14 DAY TRIAL // While the music genre may claim it's just the industry taking its course, rhythm games have begun to decline in popularity a lot more than other titles have. As such, the likes of Guitar Hero and Rock Band have a difficult time trying to convince gamers that they're still popular, and that this is just the aftermath of the recession. And while some might believe that this would be one of the worst times to try to get into the industry, Namco Bandai thinks quite the opposite.
In association with Nobutaka Nakajima, the Pac-Man Championship Edition executive producer, Namco Bandai has filed a patent for a drum game with drumstick shells. The patent may not claim exclusivity for the Wii, but, considering that the game requires a remote that just happens to be shaped like a WiiMote and has a built-in accelerometer, it would be pretty safe to say that the developers had the Wii in mind when they designed this thing. As far as the rest of the concept goes, things do sound somewhat promising.
By inserting two remotes into Bandai's drumstick shells, you'll be able to use any flat surface to generate your in-game sounds. While the involvement of an actual surface will go far with the idea of immersion and the feeling that you're actually playing the drums, we can't help but wonder what will happen to the remotes that we'll be hitting against this hypothetically flat surface. The shells are indeed protected by shock absorbers, but, hypothetically speaking, there's little fun in playing the drums softly, so, one way or another, either the shells or the Wii remotes are going to suffer from shell shock.
As far as gameplay hints go, Namco's project will work like any other rhythm game, with “drummers” hitting the proper notes of a given beat. One other interesting detail would be that, depending on the angle of your strokes, the drum sound will be different. A straight hit downwards will generate a tom drum sound, while, by hitting it at an angle, you will generate a snare drum tone. Still, with all the good ideas this concept brings, it still looks like it will break down more often than the Xbox 360. The sales that this drum game will increase are the duct-tape ones.