Samba De Amigo
The Samba De Amigo game series started with a game developed by Sega’s Sonic Team and developed for Japanese Arcades and the Dreamcast. The game was released in North America though the Maraca controllers that really made the game worth playing were both tough to find and expensive.
A new version of the game has been released for the Nintendo Wii and features many of the tracks from the original game as well as a bunch of new songs.
The game mostly features Latin and pop songs that most people wouldn’t typically dig, but in the context of this game they fit really well.
Samba De Amigo is a rhythm based game, where the position of the maraca controllers determine which note you are hitting, and shaking the controllers activates the note. It’s tough to explain in words so watch the video. There are six notes, three for each controller. To hit the upper notes you have to hold your controller up, or down to hit the lower notes.
There are also times where you have to do some poses, which involve holding the controllers on 2 specific notes. There are also some dancing parts where you have to move your controllers in certain ways specified on screen.
You can get this game as a stand alone or with the maraca extensions for the wiimotes. I hate wiimote extensions, so I didn’t bother. I can’t see how they add anything to the game, but if you’re the kind player who likes those things then they might add some value for you. The game has a 2 player mode which can add some fun to it if you’ve got a buddy to play with/against.
The only problem with this game is that the wiimote just doesn’t work well enough. You can choose to play this game with a wiimote and nunchuck, or 2 wiimotes. Two wiimotes is a little better but not by much at all. Chances are the majority of notes you miss, will be because the game registers a different note then you are actually using at.
For me this was usually the middle notes that I couldn’t get. I eventually figured out that if I stabbed at the screen with the wiimotes instead of shaking, it registered every time. That made the game a lot less fun though.
The game also features some downloadable track packs. There are 3 packs up currently (and probably forever at this point). Most songs that the packs include seem like they would be very fun. The packs are 3 songs for $5, which is pretty standard pricing compared with Rock Band or Guitar Hero songs, but still pretty expensive.
It’s not as good as the DC version, but it’s pretty good in its own right. You probably can’t find the DC version or controllers for a decent price at this point so if you want to try Samba De Amigo, this is the only choice for most people. You have to get over the annoying controls, which is a pretty annoying issue, but give it a try if you think you’ll enjoy it.
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