Music. Just as we popped in the disc, Ming and Kaden arrived to join in the fun. Much to Ming's horror, of cause. He doesn't understand video games too well. Kaden on the other hand was also a Wii fan and like me, thinks "The Legends of Zelda" is the greatest game by far!


Wii Music Jam Session

What I love about the Wii Music, as in most Nintendo games is how easy the user interface was to pick up. Armed with the Wiimote and Nunchuck, we were quickly jamming away to our 1st few musical tracks, creating album covers and cutting MTVs! It was easy to discover that Wii Music was an intuitive platform to create music. There are no scoring system, In fact you score yourself based on how well you think you did. It is a fantastic tool to introduce and experience instruments we would never have the opportunity to experience otherwise. The lessons mode does a fantastic job of gradually teaching more advanced concepts of musical theory. It demonstrates how you can play the same song in different styles and how the mood of a song can change from start to finish. I never thought "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" can be played or enjoyed in so many ways. But I'm also pretty sure I will soon get sick of it if new songs are not cracked. Still, I'm excited to jam with my Godchild, nieces and nephews when they come over soon for CNY.


The Mii Happybutt and Racoon conducting to Beethoven's "Ode to Joy"

We also tried the Mii Maestro Conductor mini game which was awesome! Need to totally be in sync and not easy to score well. Wendy and I got a 66% conducting Beethoven's "Ode to Joy". Then we all got totally blown away by the drums feature which uses the Wii Fit board as foot pedals! Wendy ran through the training syllabus for the drumming and commented that it was very similar to what she pays hundreds for at drum school.


Drumming with the Wii Board


Wii Music and Free Drumming in action

I haven't had a lot of time since to play more, but I am already very impressed at the possibilities of the game. And for a music nut like myself, I can certainly learn a thing or two from the instruments to a full fetch drumming lesson!