Samba De Amigo – WII – Review

Imagine shaking a maraca that
occasionally doesn’t rattle.

Sounds pretty strange, right? Now
imagine it in context. You are rocking a lively fiesta with an eclectic Latin
rump-shaker when the subtle noise of rattling seeds so imperative to the Latin
sound inexplicably stops coming from your instrument.

Implausible, you say? Maybe in the
real world, but in Samba de Amigo, confusing conundrums of a comparable caliber
are unfortunately commonplace.

Developed by Gearbox Software, Samba
de Amigo is a remake of the original 2000 Dreamcast game of the same name. For
newcomers to SEGA’s rhythm alternative, the premise is perhaps best summarized
as “Maraca Hero.” Notes float outward from a central point amidst a circle of
colored tabs as opposed to straight down a guitar neck, essentially making the
game a shake-reliant, circular version of Guitar Hero. Samba de Amigo does not
require a bulky peripheral to rock, however. Instead, you’ll use the
motion-sensing Wii remote and nunchuck as your set of virtual maracas.

The tabs are divided into three
sets: the top two are red, the middle two are yellow and the bottom two are
green. This creates the illusion that the elevation of the controllers plays a
role in successfully hitting notes, a notion perpetuated when the game shows
stick figures holding the controllers in exaggerated positions, but such is not
the case. The controls are actually based on how you’re holding the controllers
when you shake; point upward to hit red notes, straight ahead for yellow and
downward for green.

This is where the game’s only real
problem presents itself, and unfortunately for the otherwise solid Samba de
Amigo, it’s a deal-breaker.

The controls just don’t work very
well. Both controllers have difficulty correctly reading your shakes, but the
nunchuck is particularly at fault. You’ll often shake the controllers precisely
as you should, but the game will only recognize one of them correctly, causing
you to miss the other note. This is less a problem with the game itself, it
seems, and more a problem with the inherent inadequacies of the controllers
themselves.

The Wii controllers just aren’t
precise enough for what Samba de Amigo requires.

Technical issues aside, however, the
game’s touchy and needlessly complex control scheme is still an unintuitive
mess. The “elevation illusion” fools everyone I’ve watched play the game into
thinking their shakes rely on elevation to be correct. Casual gamers have
difficulty understanding the Wii controllers aren’t magic wands correctly
reading their movements in 3D space; rather, the controllers simply react to how
they are being held. Explaining this to players wildly flailing about is mostly
an exercise in futility.

Samba de Amigo is an otherwise
superb Wii game, though, which makes the control problems even more unfortunate.
It has charming characters, great design and a veritable wealth of content.
Single-player options include a career mode with mounds of unlockable content,
as well as a quick play mode and several wacky gimmick modes.

Samba de Amigo also has multiplayer
covered with offline two-player competitive and cooperative modes. Lack of
online multiplayer is usually a major issue for me, but given the game’s frantic
nature, Samba de Amigo is truly best enjoyed with friends together in the same
room. Online multiplayer would’ve been a great addition, but it’s not as glaring
an omission as it would be in other multiplayer-focused rhythm games.

In terms of downloadable content,
SEGA has beat both Guitar Hero and Rock Band to the punch on Wii. Samba de Amigo
offers a clean, seamless interface to purchase and download new song packs at
500 Wii Points a pop. You can also register friends to your online friends
roster to view a current list of their high scores; leaderboards and
downloadable content go a long way in making up for the lack of online
multiplayer.

All things considered, Samba de
Amigo could’ve been one of the year’s best Wii games, but pesky control issues
have kept this fiesta hushed. Let’s hope SEGA gets back to the drawing board and
gives Samba de Amigo another more responsive shake on Wii.

To review Samba de Amigo is to tell
a story of two different gamers. My girlfriend and I were ecstatic when SEGA
announced Samba de Amigo would be coming to Wii; I was excited to see another
franchise revival, and she was thrilled at the concept of shaking her caboose to
impromptu Latin dance parties. When the game arrived in the mail and we finally
started playing, however, I was immediately dismayed by the control issues.

My girlfriend scolded me for what
she called my “overly analytical approach to fun.”

“Derek, stop thinking about it so
much,” she said. “Just dance, dude.”

Her words struck me like indigestion
after a heaping plate of tacos grandes. She agreed with my criticism of the
controls, often asking me mid-song why her shakes weren’t registering. Even
though it detracted from her score, she just didn’t care.

She laughed. She danced. She had a
great time.

Ultimately, the experience you’ll
have with Samba de Amigo is a direct product of your expectations and attitude.
If you’re looking for another riotous Wii party game that will have you and your
friends laughing, dancing and burning the midnight oil, you’ll likely find Samba
de Amigo the perfect piece of software to match your gaming needs.

Join me in scoffing at the imprecise
controls, and your experience will reflect that.

Maybe this paradigm is precisely the
point. As gaming demographics change, perhaps therein lies a critique not of the
game itself, but of players like us. To write a review, I analyze every detail
of a piece of software in order to justify a five-tenths of a point shift on
some superficial review scale. Given the case of Samba de Amigo, maybe there are
some valuable lessons about video games the less critical among us have to
teach:

Just dance, dude.

Gameplay: 5.5
The blueprint for a great rhythm game was laid down, but something went
wrong during the construction. The controls are often frustratingly at odds with
the player.

Graphics: 7.0
Samba de Amigo is vibrantly colorful, with stylized visuals displaying an
energetic maraca fiesta in the background. It’s simple, but it’s definitely
pleasing to the eye.

Sound: 8.5
Latin-music lovers will be in maraca-shaking heaven. Samba de Amigo includes
nearly all of the songs from the original, as well as 23 new Wii-exclusive
tracks.

Difficulty: Medium/Hard
Samba de Amigo has several difficulty settings, but most of the game’s
difficulty stems from control problems that make maraca-shaking much harder than
it should be.

Concept: 9.0
Rhythm games are a dime a dozen these days, so it’s great to see one with a
unique style. Conceptually, it really stands out among wanna-be rock star games.

Multiplayer: 7.5
Two-player competitive and cooperative modes are included, as well as a few
awful mini-games. There’s no online, but in a social game like this, the
omission isn’t glaring.

Overall: 7.0
Samba de Amigo could’ve been one of the best Wii games of 2008, but
unresponsive controls really mar the experience. The fiesta is still there, but
it’s a bit of a letdown.