A big mistake being made by nearly every reviewer is likening Wii Music to Guitar Hero. It's like comparing Mario to Pinball. 

Music games generally fit into three categories: 

- Rhythm (you copy exactly what you see on the screen) 
examples: Simon Says, Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution 

- Free Form (emphasis is on music rather than gameplay) 
examples: Electroplankton, Traxxpad, Fluid 

- Hybrid (a combination between a non-music genre, such as an RPG, and a music game) 
exmaples : Rez, Ragnarawk 

It's hard to pin Wii Music down, but it best fits into the Free Form category. The comparisons to Guitar Hero are silly, as Wii Music is not a "simon says" type game. When reviewers compare the two, they're just stating their preference for one genre over another, which is rather useless. 

One example of people's silliness comparing the two are the complaints about the track list. Track lists are important to Rhythm games, not so much Free Form games. 

Much like beginner piano lessons where you're first taught "Chopsticks" or "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" (not Stevie Ray Vaughn) Wii Music's track list has songs that ease you into the creation of music, which is the main point of a free-form music game, as well as more advanced Classical tracks. They are not for listening to as much as they are templates for your own creations. 

As a Free Form music game, Wii Music is strange. While it doesn't allow you total freedom of pitch and tone (which most do), it still allows enough wiggle room to create your own songs. For example, playing only the 8th notes in a given song - such as Jingle Bell Rock - will sound nothing like Christmas. Or you can stick to the established notes and remove entire sections, or play certain parts quietly, or just cut loose with the Wiimote and make noise. 

Still though, you are limited in what you can do, as Wii Music doesn't allow total musical freedom. The tradeoff in losing that freedom is that it lets non-musicians create music with relative ease. I want to emphasize "relative", because making music is still difficult; it takes thought, planning and some basic knowledge of music theory. Wii Music wisely teaches players the basics of music theory over many lessons, though some painfully last 30+ minutes, and I wish they'd use real music terminology rather than dumbed-down terms. 

The last song I made took two hours to get to the point where I was happy with it. Those two hours were spent experimenting with different instruments, rhythms, and melodies - all of which were enjoyable. It was also spent dealing with occasionally inaccurate controls, frustrations with certain notes I couldn't change, and some bad sounding midi instruments - all of which were not enjoyable. 

Collaboration is fun, so long as you're both in the same mood (creative or silly). I've jammed with friends sitting on the couch at the same time, as well as people online where we take turns adding pieces to the composition. 

Wii Music has the ability to save and share your creations, something I wish other free-form games would focus on, but the sharing features still come up short to youtube, which has become the premiere place for users to show off completed works. 

Wii Music is also full of mini-games, including ones that focus on volume, theory, memory and yes - rhythm. You can compare the little bell game to Guitar Hero all you want :) However, these are mostly distractions compared to the real meat - the free form "jam" mode. 

Wii Music, even for a free-form music game, is strange, brilliant and sometimes frustrating. It's sad that its been shoved into the middle of the silly "hardcore vs casual" game war, released at the same time as popular rhythm games (increasing the amount of useless comparisons) and is often judged by reviewers with an established belief of what a music game can and can't be. In the end it's one of Nintendo's most ambitious and insane games ever made, and if you have some untapped creativity lying around, it's worth a buy.

I agree 100%. Like famousringo's sig says (Paraphrasing here) "Guitar Hero is to Wii Music as on-rail shooters are to first person shooters."

Good, glad I'm not alone.

I just wanted to see Wii Music reviewed and compared to other free-form music games.  If a reviewer did that and hated it, I'd be fine, but it just doesn't do the consumer any good to review a pinball game like it's a platformer, or Wii Music like it's a rhythm game.  Unless you're reviewing that little bell mini-game that's actually rhythm based.

I was worried that I was crazy after Matt Cassamawhatever's review and the hordes of Wii Music haters.  Was I missing something, or could it be that most of the haters have never played a free-form music game?

Matt from IGN didn't write a review, he wrote a hate speech.

If the reviewer hates the free-form genre, and says "why not just buy a real instrument?!" then that's the wrong person to review the game.

Imagine if magazines always let reviewers who hate a certain genre review a game. "why play bioshock when you could just read ayn rand while shooting paintballs? 2/10, i hate fps games."

Wii music is weird. I agree. It's hard to really say what it is. But I really, really want it. It's the only game so far this generation that has had me wishing I could afford buying a console, and actually thinking about it.

Watching videos that users on this site has made in Wii Music is probably the best way to understand what the game is about. And seeing how the quality and tightness increases from video to video shows just how much skill is involved, as well as creativity.

Wii Music is not really a game, not really a toy, not really a music program and not really an instrument. It is something in between, and it's one of the most daring and innovative products in a long time...

overall it's great game that deserve to be milion seller for what it gives - last night i played more than 6 hours on just one track only to make it sound good and using various instruments and it was only just for fun and curiosity. what other game can DO that?

Awesome review! I'm still in the process of buying the game, but I'm really interested in it.

LOL at "Matt Cassamawhatever's"

Beautifully said. Spot on, you nailed it.