The Gamespot reviews says basically my thoughts since I saw the game for the first time. It's fun at first for the novelty, then after an hour you get bored because there's nothing to do

Gamespot gave it a much better score than I thought. Maybe they're not Nintendo bias. Anyway, these scores are much higher than I thought for this game. I actually expected a few 4's or lower. If this proves anything, this is the weakest entry in the Wii series but it's not quite shovelware.

i'll buy it regardless of the review scores

wii sports and wii play got a similar scores, and i'm still having fun with them after 2 years

 That's great to hear to be honest.  I'm glad someone is able to have fun with these questionable "casual" games.

So, do people feel this will end up doing better or worse than Wii Play as far as reviews go?

It looks like a common complaint is people feel it isn't worth $50. It is possible they priced it too high, the sales will soon tell the story. A game like Brain Age wouldn't have sold as well as it did at full price, after all. The +$20 deal at Amazon definitely helped my decision in ordering the game.

I played this last night and my impressions were mixed at best. You start by playing a forced tutorial that gives you the basic knowledge you need to get the hang of it. After a fairly lengthy tutorial you are free to play jams(group/single play), games (maestro/challenges) along with a couple other things. For the first 15-20 minutes of play, everyone in the room is clinging to every note you play, commenting on how fun it looks or that they want to try or laughing at the silliness of the dog music. After about 30 minutes it felt like it was already getting old. After I gave up the wiimote, each subsequent player quit after whole song or less and pretty much was done with it. So while it was fun for a little while, the people I was playing with were turned off really quickly because it just felt pointless and overly simplistic. That said, this would be a great game for younger ones.

I think it's okay, but it's got some major problems. In particular, the forced tutorial and the whole grinding for unlockable stuff thing. What the hell is the deal with that? I thought Wii Music of all things would free me of ridiculous tasks like "grinding" to get other instruments... when Malstrom says tutorials & unlockables need to go, I really see what he's talking about here.

So, I would recommend against paying $50 for the game, unless you're sure it's something you're interested in. I just got tired of trying to unlock everything so I'm taking a break for now. It's probably a good game to take out and play when you're bored once in a while, though. It has its purpose, as it really can be fun just playing around, assuming you're okay with embarrassing yourself. It's relaxing, really, so I'm still glad I bought it (at $30).

edit: After playing the actual game again I'm in love with it, lol. Scratch the price issue, I wouldn't mind paying $50 for it . It's just hard as hell to make music, for so many reasons, like: 1 bad part spoils the whole band, you have to play the whole song over even if you messed up just once (assuming you want a good vid), AND you have to plan out how and when you hit the notes. It takes a ton of memory, planning and practice to make something different & pleasant from the songs they've given you. Every screw-up becomes really noticible (drums, for example - bad timing kills the song).

Updated. I really wish someone would sticky this, if only to have something to laugh about later.

got it from Amazon last night, tried it out for probably an hour or so.  bit of background about myself: classically trained pianist, and pretty much a "casual" gamer.

it has completely surpassed my expectations--although it's kind of like the Sarah Palin VP debate since the bar was set so damn low. 

still, it's the most fun i've had playing a game since WarioWare Smooth Moves.  i underestimated how much fun it is to play a piece with whatever kind of variations you want on the theme.  the minimal amount of effort you need to make the music sound different is of huge interest to me. 

more on this playing variations on the fly: so far, i'm actually quite impressed that they've implemented all the algorithms to make the music come out correctly.  i thought it's really neat.  as somebody who knows both music theory and computer algorithms very well, i know it's not actually that hard to accomplish, although there are some careful decisions that you need to make in this process.  the IGN reviewer completely did not realize this--not surprising, since they don't appear to know much about music.  i don't know how the Mii Freestyle mode in GHIV is like so i can't make any comparisons.  also, it probably isn't new technology--but again, Nintendo manages to bring it to the masses in an easy and intuitive way, which is what really matters.

i find the handbell quite charming, perhaps due to its simplicity.  i can imagine it being a lot of fun playing with 4 people--the best part being that you need no musical background whatsoever to play fun.  but i don't understand why they only offer you 5 songs on this mode.  that seems absolutely ridiculous.

the wii maestro mode seems gimmicky, but it's also the one i enjoyed the most.  changing tempo to your whims is definitely very cool, and i think it's mainly fun because you'll actually (kind of) conducting.  again, just 5 songs? 

the perfect pitch game is too shallow, with basically only 5 kind of tests.  although if it were any more complicated, i don't know if i myself can play through the quizzes.  i think you can make an independent game out of this segment alone.

i haven't unlocked the music arrangement mode yet.  i'm very intersted in trying it out.  one reviewer mentioned that they have silly songs like twinkle twinkle little star, but what they don't realize is that the variations you expand on these themes are absolutely endless.  one of mozart's more famous variations is in fact variations on this twinkle twinkle little star theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71f2fahFhDE

writing variations on a theme is one of my favorite musical activities--maybe largely because i'm rarely ever happy with any original melody i come up with myself.  so i just piggyback on a famous theme and expound on it.

rearranging music obviously takes a lot of effort, i'll have to try out and see how easy it is in wii music.  i've always wanted to write string or piano quartets, but the orchestration/arrangement is simply too much work for me.  it'll obviously still be a lot of work in wii music, since the interface doesn't take away the amount of thought you need to put in.

i'll get together with one of my violin playing friends for multiplayer and see what he has to say.  if we enjoy our "jam" sessions, then i'll go ahead say wii music is a success.

overall, i'm quite enthusiastic about this.  i'm definitely having more fun with Wii Music than either Wii Fit or Wii Play.  Wii Play is pathetic, but it's also only 10 bucks.

I love reading IGNs review. He sounds so bitter. LOL. Seriously though, after reading his review why did he score it (relatively) so high?

I knoe IGN basically rants and raves in the script then goes back and scores it objectivly despite what they said, but it really seems conflicted.

The sound category SHOULD get a 2, if all the stuff he was bitching about is true.