is wii music fun? who here has it?
and congratz

It's a far deeper and enjoyable game than I thought it would be. Be warned, though, that I really don't think it's for everybody: at the risk of sounding trite, it really centers more around creating music than in simply mimicking music, or even playing music. It's hard to describe, but I recommend renting it sometime and trying it for yourself. Give it some time: it took me over an hour before the game "clicked", but when it did...

So for gamers unsure, just rent, and see if you like it.

Erm... I don't really understand what you're trying to say.

I don't care if your GOTY is GTA IV, that's fine. I responded because it seems as if you feel most of the GTA IV hate comes from Nintendo fanboys, and that isn't really the case, from what I've seen. The game was simply a disappointment to many people, as shown by user reviews (I doubt Ninty fanboys went out of their way to write those up).

You may demonstrate your shallow predictable nature and that of GOTY awards in general in any manner you wish. You prediction is certainly safe enough. I’m certain no one seriously questions that MGS or GTA or something very similar WILL win GOTY. Whether or not someone agrees that they SHOULD win largely depends on what you think a Game-of-the-Year should be.

If it’s a straight up popularity contest among the fairly lopsided and narrow demographic group of predominately adolescent to young adult males who vote for, and actually give a rat’s ass about such awards then MGS or GTA should indeed win. In this group a game is mostly evaluated in terms of rounds of ammo expended, gallons of blood spilled and with the most gratuitous cleavage to ice the cake.

If it was on the basis of total sales….. no that would never do, not even if you add the PS3 and the Xbox 360  together,

If like traditional artistic awards, such as the Pulitzer prize, there is a requirement for originality then I’d suspect we’d all agree that any serially numbered game is not qualified.

If following the model of Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, we go by what game had the greatest impact on the industry and changed it in some major way; then it would be very hard to defend any choice other than Wii Fit.

But fortunately it is just a beauty contest  with a strictly popularity vote, so GTA/MGS will win, the sun will rise again, the earth will stay in its orbit and your dick will not fall off.  And you may post as much of an outrageous mocking victory tirade as you wish and I promise to cry bitter tears for ten minutes. And then I will return the Kleenex to you in time for next month’s sales figures.

What Grampy says is true. Many of these "GOTY" awards mean jack sh*t. They are, like Grampy said, popularity contests created, catered to, voted and judged BY young gamers who believe the way of the future is gray graphics, boobs and graphics.

Like the Oscars has proven, just because something won a "best of" award it doesn't give it status or value. E.T was nominated for best picture. It lost to "Ghandi". Can you tell me which film is still fondly remembered?

Yes, GTA IV and MGS4 will win the awards, but 20 years from now when people look upon this generation of gaming they will likely say "Man, Wii Fit and Wii Music sure caused a ruckus back then! It must have been incredible to experience that!".

And yes, the reason GTAIV is criticized is because reviewed declared the game as being perfect when it had obvious flaws. Many other games across ALL consoles get gutted and criticized for even the tiniest flaw. Yet, GTAIV arrives and its the most incredible game ever.

Does this mean that Jeremy Parish is a Ninty fanboy simply because the release of GTA IV caused him to be turned off by big hype games, even though he's not that fond of Nintendo's strategy either?

People can be idiots sometimes...

Grand Theft Auto IV was an amazing game, a real accomplishment. I loved it. I gave it a 9/10. I really enjoy some of these so-called hardcore games, and I never put them down in any other way than saying I do not personally care for them. I have never called GTA IV shoveware, destroying gaming, offensive or any of the other deregatory terms applied to Wii Music.

Review scores don't matter, because I am of a different opinion on a lot of subjects compared to reviewers. Especially Wii Music. And since Wii Music is a true hardcore, deep, skilldriven niche game hidden underneath an accessible exterior, I can easilly see why only very few reviewers seem to get the game, and even fewer still have fun with it.

Most people that think GTA IV is awful and overrated, I have found, are the PS360 fanboys who was sure the game would destroy the Wii.

http://us.wii.com/iwata_asks/wii_music/vol3_page2.jsp

Clearly Divided Opinions
Iwata:
Now that it's been over a month since Wii Music was released, how do you feel about it, Miyamoto-san?

Miyamoto:
We made Wii Fit because I enjoyed keeping close track of my weight, but I'd never been able to take my love of music that I had ever since I was young and turn it into a game. But with Wii Music, the team did it for me, and it was almost exactly as I'd envisioned! Until now, I've hardly ever actually played the games we've developed after they were released.

Iwata:
Because you have to start thinking about the next game.

Miyamoto:
But this time I rush home to brush up this or that aspect of a song, and when I haven't played it for a while I can't wait to get back to it. I can go on for hours. It's scary. (laughs) I think the true test of a good game is one that you can't stay away from. How about you, Iwata-san?

Iwata:
Viewing it as a player, I'd have to say this game is a time thief! (laughs)

Miyamoto:
You mean that in a good way, right? (laughs)

Iwata:
It's quite frightening! I'll sit down to play for just a bit, and before I know it, two hours have passed! I don't know exactly why this time thief is always able to take me in, but when I play a sound that just happened to flow naturally and the end result was even a little beyond my expectation, I feel like I have been awarded a great reward. That's the way I feel about Wii Music, but it seems like the reception among players is divided. There's a clear split between those who absolutely love it and those who don't quite get it. For the last few years, Nintendo has been introducing a lot of products the likes of which had never existed before, so we were expecting a difference in opinions, but nothing to this extent.



Miyamoto:
I agree.

Iwata:
It seems a lot of people see the television commercial and think it would be fun to play in a group but then turn away because they don't often have the chance to play in groups. However, the game is much easier to get lost in when you play alone.

Miyamoto:
I agree. Once you've delved into it on your own, group play becomes a lot more fun.

Kondo:
I know someone who saw the commercial and said it didn't look fun.

Iwata:
Who?

Kondo:
My son.

Everyone:
(laughs)

Iwata:
That must have hurt your feelings. (laughs)

Totaka:
His own father made the game! (laughs)

Iwata:
What grade is your son in?

Kondo:
He's in his second year of junior high. He didn't say a word about wanting it, but I bought it anyway. When I suggested he give it a try, he just mashed the A Button to skip all the introductory text by Sebastian Tute!

Iwata:
There's nothing we can do if someone just hits the A Button even though the Tute will kindly explain everything! (laughs)



Totaka:
I guess not. (laughs)

Kondo:
My son has played electric organ for years, so he can read music. When he started playing, one of the first things he did was to display music scores. He'd play through a song and then sigh as if to say "What's the big deal?" And that was the end of it.

Totaka:
Too bad. It's more fun not to look at the scores.

Kondo:
I know! (laughs)

Miyamoto:
Among those who don't understand the appeal of Wii Music, there is one group of people who, like Kondo-san's son, know music, try to do it the formal way, and then say the game is no fun because it's too simple, and another group of people that know they can play however they want, but say they aren't interested in that.

Iwata:
There's another group of people who know enough about music but feel uncomfortable whenever they hear a note they don't expect.

Miyamoto:
As someone who plays guitar, I feel that way sometimes, too, but I think there's a lot to be gained from loosening up in that respect.

Iwata:
Me too. There are times when I want it to do one thing and it does another, but it's so much fun to play in exchange for the time I'm putting into it, that I can't help but get sucked into it for hours on end.

Miyamoto:
That's why I think that if you play for a while, you'll find that the possibilities are endless.

Iwata:
The possibilities may be endless, but we should try to give players more examples of those possibilities. I'm afraid we haven't done a very good job of that. For so long, games have been made with a "right" way to play them and players are expected to do whatever they can to approach that correct goal. We can say, "You can do whatever your creativity inspires you to do," but there may be a lot of people out there who don't know what they should do.



Miyamoto:
Wii Music is a tool that you use someway to somehow create something. Even those who have never played a musical instrument will, simply by fiddling around with it, suddenly find the strong desire to create something well up within them.

Iwata:
That's why I think we need to give more examples about what this tool can do. We haven't fully conveyed what can be done to get full enjoyment from the game.

Miyamoto:
Hmm, you may be right. Maybe we'll be able to regain Kondo-san's son's interest.

Iwata:
I also get the feeling that some players who have enjoyed the game have trouble finding the words to explain adequately what it is they like about it.

Miyamoto:
That's right. If only I could find the right words! That's why I would never make a good preacher. (laughs)

Kondo:
Like my son, a lot of people may think that the game isn't suited to them and that the best way to play it is by following the scores.

Miyamoto:
You can view the default arrangement any time, but it isn't very rewarding to simply copy them. It's more fun to play with a spirit of trying to disregard the examples.

Iwata:
Has anyone tried to make a video as far away as possible from a strict rendition of the original arrangement?

Kondo:
Did anyone do that?

Totaka:
I bet (Takashi) Tezuka-san did.

Iwata:
Somebody that's so close to us! I'd like to know how it turned out. Let's take advantage of the fact that he's not here to talk about it! (laughs)



This was funny, I wish I could be sitting at that table with those legends. Koji Kondo's son hated the game lol :P

@zleep - that was an awesome Iwata Asks. Wii music is for old men!

Seriously, I've been saying Wii Music is a niche game for a while now. They kinda second my opinion there.

Amazing. After over two decades in the industry, Miyamoto has finally created a game that he wants to play.

Just another non-gamer converted by the Wii. ;D