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Playing the world's smallest violin in Nodame Cantabile
We don't mean that in a sarcastic fake-sadness way. We mean that in Nodame Cantabile: Dream Orchestra, you'll be playing a violin so small that it is insubstantial. We introduced you to Nodame Cantabile's novel gesture controls before, but now the unfortunate Namco Bandai staffer stuck in the mongoose suit is back to demonstrate the pantomime-based control scheme on video. It's like Air Guitar Hero.Each instrument has its own page on the Cantabile website, with a diagram of its Wii approximation and a short video of the dapper mongoose demonstrating it. The embedded trailer contains even shorter demonstrations. While you're at the website, be sure to download the calendar wallpaper! We suggest doing so while it's still December, for obvious reasons.[Via Siliconera]
Learn Nodame Cantabile's controls from a person in a mongoose suit
Last time we saw Nodame Cantabile: Dream Orchestra, we speculated that the control scheme would be disappointingly vanilla. We were totally wrong! And here to demonstrate the depths of our wrongness is a person in a mongoose suit (as seen in the anime).Unfortunately, the game doesn't include a mongoose suit, or we'd be confirming Game of the Year right now.As pantomimed by the mongoose, the game will use a different gestural control method for each instrument. The on-screen display is the same -- notes moving from right to left across the screen -- but the motion required to correctly play those notes differs by instrument. When playing violin, you hold the Nunchuk up, hold the Z button, and wave the Wii Remote back and forth like a bow. When playing piano, you hold both controllers upside down and press the B and Z buttons while shaking the controller (to determine the intensity of the keypress). Timpani and conducting segments use similarly representative controller motions. Check the link for screens of all of these modes in action, and mongoosey demonstrations.The game will also include, as a preorder gift, a little piano-shaped case, which is just the right size for a Wiimote and Nunchuk. We have suddenly developed an interest in the licensed classical music game! Anime/manga fans: start getting really interested in Nodame Cantabile, please, for our sake.
Nodame Cantabile brings classical rhythm gaming to the Wii
Nodame Cantabile on DS was an Ouendan-alike in which you conducted classical music by tapping the screen. The Wii version, called Nodame Cantabile: Dream Orchestra seems to expand on that premise by allowing players to not only conduct, but play multiple instruments as well. We can't exactly tell how the Wii version works-- whether you point at the little note icons before pressing a button, or if the game takes button presses only, but Bandai Namco promises a simple control scheme in the interest of attracting new gamers. We'd kind of like to swing the Wiimote like a baton, but we aren't sure if that'll happen.Of particular interest to us is the four-player mode, in which each player can use a different instrument and play one of the game's 50+ compositions together. We call triangle!
Import impressions: Nodame Cantabile
Hey, you guys like rhythm games, right? Maybe just a little? They seem to be kinda popular. Just a guess. Game|Life's Chris Kohler got his hands on the latest non-Ouendan rhythm game to hit Japan, Nodame Cantabile, and served up some melodic stylings on the manga-based title. Unfortunately, it seems Nodame's classical music studies can't quite compare to some of the other rhythm games, but there's some good news to balance the bad. Nodame Cantabile seems somewhat import-friendly -- from the sound of it, you can skip a lot of the dialogue and just run around and hit the performance spots instead. Better still? The price is dropping like a rock, so it may be cheaper to import when compared to certain other hot Japanese titles. The interface changes up some of what we've learned to expect with Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents as well; rather than hitting fixed points, the input circles move, which adds a little more challenge to the mix, but not enough to make it a stand-out. Still, with the possibility of budget prices, this one may be a nice choice for fans of the manga or the rhythm game explosion.
Friday Video: Masters of drums
Since Taiko Drum Master was announced this week for the DS, and we also happen to be a little fond of rhythm games, we thought we'd bring you another pair of videos dedicated to getting your drum on. The first makes us yearn for arcades, because there's nothing like huge drums or motorcycles and steering wheels to really get you in the game. We also want that guy's skill, because he really knows how to rock out. The video was originally posted to Chris Kohler's Game|Life blog, so you've probably seen it before, but we felt it was a good finisher for the week. The second shows off a Taiko Drum Master mini-game featured in Nodame Cantabile, which was recently released in Japan.
More hot rhythm game action
If you don't want to (or can't) try the flash-based preview of Nodame Cantabile DS, you can always kick back and watch this video. Not into this kind of thing? Maybe you should give it another try, because we have seen the future, and it is the rhythm game ... at least, it seems to have a lock on a big part of the DS's future. The game is out for the DS this week in Japan.
