When it comes to music and rhythm games, Wii Music stands in a class of its own. Unlike other music games, which penalize players if they don’t play perfectly, Wii Music is a musical playground where there are no mistakes. Here anyone can pick up and master the huge array of instruments available, through simple motions like strumming and drumming. Musicians in your band jam by simply playing their instruments to the beat of a song or by improvising to their heart’s content. Play faster. Play slower. Skip a beat, or throw in 10 more. No matter what you do, Wii Music automatically transforms your improv stylings into great music.
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Gameplay: Getting Your Band Together
In Wii Music every band has six members: Two play the main melody, two cover the percussion beats, one covers the bass groove and one uses the song’s chords to support the melody. As a band, the six members often play their special parts at the same time, though each player can jam however and whenever he or she wants. Play all at once. Take turns in the spotlight. Pair up in creative ways throughout the song. You can bring the band to life by yourself, playing one part at a time-or with up to four players. See game mode below:
- Solo Play: When you play by yourself, you can add one part at a time to arrange the whole song exactly how you want. The Tutes are on hand to back up your band in any parts you need filled.
- Multiplayer: When in a band with friends, up to four people can be band members.
- Wii Friends: Using WiiConnect24, you can send your jam videos to Wii Friends who own Wii Music. They can then watch your performance, modify it to their liking and send their jam videos back to you.
Tutes: Your Own Private Back-up Band
When not playing with friends, you can invite jam masters known as Tutes to play with you. They’ll join a session playing an instrument that each thinks is strong for a specific song. You can simply enjoy the musical camaraderie, or pick up instrument tips by watching them jam. If you choose to watch, the Tutes will show you lots of techniques for many of these instruments, then ask you to follow their examples. They’ll start with the simplest techniques, then as you master each one, show you even more nuanced ones.
- Easy to Play Improv Jams – All members of your band jam by simply playing their instruments to the beat of a song or by improvising to their heart’s content. Play faster. Play slower. Skip a beat, or throw in 10 more. Wii Music challenges you to transform your improv stylings into great music. There are no mistakes and no game scores-just playing for the pure joy of playing.
- Wii Controls Immerse You in the Music – You can play most of the 60-plus instruments in Wii Music using simple motions with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers. Strum to play guitar, banjo and sitar. Drum to play jazz drums, congas and snare drums. Hammer away to play piano, vibraphone and marimba. Unlike most music games, Wii Music doesn’t make you use many complex buttons. You only need to imitate playing the instrument.
- Virtually Endless Ways to Make Music – You choose the song and instruments and decide whether to blaze through a rock take on classical songs, put a jazzy spin on folk tunes or transform Nintendo classics like the Super Mario Bros. theme into Latin-flavored numbers. The song list is only a takeoff point-it’s how you improvise with the songs that matters.
- Share Your Band Jams With Friends – They’ll see your Mii band members, your players’ improv styles and your instrument selections. They can watch your recordings, or play over parts of your song, then send their modified recording back to you. So you can send improv jams back and forth over WiiConnect24, changing them again and again.
60+ Instruments
You can play most of the 60-plus instruments in Wii Music using simple motions with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controllers. Strum to play guitar, banjo and sitar. Drum to play jazz drums, congas and marching drums. Hammer away to play piano, vibraphone and marimba. Unlike most music games, Wii Music doesn’t make you use complex buttons. You only need to imitate playing the instrument. Wii Music offers virtually endless ways to make music.
Designed with classic Wii gameplay in mind, Wii Music includes many other modes and play options besides the main band jams, including several musical games and an enhanced video playback mode for recorded jams.
- Videos Mode: Watch your jam videos in an enhanced playback mode that brings your jams to life with fun environmental effects and dramatic camera angles.
- Mii Maestro: By waving the Wii Remote like a conductor’s baton in this mini-game, you’ll lead a Mii orchestra through orchestrated songs, such as The Legend of Zelda theme. Make them play quickly, slowly, strongly or gently-the orchestra is at your command.
- Handbell Harmony: In this musical mini-game, you’ll play in a handbell ensemble by swinging your Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Everyone on the team has a job to do: play one of your notes only when the tune demands it.
- Pitch Perfect: How good is your musical ear? In this whimsical musical quiz, you’ll have to solve challenges, like putting note-playing Miis in order from lowest to highest pitch.
- Drum Mode: In the one mode that uses the Wii Balance Board accessory (sold with Wii Fit), you can feel what it’s like to play a real-life drum set. You’ll use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk as drumsticks, and place both feet on the Wii Balance Board-which work as virtual pedals for the bass drum and hi-hat cymbal.
User Reviews
4 Stars Wii Music versus Electric Keyboard
I remember reading one of the negative reviews here on Amazon for Wii Music where it was compared to a $25 electric keyboard from a “mega box” store. While I don’t agree with his opinion of Wii Music, I do think he had a point. Wii Music is closer to an electronic instrument/toy like an electronic keyboard than a rhythm video game like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. That is probably why there have been a number of people who have found it boring. Unless you like music and like playing around with music you are going to find both an electric keyboard and Wii Music boring after a couple of hours. The only “score” you get from either one of them is your opinion or the opinion of your “audience” (excluding the mini games in Wii Music which are scored). In my mind the question isn’t should you get Guitar Hero, Rock Band or Wii Music, but should you get an electronic instrument or Wii Music.
In that spirit, I felt it was worthwhile to compare Wii Music to an equivalently priced electric keyboard. I picked the Casio SA75 since I felt it had a decent amount of features for the price. There are of course many other electric keyboards or other electronic midi devices with lots of other features, but most of them cost more (around the $500+ range for the really good ones) than the $49.99 that Wii Music and the Casio SA75 are currently selling at. See below for my comparison.
Feature: Available Tones/Instruments
Wii Music – 65 different “instruments”. I thought the quality of sound was great for midi, but not everyone agrees with me 
Casio SA75 – 100 different tones (some of which are combinations of tones like piano/violin where half the keyboard is piano and half is violin), 30 different accompaniment patterns (10 rhythm, 10 free style, 10 funny). However I saw that some reviewers thought the quality of sound wasn’t all that good and some of the instruments sounded the same.
Feature: Included Songs
Wii Music – Not positive but it looks like there is about 48
Casio SA75 – 10 demo songs
Feature: Total Number of Songs that can be played
Wii Music – The 48 included songs plus free style jamming with the toots (but you can’t control the tune, just the rhythm). It is possible that in the future you might be able to download new songs per Wii Connect but that’s not available as of this writing.
Casio SA75 – only limited by your talent, the music scores available to you, the 37 keys and only being able to play 4 notes at a time
Feature: Education/Lessons
Wii Music – For each of the 65 instruments there is background information. There are lessons on 11 musical styles for all 6 parts including rock, marching, reggae, pop and classic (so 66 lessons total). The pitch perfect game also helps teach a little about musical theory.
Casio SA75 – Can turn off the melody for the 10 demo songs and play it yourself instead with the notes shown in the LCD screen.
Feature: Saving
Wii Music – Can save all the parts for the last 5 songs played (30 parts total) and up to 100 music videos with 6 parts each (600 parts total for a grand total of 630).
Casio SA75 – Not sure but you might be able to save one recording. It also has an output jack so you could probably offload that one recording to your computer with the right software.
Feature: Create Videos
Wii Music – Once you are done with your jam session it gives you the option to save as a video right away.
Casio SA75 – N/A
In conclusion, Wii Music offers a number of very nice features that you can’t find on a equivalently priced electric keyboard which may make up for it’s lack of freedom in playing songs, but it will never replace real instruments or the more expensive electronic devices. However, it’s a fun and cheap way to introduce kids to music or for adults to play around with music without expensive instruments/equipment or years of lessons.
1 Star For ages 3-8 only.
I was SO excited to get this game. I was SO disappointed when I played it. This is the first review I have ever written. I feel compelled to warn others.
PROS:
-fun to watch you Mii playing music.
CONS:
-slow loading
-Terrible quality sound (Midi, my ringtones sound better than this)
-Poor sensitivity, does not replicate your movement well.
-Limited playing, I thought I’d get to be more creative with this.
-Price, I had a lot more fun and deeper experience with Endless Ocean (another “just play for fun not for points” game) at $[...] than this game.
Wii Sports = awesome
Wii Play = boring
Wii Music = novelty that wears off in a matter or minutes.
Since I played the game, taking out of the plastic wrap, I can’t get a full refund. (would love to try to get a refund straight from Nintendo) I would have to settle for 50% refund. So now I have to decide if it’s worth $[...] to get this game out of my house. Better yet, I should try to find a 7 year old to give it to, they might actually think its fun.
When kids get a new toy, they typically play with it for a day or 2, maybe a week. That is the perfect amount of time to enjoy Wii Music!!
Nice try Nintendo, better luck next time.
5 Stars If You Think it Sounds Cool – GET IT!
I’m Who This Game Was Made For. Ever since Nintendo started hyping up this game, I have been excited for it, and I’m so glad that I ignored the reviews and got it anyway.
This game is exactly what i hoped it would be: Addictive and a freaking blast. Any time that I tap a beat on my desk, with a pencil, or just all the little songs that come up during any given day, I think of how to put that in a Wii Music song
Arranging songs is a blast, and it’s HARD! I think this game may actually be too hard for some other reviewers that didn’t like it; it takes dedication to re-record each part until it sounds just like you want, arranging them into a song that you love. It’s complicated sometimes, depending on how your artistic vision is.
I’m so glad that I bought this game; i’ve had hours and hours of entertainment. It can take an hour or two to make a good six-piece arrangement, and then I record it and put the videos on YouTube where wii music lovers all comment on each other’s videos It’s great!
If you thought you’d like this game before seeing the reviews, you will probably love this game! If you have any interest, get it. It’s worth it.
5 Stars Tons of Fun
This is a very interesting, but fun, “game.” It isn’t a game like Guitar Hero or Rockband where you are essentially pushing buttons in time. To me, this is more a creative effort where you simulate playing musical instruments and can experiment with rhythm. Good thing they added a way to save and play back performances.
Initially, I wasn’t sure about buying it, but went for it once I found it had a drum mode. I’ve been thinking about getting a drum set–and this is enough to quell that thought. My wife is happy about that.
As far as playing, my four year old daughter enjoys it a lot, too. She may be more advanced musically than others (piano lessons for over a year) but she enjoys going through the lessons and playing jam sessions. I’m sure this will help develop her time and sense of rhythm.
Some of the motions are strange: in particular, the bass guitar and double bass. Note: I play EBG, ABG, EUB, and 2XB so I’m picky. But others are fun and reasonably accurate, mostly the percussion instruments.
Watching the sample videos is inspiring and shows its possibilities. I really think users, especially musicians, who’ve gotten bored with it haven’t explored all its true capabilities.
Summary: this is an excellent “game.” It uses the Wii controls very well and is potentially an educational title.
5 Stars Amazing game, but probably not what you thought it was
Wii Music is not Guitar Hero. That must be said right away. If you are looking for Guitar Hero or something like Guitar Hero, look elsewhere because you will not enjoy this game.
HOWEVER…..
…if you’ve ever played music, and/or understand the basic concepts behind jazz improv, or really just want to learn the basic concepts behind music, you will love everything about this game! The concepts of tempo, rhythm and even a little bit of chord structure are all in this game and are done very well. Maybe a little more “educational” than most people want, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
But the best part is the custom jam section. Like I said, this is basic jazz improv, and it’s basic jazz improv at its best! Pick a song, a part and an instrument, and then go to town! Just like soloing, the basic chord structure is presented in front of you and you can either play the part as written or play whatever rhythm you want…but you don’t have to worry about playing right notes! You just play the rhythm you want and the notes will come out correctly for you! It’s awesome!
So if you have ever been in some sort of high school or college band, or any band really, and understand that when a C is written you can either play a C, or a G, or alternate between the two in a basic eighth note triplet pattern, then you will fall in love with this game!
