So with Wii Music out and the reviews slowly dripping in, the obvious has come to pass. It sucks. God-awful? Not really, but certainly not one of Nintendo’s better showings for a console that desperately needs games. Reading some of the reviews the general consensus has been that the music is too erratic and the actual “gameplay” amount to moving the Wii remote around with the unspecified requirement of having a huge imagination…or an IQ below 30. The game stops being fun a few hours in as you realize that having a seizure could generate the same sort of response from the game as John Williams pretending he was in front of the Boston Pops.

Now I’m not saying this was a forgone conclusion *ahem*, but I think Nintendo needs to snap out this Wii simplified game trend that they seem to be leaning towards. If they want to keep making games using the Wii Fit that’s fine but don’t make them into gimmicky, demo-like shit that the current games for it seem to be going towards. Make some REAL games as well. This years Nintendo Fall Press conference provided some hope that the Wii will finally go back to the people who made it what they are with some new games that offered relevant features like decent relevant internet connectivity. Wii Music is the essence of the game that has aspirations to break the barrier to that coveted non-gamer crowd, however, the shunning of the already firmly entrenched gamer crowd seems to be a side-effect that Nintendo glossed over.

Of course there will be arguments that Wii Music was geared at the younger generation, however for a major game like this to be touted around press conferences aimed at children there’s clearly some reservation for that sort of theory. There had been first impressions everywhere that this would get mixed reviews everywhere simply due to the notion that waving around the remote would provide a deep game experience. In the age of Rock Band and Guitar Hero I understand the desire for a more simplistic approach, but there can’t be a complete disregard for the fundamentals of what makes a game rewaring for the player.