Surface Level: Experiencing Wii Music
Started: 25 October 2008 (16:35 PST)
Completed: 25 October 2008 (18:26 PST)
Posted: 27 October 2008 (19:00 PST)
NOTE: I apologize for the less-than-ideal image quality. I can't capture through my component video cables, so I had to use my S-Video cables instead. As a result, there's a bit of color hashing and a bit of fuzziness too. Rest assured, it looks quite sharp on component. You may direct your complaints to my secretary.
To start with, let's get to the unpacking the game and popping it in.
Right from the start, we're thrown into a very basic tutorial of how to play the instruments, and I discover a few rather important facts.
1.) I am in fact a bit ill-coordinated.
2.) The game doesn't seem to mind too much that I am ill-coordinated.
3.) Once you get the rhythm of an instrument, it's really not too hard to play along and sound good.
The tutorial goes through all four of the basic instrument styles: Wiimote + Nunchuk banging (used for piano, drums, etc.), Wiimote + Nunchuk strumming (guitar style), Wiimote only (trumpet/flute), and Wiimote + Nunchuk bowing (violin style). I seem to have the easiest time personally with the piano style, which I managed to get the hang of nicely in time to perform a not-too-bad rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star (which the tutorial has you play in a Jam Session). Once that's done, it pops us out onto the main menu.
From here, we can access Drum Mode, Lessons, Videos, Games, and of course, Jams. From what the little Maestro fellow told me in the tutorial (with his amusing little voice; he seriously looks and sounds like a Muppet), I need to do jams and rate myself highly to unlock more songs, but we'll worry about that later. A quick glance shows that the Lessons are the game's tutorials, and that there's only the required first one so far. So let's go straight to the games, shall we? I'll try my hand first at Mii Maestro, where you conduct an orchestra.
A quick performance of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star results in a less-than-impressive 55 points, but to be fair, I didn't really read the instructions too well for it. So let's go on to the next song, Carmen. A wild and almost flailing try results in 54 points, so there is definitely more to this than just flailing wildly (unlike what some have claimed). On to The Four Seasons, where I try to keep a more even and proper pace. I seem to have a little difficulty at this, resulting in 52 points. Next is good old Ode to Joy, which I manage a 67 points, consderably better than before. There's a definite knack to this, and I think I'm starting to get a grip on it. So I try the last one, the ever-classic Legend of Zelda theme. This one is not so easy, it seems, but I still manage a 52.
Overall, I've found that Maestro is not my strong point, but I'm really not too shocked, given my musical background (or rather, lack of one). Next, let's see if we can handle Handbell Harmony. We'll be performing O Christmas Tree first, it seems. Overall, I did alright with 65 (and had a bit of a rough patch there when I forgot which bells I was ringing; how embarrassing!), so let's do the next one, Hum Hum Hum. This one I get the knack of it a bit better and manage 76 on. This is clearly more like what most people are used to in music games, with the timing of swings. On to the next song, My Grandfather's Clock. The end result was 77, also pretty good. Do-Re-Mi gets me 59 (I missed a few notes), and Sukiyaki I get 67 on. That concludes the handbells, which I was mostly okay at. I will definitely need to pracice this later.
Next is Pitch Perfect, where I get to find out how tone-deaf I actually am. It basically has you checking your ability to recognize higher and lower pitch notes, to recognize the notes in multi-part harmonies, to spot the theme-appropriateness of a particular music piece, and to see how well you can arrange a simple piece based on pre-assembled notes on a grid. I got 106 on level 1, so I gess I'm not totally hopeless. From there, however, I suspect I won't do so well. Let's see.
And for the image-averse, a text summary:
Level 2: 100 points
Level 3: 58 points (ouch)
Level 4: 100 points
Level 5: 69 points
Level 6: 87 points
Level 7: 32 points (double ouch)
Level 8: 60 points
Overall, I didn't do as bad as I thought I would (well, except level 7; that's pretty close to how I expected to score throughout all of the later ones). So that covers the various minigames, now let's check out some other bits. Videos lets you see videos you've made and that others have sent you, and has a few sample videos too. It's standard-issue stuff, so instead let's get to the really good bit now: Jam Sessions.
There are 3 kinds of Jam Sessions you can do: Instrument Improv, Quick Jam, and Custom Jam. You can even play along with the menu theme here with whatever instrument your Mii is holding, which is a nifty touch. We'll start with improv.
In this mode, you pick an instrument and just jam with it. Every instrument has a lot of options on how to play it, but we'll get into that later. Overall, the instrument improv is very fun, but unfortunately, there seems to be no way to save your songs in this mode. I say unfortunately because it's a blast, plain and simple: get into the rhythm, toy with what the instrument can do, and just have fun. It's dinking around with instruments at its finest, without the hassle of having to know how to play the instrument. I found I enjoyed it quite a bit more than the timing and tone-matching minigames.
Next up, Quick Jam! This picks some random combination of song and instrument for you, so you can just jump right in. You quickly learn that you don't know the timing for your favorite songs quite as well as you thought you did when you play this mode, or maybe it's just me. Anyway, it's pretty interesting overall, the kind of thing you load up when you just want to play a quickie.
Now we'll take a quick look at Custom Jam. We'll start with Super Mario Bros theme and the Concert Hall, with a classical arrangement. A quick try with me playing the congas results in a fairly good performance. The Overdub feature is explained, and I'm half-tempted to try it, but we'll save that for later. After saving the video and getting a brief playback of it, I unlock a new instrument, and I shut the game off for the day. In the next part: we look into the depths of the Jam Session options, how the instruments work in detail, and we'll get a few videos of my performances. Plus: Drum Mode!
Impressions so far: A pretty interesting game, and certainly proving itself to be entertaining. I can see that I'll need to practice more to fully appreciate the game's nuances, but that's alright; a game that has no learning curve wouldn't be very fun, after all.
Total Play Time for Saturday: 1:51
Next up: I really get to the good bits.
Sky Render - Sanity is for the weak.
