 | FEATURE, WII MUSIC, WII, SHIGERU MIYAMOTO Wii Music has a stigma to overcome |
In the wake of last week’s revelation that Wii Music moved less than 70,000 copies in its first two weeks of U.S. availability, it’s time to discuss what this means for the future of the game. Can Wii Music be the hit that Nintendo wants it to be? Is it an “evergreen” title, as NOA executive Cammie Dunaway claims? Or is it simply dead on arrival, a game designed by an entertainment genius but destined for failure?
Shigeru Miyamoto self-admittedly had a major personal stake in the title, and Nintendo as a company has exerted no small effort in the marketing required to make it a success. But just the same, even in Japan, sales have fallen far short of precedents set by hits such as Wii Fit and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The demand simply isn’t there, despite the seemingly endless commercials designed to demonstrate how much fun it is to play Wii Music.
What the heck happened here? How did one of Nintendo’s biggest marketing campaigns result in such a small turnout of takers? As it turns out, Cammie Dunaway gave a somewhat plausible explanation in an interview with MTV Multiplayer: “People have a box in their head of what music genre games are all about.” Hmm, now there’s a thought. Does it hold up under scrutiny?
It’s true that Guitar Hero essentially set the bar for what consumers expect out of a music game. Hit the right notes at the right times, be rewarded with “star power” and adoring crowds. Experience the feel of headlining a real rock concert, or something like that. For the most part, few successful music-focused games have dared to deviate from Guitar Hero’s standard.
So Nintendo took a risk – as it often does – in creating a drastically different experience. Rather than going for a rock star feel, Wii Music aims at freeform music performance. You can take one of the songs from the track listing and make it sound however you want, with a practically endless combination of possibilities. Who could disagree that in concept, that’s actually a really cool idea? But for many people, the verdict on this game was in long before it ever hit the shelves.
Wii Music managed to develop a stigma – it’s a child’s game, it’s too simple, there’s no point to it. Most of these conclusions were drawn weeks or months before release, but it doesn’t matter now; the important thing today is whether these conclusions can be turned around. And they can be, but it won’t be easy.
Dunaway stated in the MTV interview that word of mouth will help make the game an evergreen title. The ad campaign has already failed to drum up support, so at this point, that is probably the most effective way to address the stigma. There are already a number of people on board with Wii Music, so the issue now is getting those people to convince other people that there’s more than one way to make a music game. Here are a few counterarguments Wii Music supporters can use in an attempt to break open the “box” that, currently, only has room for Guitar Hero.
It’s a child’s game. Anyone who has seriously approached Wii Music with an open mind would never try to make this argument. Miyamoto’s musical creation requires a strong sense of rhythm to make anything that sounds remotely attractive. It takes time and effort to produce music that you’ll be proud of, and it’s a challenge that even an adult can appreciate. The ones who don’t are simply being dishonest with themselves in order to maintain their street cred with the so-called “hardcore” demographic.
It’s too simple. Most good games are simple in concept. From the standpoint of boundaries you’re confined to in games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, well, those games are even simpler. With no room for creativity, you’re essentially just committing a sequence of button presses to muscle memory. Sort of like playing that old light-up Simon game, except with a catchy tune. By comparison, Wii Music allows you to remake a single song in an unimaginable number of ways. That doesn’t make it any less of a music game; it only approaches the genre from a different angle (yes, all three of the abovementioned games fit into the same genre).
There’s no point to it. On the contrary, there is a very precise point to it: enjoy making music that sounds the way you want it to. Wii Music is based entirely on creative freeform, which the game cannot judge for you. Your judge is yourself, and anyone with whom you choose to share your creations. If that isn’t point enough, then the Wii’s most popular standby of “party game” applies very well to this title, too. Regardless, it has enough content for a single player to enjoy alone.
Note that none of the counterarguments should be taken to mean that Wii Music is for everybody, or that everyone who likes it will enjoy it equally. It would be ridiculous to make such a claim for any game. However, serious game reviewers who record video of themselves butchering a song to support the ridicule they’ve laid upon this title are damaging their credibility at best, or completely out of touch at worst.
Truth is, the audience for Wii Music is larger than its current sales numbers indicate. It’s not as large as the audience for Wii Sports or Wii Fit, but it still has the potential to be popular with Wii owners. The catch? The flood of bad publicity we’ve seen has done a lot of damage, which means word of mouth has a lot of lemonade to make. That’s a pretty tall order, but it isn’t impossible.
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