Miyamoto defends Wii Music against Guitar Hero and Rock Band
Whether you’re a Wii, PS3, or Xbox 360 owner, you cannot fail to recognize that Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto is a gaming genius. This is the man responsible for Donkey Kong, Super Mario, Zelda, Star Fox, and Pikmin, amongst others. And on the Wii, he has so far brought us Wii Sports, Wii Fit, and his new magnum opus, Wii Music.
Wii Music is a game that has garnered a lot of attention, most of it negative. Certainly western gamers are finding it a strange beast which is a cross between a game and an interactive toy. My problem with it is that it makes it impossible to fail even though failure is a must for a truly epic game experience.
Clearly flustered by this lack of respect or understanding given to the game, Nintendo seems to have sent Miyamoto out on a mission: to correct the misconceptions and make us all see the beauty of the game. So Miyamoto has conducted a seemingly countless number of interviews concerning Wii Music over the past few days.
When MTV News asked him about the relationship Wii Music has with established games of the same genre such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band, he replied:
I really wish I made this before those other games were popular. I really want people to be able to look at it from the perspective that I looked at it from.
But unless work on Wii Music began before Guitar Hero was released, or Miyamoto has never played another music game, surely he knew the competition he was battling against? Miyamoto manages to answer that himself in an interview with Gamespot, saying:
As a game designer, I looked at Beatmania and Guitar Hero. Those games let people be the best cover band they could possibly be. As a musician, I wanted to create a game that let people express themselves in music, and with Wii Music I think we achieved that.
And Miyamoto wasn’t finished extolling the virtues of the game yet. He also gave an interview to CNET in which Nintendo banned all talk of anything other than Wii Music. He uses this opportunity to spell out exactly what he sees Wii Music as being, and it’s neither a toy or a video game.
In my mind, I think of Wii Music being along the lines of a new kind of musical instrument. You can bring Wii Music home and within a few minutes, everyone in the family, regardless of their gaming skill, can pick up Wii Music and start playing a wide variety of musical instruments, not just making sounds, but actually making music.
So in that sense, it’s like this new musical instrument that allows you to become a creator of music and a performer of music without the barriers that you would normally have of having to learn an instrument, learning to read music, and learning musical theory. That’s something no other game or any other interactive experience can offer.
Now I’m sorry, but legend or no legend, that is a load of hooey. How can a Wii game that allows you to play along with songs be a new instrument? It can’t be. And I think this sums up why Wii Music has so far failed to grab the public’s attention in the way Nintendo was hoping it would. If the creator of Wii Music doesn’t even know what it is, how are the rest of us meant to?
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9 Responses to “Miyamoto defends Wii Music against Guitar Hero and Rock Band”
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October 28th, 2008
Dave I couldn’t agree more. There is literally no talent needed. you basically pretend to play a instrument and the man said it himself there is no learning at all. I think Nintendo is running out of ideas and have become reliant on perpetuals to drive the system. It truly shows that the Wii is nothing more then a gimic.
October 28th, 2008
@CAD Wii is not a gimmick.
Just because they went to far with Wii Music doesn’t stop people from wanting the system.
If that was the case every consol would be out of business with all the crap games on each one.
Try thinking before you post.
October 28th, 2008
CAD is right. wii is a gimmick.
When my friend who has never played games wanted one and got one….and then stopped using it two weeks later, It just screams gimmick. We probably all know at least one person like this.
Wii needs more games that are not tech demos to shake the negative view that the hardcore audience has with it.
October 28th, 2008
‘There is literally no talent needed.’
Now are you comparing that to Rock band (or insert other game here) or a real instrument?
I really hope the latter…
October 28th, 2008
It’s sad. I have been a Nintendo fan up until this generation. At first the Wii showed a lot of promise with Mario, Metroid, and Zelda… but that’s really all of the good games that they have. I can not justify spending over $200 on a console to play three games.
October 28th, 2008
Wii is a gimmick because of Wii Music.
The PS3 was Sony’s way of using gamers to help BR win against HDDVD.
The 360 was just a bigger computer for Halo 3.
Right CAD?
I’m going to play Wii Music, myself, before I say its great, bad, or anything in the middle, but I’m somehow quite sure that the game was meant for simple fun, not a big challenge (which is fun to us, but not to everyone).
The more I think about it, the more I just might want to buy, not just rent, Wii Music. I’ve found that going back and playing some of the most disapointing games when they were released have the best ability to actually stay good.
Not every game has to be hard, and even if you can’t fail, while I may think its a mistake right now, it may end up being something that is used in the future. As someone that’s not very good at these games, it will be nice to see the end of a song, and even if it were to tell me at the end I did poorly, that’s better than failing on the spot.
October 28th, 2008
No one cares what the Hard Core Gamers think.
Nintendo is the one sitting on piles of cash. And don’t say that proves nothing because it does and you’re just in denial. Your friend is not into gaming then. The Wii can’t please everyone, no product can. But it pleases a hell of a lot more then the PS3 or 360.
I play mine practically every day. I’m not a hard core gamer either.
I also play my DS almost every day. I have an Xbox first also.
Eventually I’ll get a PS3 so I am not bias. I just like to have toys.
October 28th, 2008
ncaissie,
“No one cares what the Hard Core Gamers think.”
That statement isn’t actually true. Only Nintendo doesn’t care what the hardcore gamers think, and they show that more and more every day with garbage like Wii Music.
“The Wii can’t please everyone…But it pleases a hell of a lot more then the PS3 or 360.”
Also untrue. With the PS3 and 360 selling WAY more software than the Wii, it seems like PS3/360 owners are more satisfied with their options than Wii owners.
IMO, the Wii isn’t meant to be an everyday gaming device. It offers some neat little things that are fun in short spurts, but its more for people who don’t spend a lot of time gaming, especially not by themselves.
-Arvis
October 28th, 2008
No one care about Hard Core gamers?!?!?! What about GTA4… or Halo 3…. or COD 4… and so on. Some of the best selling games of all time are hard core titles. Which by the way are not available for the Wii. The Wii can move Nintendo software. Third party titles do not sell well on the Wii.