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Wii Music reflects on Nintendo's past with playable Famicom
Nintendo has been happy to think outside the box when selecting Wii Music's line-up of instruments, and over the weekend, the company revealed another unconventional choice: the Famicom. This isn't as weird as the dog suit -- there is, after all, a whole scene dedicated to making music from old game sounds (and even household names have dabbled) -- but is an interesting and fun addition nonetheless.The other recently unveiled instrument, the Timbales (there's a video after the break), is less interesting as a result, though Wikipedia (yes, we call this "journalism" -- Pulitzer, here we come) taught us that "Timbales" doubles up as a Spanish euphemism for, well, a rude word. Expect much childish giggling in Spanish-speaking households later this year, then.%Gallery-27713%
Wii Music: UK date, minigames, and the daily instrument
The biggest Wii Music news today is that it's been dated for the UK. Nintendo has announced that the game will be in stores on November 14. Of course, being a day, there's also a "Today's Instrument" video! Today's featured Wii Music instrument is one that is, in our estimation, almost universally associated with fun: the steel drum. Most people hear the sound of a steel drum and think of beach vacations, and of time spent relaxing in some resort. We think of Super Mario World. Either way, the sound makes people happy. On an even more basic level, it's a big bowl that you hit with hammers! Neat! Of course, as usual, the model is too cool to let any of our hu-man emotions show through.Also, it may be a bit confusing, but two Wii Music websites have updated with new content. The nintendo.co.jp Wii Music site features, in addition to basic info about the game, descriptions of three minigames contained in Wii Music: Narikiri Orchestra (something like "Becoming an Orchestra"), Awasete Handbell ("Connect Handbells"), and a very weird tone-matching minigame, all with video. The wii.com Wii Music website now has an Iwata/Miyamoto Creator's Voice interview, which we expect to see in English soon, and a series of seven commercials.%Gallery-27713% Looking for more on Wii Music? You can catch an E3 trailer here, read about our time with the game here, and learn how to play the handbell, trumpet, timpani, acoustic bass, shamisen, harmonica, cello, harpsichord, cheerleader, saxophone, sitar, cowbell, electric bass, drums, dog, accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.
Wii Music captures the handbell lovers demographic
The handbell, an instrument that is surely only one grade of difficulty up from the triangle, is the focus of the latest Today's Instrument video. It comes across as cheery and Christmassy, an ap-peal-ing sound which contrasts sharply with the model's gloomy-as-a-wet-Monday expression. Not that we're complaining; such solemnity is infinitely preferable to fake enjoyment.%Gallery-27713% Looking for more on Wii Music? You can catch an E3 trailer here, read about our time with the game here, and learn how to play the trumpet, timpani, acoustic bass, shamisen, harmonica, cello, harpsichord, cheerleader, saxophone, sitar, cowbell, electric bass, drums, dog, accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.
Wii Music breaks out the trumpet
Another day, another playable instrument for Wii Music is revealed. Today is none other than the trumpet, that instrument that is the scorn of so many soldiers lives. Other than rousing soldiers from their sleep, the thing is able to produce some sweet sounds, as evidenced in the video above. And you don't even need to be Louis Armstrong, either!%Gallery-27713% Looking for more on Wii Music? Check out the E3 trailer by clicking here, read up on our time with the game here, and learn how to play the timpani, acoustic bass, shamisen, harmonica, cello, harpsichord, cheerleader, saxophone, sitar, cowbell, electric bass, drums, dog, accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.
Wii Music's drum and bass
The Wii Music "Today's Instrument" videos from the last two days feature instruments which produce sounds on the low end -- the kind of instruments that are so dedicated to producing bass noise, one of them is called the bass. Yesterday's video demonstrates the timpani, which is apparently especially fun, because it managed to pull a smile out of the stone-faced Wii Music model.Today's video, after the break, features the stand-up bass, for which the model adopts the more stoic look to which we've become accustomed. %Gallery-27713%
Wii Music goes old school with the shamisen
You know that instrument you always hear during those awesome kung fu movies? Yup, it's a shamisen. You can check it out in Wii Music above, courtesy of the Today's Instrument marketing plan from Nintendo. It, uh, pretty much sounds like it should: a string being plucked. We're sure there are more subtle nuances to the instrument, but we're game bloggers, not music buffs.%Gallery-27713% Looking for more on Wii Music? Check out the E3 trailer by clicking here, read up on our time with the game here, and learn how to play the harmonica, cello, harpsichord, cheerleader, saxophone, sitar, cowbell, electric bass, drums, dog, accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.
Nobody knows the troubles Wii Music has seen
We're starting to look forward to that pleasantly bouncy Wii Music "Today's Instrument" intro music every day. The actual music played by the instrument of the day doesn't really stick with us. Maybe that says something about the music in the game, or (more likely) the theme has been drilled into our heads by repetition.Today's instrument is the harmonica, an instrument well-known for its proliferation in movie prison scenes and John Popper's vest. Playing the harmonica in Wii Music is like eating a virtual corn cob -- which, for the curious, can be experienced in Major League Eating: The Game. When Nintendo's engineers were designing the Wii Remote, do you think they had holding it up to your face in mind?%Gallery-27713% Looking for more on Wii Music? Check out the E3 trailer by clicking here, read up on our time with the game here, and learn how to play the cello, the harpsichord, cheerleader, saxophone, sitar, cowbell, electric bass, drums, dog, accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.
Wii Music introduces the cello
Another day, another Wii Music instrument to talk about. Today's instrument is none other than the cello. And, in the video above, you can see it in action. What we'd like to know is whether or not her left hand affects the game? You see how she keeps pressing the two shoulder buttons on the Nunchuk? Is that for show or will that actually affect the music in the game? %Gallery-27713% Looking for more on Wii Music? Check out the E3 trailer by clicking here, read up on our time with the game here, and learn how to play the harpsichord, cheerleader, saxophone, sitar, cowbell, electric bass, drums, dog, accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.
Rocking the harpsichord in Wii Music
Wii Music's today's instrument campaign has just hit 21 and its latest instrument, the harpsichord, doesn't look all that bad. Forget all of the negativity surrounding the game, because the harpsichord actually looks like an instrument you can have an impact on. The way the model is moving the Wiimote and Nunchuk around, it makes it look like you can have an honest impact on what note you're playing. Hit up the video above to check it out, then brush up on some of the instruments that have already been shown below.%Gallery-27713% Looking for more on Wii Music? Check out the E3 trailer by clicking here, read up on our time with the game here, and learn how to play the cheerleader, saxophone, sitar, cowbell, electric bass, drums, dog, accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.
Go! Cool! Pretty! Wii Music's cheerleader in action
Nintendo is at it again, stretching the definition of "instrument" to breaking point. Today's Wii Music instrument is the Cheerleader, though it could just as easily be called Excitable Human Being. It works by punching the air with your Wiimote and Nunchuk, and creates the kind of sounds last heard from the mouth of our favorite intergalactic news reporter. Oh, and before you start mocking this, don't forget that some companies are building entire games around this one "instrument."%Gallery-27713% Looking for more on Wii Music? Check out the E3 trailer by clicking here, read up on our time with the game here, and learn how to play the saxophone, sitar, cowbell, electric bass, drums, dog, accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.
Wii Music: sitar-studded instrument roundup!
Once again, Nintendo dutifully spent the weekend uploading Today's Instrument videos, and we have returned to scoop them up and use them to attract your scorn (or the interest that you're secretly cultivating). We're presenting them in reverse chronological order, so the latest one, from today, is above. In this video, we see Wii Music's sitar, the playing of which is apparently a very serious, somber occasion. After the break, we have video demonstrations of the saxamaphone, and an instrument forever scarred by one unavoidable joke that we're not going to make. We're not! %Gallery-27713%
Wii Music's infamous drums
We've all seen a fairly spastic, embarrassing live demonstration of Wii Music's drum kit -- or at least the GIF version. Honestly, it seemed pretty cool from inside the theatre, with the strobe lights flashing and the volume turned way up. It was only after arriving home and seeing Ravi Drums' performance through the filter of the Internet that face hit palm. We knew that it was confusing to play, but we didn't know until then how confusing it was to see.This latest Wii Music "Today's Instrument" video doesn't include the Balance Board bass drum, but the same flailing is on display here. Not pictured: being unable to figure out which direction on the D-pad corresponds to which drum.%Gallery-27713%
Wii Music teaches the world how to play the dog
It's a bit like the drums, apparently.The dog suit, easily the most non-instrumental of all Wii Music's instruments, is the subject of the latest "Today's Instrument" video. Even though the novelty would probably wear thin quickly, we found this video to be quite cute and funny. Not that we'd share such a view with any of the commentors at GameTrailers, whose responses to this are both wonderfully over-the-top and angsty. "I... HATE... THIS... SO... MUCH..." writes jaymichigan, quivering with rage. "I've lost the will to live," proclaims sarahshrew2, not at all dramatically. "Nintendo... My vision of you has now forever been changed from the KING of video games, to WORTHLESS IDIOTS," bawls robsco.You get the idea.%Gallery-27713% Looking for more on Wii Music? Check out the E3 trailer by clicking here, read up on our time with the game here, and learn how to play the accordion, taiko, clarinet, conga, electric guitar, harp, flute, marching drum, violin, piano, guitar, and marimba.
Wii Music weekend instrument roundup!
Over the weekend, Nintendo continued posting new videos of new Wii Music instruments. Above, the accordion, which is like Thor's hammer Mjolnir, but for Weird Al. Only the worthy can pick up the accordion, but those who can wield it are transformed instantly into Weird Al Yankovic. Due to technical and licensing constraints, only the sound-producing capabilities of the accordion are reproduced in Wii Music.After the break, videos featuring simulated taiko, clarinet, and conga drums. We think that of all the instruments, the ones involving drumming look silliest when there's no actual instruments. The model just kind of punches the air like one of those action figures whose arms swing out when you squeeze their legs. But we must admit that Wii Music's taiko sounds pretty cool.%Gallery-27713%
Wii Music's air guitar
The eighth in the "Today's Instrument" series of Wii Music demonstration videos is one of the most iconic, recognizable instruments, and one that is the source of a lot of people's issues with Wii Music: the electric guitar. As we all know, in Guitar Hero you push buttons on a plastic guitar controller in time with musical cues. In Wii Music, you do this.Perhaps if this one instrument weren't in the game, people wouldn't be as inclined to compare the two and judge Wii Music so harshly, since aside from the musical theme and the idea of simulating instruments, they're extremely different things? More likely they'd complain about the lack of electric guitar. [Video uploaded by Balance Board Blog]
Harping on Wii Music
The latest Wii Music "Today's Instrument" video features a musical instrument most of us are quite unlikely to have at home, due to bigness, cost, and complicated upkeep: the harp. Of course, you won't have to worry about taking care of your Wii Music harp, because it doesn't exist! You also won't have to worry about retuning it because the temperature has changed since you played it. Or knowing how to play the harp.Playing the harp as it appears in Wii Music is easy: all you do is perform Ocelot's signature hand gesture from Metal Gear Solid 3! You can make beautiful, otherworldly-sounding music and taunt Big Boss simultaneously!%Gallery-27713%
