Wii Music

Wii Music/Orchestra
File:Wii Music Orchestra game.jpg
Developer(s)	Nintendo
Publisher(s)	Nintendo
Platform(s)	Wii
Release	TBA 2007 TBA 2007 TBA 2007 TBA 2007
Genre(s)	Simulation

Wii Music, also known as Wii Orchestra, is a Wii game that simulates instruments using the Wii Remote. It will contain an orchestra and drum game, as confirmed by Nintendo Power. The game is part of Nintendo's Wii Series, which includes Wii Sports, Wii Play and the upcoming Wii Health Pack. Wii Music was originally suggested as a launch title, but no new information regarding the game or a release date was given, except for an unspecific 2007 release for Japan. Players will be able to create their own sounds, and try to play with pre-made songs, in the style of Drummania. Famed Nintendo composer Koji Kondo is one of the people overseeing the project.

History

TGS 2005: Nintendo

Although footage of the game was not shown, the game was shown being played off-screen for the first time along with the Wii controller at the Tokyo Game Show 2005 Nintendo press conference. The two games from Wii Music shown were Drums and Orchestra. Even though the clips were short, and there was absolutely no game footage shown, a lot of the game was shown to the public during those few seconds.

E3 2006: Nintendo

This was the first Wii game shown being played in real-time ever during the Nintendo's Pre-E3 Conference, where Shigeru Miyamoto came up to the stage to perform the Legend of Zelda Overworld Theme for the audience using the Orchestra game. After the performance he received a big applause from the spectators. The next day, both Drums and Orchestra from Wii Music were first playable to the attendees in the show floor. Orchestra in particular was very popular and managed to create long lines from attendees who wanted to play the game.

Use of Miis

Although Nintendo has not confirmed that the game will use the Wii's Mii Channel, in the E3 demo, the characters that were playing the instruments on the game Orchestra were clearly Miis. This will be the first time Miis are seen with ears.

Games

So far, the only games revealed to be in Wii Music are the same ones shown since the Tokyo Game Show 2005 conference. Both of these games are fully playable.

• Drums uses the Wii controller and the Nunchuk together to simulate drum sticks. The player moves the "drumsticks" up and down to hit the drums, as in real life. The player hits the drums symphonically to make music. The game supports split-screen multiplayer.

• Orchestra uses the Wii controller to conduct an orchestra. The player swings the Wii controller up and down to a certain tempo. Moving the Wii controller quickly with no real rhythm will make the Mii orchestra play frantically, while slow, graceful movements will create dragging notes and longer tones. There are no indicators of any kind to show how well the player is performing, forcing the player to try to match the original music from memory, and experiment to find which movements give better results. At the song's conclusion, a round of applause emanates from the TV and a numerical score is shown, along with the player's rank as a conductor. The classifications include Passionate, Graceful, and Methodical. Those players keeping an even tempo through the song are usually ranked as Methodical, whereas players who swung wildly without keeping track of the rhythm of the song are usually deemed as Passionate.

Since this game is still in development, more game modes could and are expected to be added to Wii Music.

Music

So far, only two songs are confirmed to be included in Wii Music. Both of them were available to play at E3 2006.

• Zelda Overworld Theme
• The Overture from the opera Carmen

See also

• Mad Maestro!
• Drummania
• List of Wii games

Notes and references

• IGN.com's Game Profile
• News and video about Wii Orchestra
• Nintendo Power