Thus far, only the 1UP reviewer - perhaps not coincidentally, the only one of the bunch who admits to being an actual musician - seems to really "get it." Asking a non-musician to review Wii Music is just as silly as asking, say, someone who knows absolutely nothing about football to review the latest Madden iteration. Of course they'll hate it, because they don't get what it's supposed to represent.
The IGN review, for example, is just terrible. The reviewer approaches it as though it were a "rhythm game" a la Guitar Hero, and soon the review lapses into a tirade of "lol Midi," "lol non-gamers," and "lol kiddy."
Gaming journalism sucks.
"'Casual games' are something the 'Game Industry' invented to explain away the Wii success instead of actually listening or looking at what Nintendo did. There is no 'casual strategy' from Nintendo. 'Accessible strategy', yes, but ‘casual gamers’ is just the 'Game Industry''s polite way of saying what they feel: 'retarded gamers'."
-Sean Malstrom
