The Game Composer’s Blog

My Wii Music conundrum.

Wii Music has been released today. Months ago when I first heard about the game, I was pretty excited about it. But after learning more about the game, I’m not that keen on getting a copy. Maybe it’s the limited song list (Twinkle Twinkle?). Maybe it’s the lack of challenge of playing the instruments. Maybe it’s the poor MIDI-like sound quality of the instruments. But mostly I think it’s the fact that almost any time I want I can sit down with my wife and friends and play music as much as we want.

I don’t think I’m the target audience for this game. And I’m kind of disappointed that they couldn’t have expanded the track list or made more challenging modes for people who have a little more experience with making real music. Guitar Hero and Rock Band were able to bridge that gap as even people who play guitar could enjoy those games. I don’t think it’s that hard to do.

So it looks like I’ll be waiting for the price to drop to $30 or so before I play with the Wii Music toy. I do think there’s some fun to be had. I’m still looking forward to trying out the conducting minigame and I’m sure jamming will be fun for awhile, but I can’t get too excited beyond that.

All that being said, Nintendo needn’t worry about my business. They’re going to sell millions of copies of this game. And I’m happy about that. It’s going to get lots of kids excited about music and maybe our nation’s orchestras will thank Nintendo years on down the road.

October 21, 2008 Posted by thegamecomposer | Ponderings | game music, Wii Music | Leave a Comment