14 DAY TRIAL // The music game genre is growing by leaps and bounds these days. While Rock Band and Guitar Hero are dominating the market, other companies like Microsoft or Nintendo are trying to get in on the action and are releasing their own products, Lips and Wii Music, respectively.
But although the two titles didn't quite take off in terms of sales, the companies are confident in what concerns them. While Microsoft is promoting its game through various offers, Nintendo isn't worried about its music title, which was reinforced by Nintendo of America's president, Reggie Fils-Aime, who placed Wii Music along with Wii Fit in an evergreen game category, saying that people would play it long after its launch.
Shigeru Miyamoto, the man behind cult games like Mario or Zelda, who worked on Wii Music as well, also talked about his new game. He went on to say that this title would appeal to a wide variety of gamers, even those who could play some real instruments, largely because it had such a big number of instruments that you could try out and master. Miyamoto then expressed his wish for Wii Music to help school children learn how to play instruments in a more fun way than ordinary.
"Those that are good at playing musical instruments can play with those that can’t. I really don’t know who are actually going to purchase the game, but I hope that schoolchildren will play. Children get access to music education by first being taught basic theory and then playing musical instruments, but that is really not easy. I think Wii Music approaches it completely differently from the school curriculum – you don’t need to learn the difficult theory or master the different instruments, but you will get access to the immediate joy of music itself. I want many small children to get access to Wii Music."
A very interesting statement, which just goes to prove that Miyamoto's different style of thinking will bring almost any game that he makes a cult-like status. Although the sales of Wii Music haven't been groundbreaking, the title will surely continue to sell, even if in a smaller number of units.