Nintendo's Wii Music

Nintendo just concluded their press conference at E3, and announced a number of things spanning their DS and Wii range. For the hardcore gaming fans (including myself), the conference is near embarrassing, revealing nothing of true interest such as a new Kirby or Kid Icarus game. However, for Nintendo’s new target audience of “everybody”, the conference certainly showed promise for the future sales of Nintendo products.

To visit yesterdays announcement of the Wii MotionPlus, it is what we reported, an accuracy enhancing accessory for the Wiimote. However, it appears that it will not be available with all games, as the first compatible game is titled, Wii Sports Resort, which attempts to recreate a day at the beach with games such as volleyball and jet skiing.

Jet Skiing in Wii Sports Resort

The Balance Board received an initial visit, with the introduction of a new game titled Shaun White Snowboarding, which makes use of the Wii Balance Board to recreate the snowboarding experience. I’m an avid snowboarder, and this could be quite interesting.

One of Nintendo’s highest growing franchises- Animal Crossing - received a new iteration to the series, Animal Crossing: City Folk. Basically, Animal Crossing: City Flok creates a world in which you create a character and can do anything you wish with them in the game. Think the Sims meets Wii on Nick Jr. The most notable feature of this is the use of interaction online, in which you can send messages to friends using the Wii Message Board. However, Nintendo introduced a microphone known as WiiSpeak to directly talk with your friends. My main question is, “Will this be compatible with Super Smash Bros. Online?” Only time will tell.

Example of Wii Speak (it the semi-circle sitting on top of the Sensor Bar)

New games were also touched upon, the most notable of which being handheld additions of Grand Theft Auto: China Town Wars for the DS and an upcoming Call of Duty game for the DS as well. This looks to be exciting!

Finally, is Wii Music. We all love Guitar Hero and Rock Band, and know and love the way they work. Wii Music, the game seems a bit unclear as to how it works. Rather than matching up the relevant notes or beats like on Guitar Hero or Rock Band, Nintendo rather wishes for you to simply pretend to play the instrument, using the WiiMote, Nunchuk and Wii Balance Board (over 50 instruments in all). This seems quite silly in my opinion, not serving much purpose, except for the, dare I say, gimmicky notion of looking like a fool in front of your friends. However, there does appear to be a rather interesting drumming component in which you use the WiiMote, Nunchuck and Balance Board together drum.

Wii Music in Action at E3

Overall, it was quite a disappointing show for me, and it further reiterates the reasons as to why I sold my Wii and bought an Xbox 360. These new games and concepts seem pretty exciting and demonstrates Nintendo continuing to elaborate on it’s notion of fun for everyone, however, personally, I hold my reservations.

What do you guys think. Any of these new games and add-ons getting you interested (or not interested) in buying them once they come out?  Let us know in the comments.

Photos courtesy of Joystiq and Engadget.

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