^Forums wouldn't exist unless people expressed their feelings on the matter.

As the KKK say - "It's ok to show your hate."

Not sure if that was a great source for the point I'm making though. ^_^

(Or maybe it drives home the point.)

I do have a musical background and in fact preferred playing Dixieland since it is generally not played from sheet music but just a cheat book with the main melody line and key and everything else was improvised. Every time you played the experience was different. Some nights you sort of felt like going along for the ride and backing up other musicians and sometimes you got into the music and took a ride going wherever you could get some variation of the melody line to take you and everybody backed you up. Usually it was good, occasionally it stunk and once in a while it was f**king fantastic.

Regrettably I put aside my clarinet too long and no longer can play like that. I got Guitar Hero to recapture some of that fun and I was very disappointed when I realized it wasn’t really about music at all, it was more a reflex game having more to do with those boxes where the heads pop up and you try to hit them with a hammer than with actually making music. I lost interest pretty quickly.

If Nintendo can make a game or a non-game where you actually have control of the music, providing the feeling and style of the music even though you don’t have to have mastered the actually physical dexterity of a particular musical instrument I actually find that very appealing. If it lacks scoring and competition to make it a “game”; fine by me because music is about co-operation, not competition and the only score that matter is the musical score.
It sounds very fresh and original to me and I plan to get in and have a hell of a lot of fun. If nothing else it is completely original and doesn’t have a 3,4 or even 14 after its name, I’m in!

And I think a lot of folks are going to be surprised/appalled at the sales.
After all everyone laughed at Wii Fit; but I play it at least four times a week. It’s greatly improved my balance, helped me lose over forty pounds and I’m still enjoying the heck out of it.

3 years in development. It was the last of his big three Wii **** ideas along with Sports and Fit. I think he's also overseeing the development of it.

Art and creativity is subjective. With time, appreciation for everything will change.

I've been saying Wii Music is the New Mario Paint, so my favorite part was this:

"The saddest definition for painting would be to ‘paint within the lines’. If there was a ‘painting video-game’ made, this would likely be its realization. But Mario Paint was not this, and even the Hardcore enjoyed Mario Paint before they lost their child like innocence to become embittered."

He's right! Why people hate this but not Mario Paint if it is basically the same thing? Mario Paint was not for casuals, but to people that like to draw, and Wii Music is not for casuals but to people that like to play music.

The only problem I have with the game is we haven't seen anything that allows you to play different notes, so it looks very shallow right now.

A great article, as always. And as always, some people just don't get it.

Malstrom is the man! One of the VERY VERY few who understands the game industry.
I have really been waiting for him to write about wii music.

next is
Wiittle Big planet

funny how they take a game that already exists, make it to feature wii avatars.
wasn't the last one mario ddr? that one was much better than ddr, i would even say that it was genius compared to the infantile ddr.

how is hitting the notes on this game any different?

nintendo should put this article on the back of the box for wiimusic as it is easily the most compelling arugement for it i've seen.

as a guitar/trumpet player he really hit the mark with the comparisons between music and rythm games. i'm going to wait to actually play this game before i say it transents those limitation though.

wiimusic will be huge.

A great read. Grampy's relaying of his background as a musician and experiences with rhythm games is also a good read.