Hi,
I just HAD to register to vhchartz to thank Lingyis for making me decide to buy Wii Music: I admit I was a bit on the fence before reading his post.
A bit of info about me as well: I'm an IT consultant, and an amateur musician: I play piano and various recorders / flutes; I love music in all forms, with strong preferences for ancient/baroque/classical and jazz.
I guess I could describe myself as an hardcore gamer, but I hate labels and I love my rabbids, if you hear my words :)
I bought Wii Music just after reading Lingys' comment, along with Call of Duty, which I had already decided to buy: little did I know that six hours later COD would've still been wrapped in its cellophane sleeve.
Saying that Wii Music exceeded my best expectations would be a wild understatement: I would gladly buy a Wii just to play it (hadn't I got one already, that is ;) )
I really think IGN reviewer (and most of journalists) didn't get it at all: Wii Music has nothing to do with rhythm games à la Guitar Hero: you don't have to press buttons: you have to play, experiment, arrange and enjoy (which reminds me of an insightful article about game criticism -as opposed to reviews- and why we need it: http://playthisthing.com/game-criticism-why-we-need-it-and-why-reviews-arent-it).
It's not definitely a game tout court: it's something between a toy and a software tool.
Actually, I don't really care what it is, as long as it allows me to do have so much fun doing music, even doing jam sessions with my wife –which can't play any instrument–.
Could it have been better? Yes, definitely: the ancillary modes are charming yet unfinished, for instance.
Could the song roster be larger and broader? Oh that would've been sweet.
Could the samples of certain instruments (I'm looking at you, electric guitar!) sound a bit better? Hell, yeah.
Are those show-stoppers? No, not for me: it's something who lets me jam and arrange; it's something who lets me play music with a person I love (moreover: she's getting better at grokking rhythm and music in general: Wii Music is actually *gasps* educative).
Oh and c0rd: don't worry: you just unlock everything after an hour of playing around or so... nothing difficult and definitely no BDSM-gaming here ;)
If you have further questions about the game, I'll be glad to answer them as well as I can.
BTW: in case you were wondering: I've unwrapped COD and played it by now:it's great but I'm definitely having much more fun with Wii Music :)
