Analyst: Poor Wii Music, Animal Crossing sales stamina to blame for downturn

COLORS PLEASE!!!!

"Considering Wii Music sucks all ass"
Amazing, that's what I thought of Animal Crossing!

lol, I cant say that about animal crossing as I haven't played it, but I just assumed it was a Kids game and stayed away, as has most of Japan I suppose

Argh, again with the Wii Music bashing. I seriously wonder why ya' guys judge a game without ever having played it.
Most of the videos suck, I'll say that. It's rare to ever find a good Wii Music play due to how hard the game gets.

"I just assumed it was a Kids game and stayed away"
I just assumed every game was played by idiots and stayed away.
Nah but seriously, you have a better outlook on that game than many do. :P

I enjoy the game, but I don't contend the idea that it would please children more than it would please adults.

Well, in my sample size of 2, 100% of children think the game sucks ass as well.

(My words, not theirs)

The problem with animal crossing is it's the exact same thing as the gamecube version, except they took out the NES games which is a good reason why most people played it to begin with.

@soshi: did you see where I said I cant comment on Animal Crossing as I havent played it??? I HAVE played Wii Music and it sucks ASS. Hell my 3 & 4 year old daughters dont even like it. They will play the Drums on Rock Band 2 and dont even get 30% of the notes right. Wii Music is just a failure. if Nintendo had Released it on the Gamecube it MAY have done better as there wasnt a Rock Band to show us what music games SHOULD be like.

@Rocketboy:
...Wii Music is hardly a kids game. :( That thing's tough to get good at.

@tmac:
"The problem with animal crossing is it's the exact same thing as the gamecube version, except they took out the NES games which is a good reason why most people played it to begin with."

...with the addition of WiFi with a great WiiSpeak system, much more customizable clothes, a few extra shops in the city, choosing from houses much more spread out from each other, emotions for your characters, Wii motions included, some different new styles of furniture themes, some new clothes, some new events (I think), and new fossils, bugs, and paintings.

Not saying it was worth the $50 price. I think a $40 price would've sufficed (it's like a New Play Control! game).
But just saying it wasn't *exactly* like the Gamecube version.

"@soshi: did you see where I said I cant comment on Animal Crossing as I havent played it??? I HAVE played Wii Music and it sucks ASS. Hell my 3 & 4 year old daughters dont even like it. They will play the Drums on Rock Band 2 and dont even get 30% of the notes right. Wii Music is just a failure. if Nintendo had Released it on the Gamecube it MAY have done better as there wasnt a Rock Band to show us what music games SHOULD be like."

:P Well you didn't say you PLAYED Wii Music 'til now.
It's just easy to assume that since most bashers never played the darn game.
...and ya' think Wii Music really is a failure? It's not trying to be like Rock Band or Guitar Hero. It was never meant to be like those, I'm not even sure why they're compared since they play differently. Kids shouldn't be playing the thing thinking they'll be good at it. The darn game's tough as heck to even SOUND good in it.
Even matching the notes 98% doesn't make the song sound good.
In that sense, the game sucks.

But if any of your songs suck while played, that's your fault not the game's.

@Chris. D:

"Hell my 3 & 4 year old daughters dont even like it. They will play the Drums on Rock Band 2 and dont even get 30% of the notes right. Wii Music is just a failure."

That's because Wii Music is not a music game in the same vein as guitar hero and its copycat rock band. Wii Music is more of a music-making software, similar to electroplankton or korg ds-10. Nintendo's mistake was to try to market it to children when creating good music on Wii Music is really hard as hell. Nintendo actually make a kids-unfriendly game and market it as kids-friendly. And also, i dont think Wii Music has enough content in it to warrant the the hefty price tags. Having said that, Wii Music is not a bad game at all, even if it's not excellent. It's just that neither you nor your kids are creative enough to play around with it to create good music. No offence, but i said that because i'm just as bad at Wii Music and got really frustrated trying to make my own music.

Don't worry Chris. Whenever SoshiKitai hear's "Nintendo" and "crap" in the same sentence he'll come after you like you killed the president. Seriously, I like the system and all, but you could state a fact like that Ninja Gingerbread Man sucks, and he'll be here to tell you he can't stand people like you, like clock work, as if every bad thing said about the Wii hurt him a little inside, even if it was justified.

Sad thing is, I always thought of myself as a Nintendo fanboy, even though I love all my systems, just because it's what I grew up with in the late 80's early 90's. It's hard to turn on the company that essentially introduced you to gaming. But he takes that term to very scary, scary new heights. Its unhealthy people like him which deterred me from visiting the comments section of the old Wii Fanboy website because honestly, it gave me headaches.

Surely there's more important things in life to be bitching about than someone else's opinion on ONE SINGLE GAME that they PLAYED and just DIDN'T LIKE through NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN.

Well that's the 1st time I've heard anyone have something nice to say about WiiSpeak.

SoshiKitai

So, it's an adult game, that makes you act, look, and feel like you're playing a kids game?

I've said it before: I like the concept behind WiiMusic and what it tries to do. In that sense, it's a fun game and everybody hating on it should really give it a shot.

Unfortunately, the game's crappy track list, poor MIDI soundbank and lack of a true editor feature killed it for me. I was really hoping for a very fleshed out Mario Paint music program. WiiMusic just completely squandered it's potential there for some reason.

Sam basically summed it up for me. my "lack of being able to create music" had nothing to do with it. The game had SO much potential and fell short. I KNEW it was not trying to like GH or RB.(how you people call RB a knock off bothers me considering it was created by the SAME people that made GH). My problem with it is its not even good at what it was TRYING to do

So the people telling the truth about Wii Music get downvoted. Fun is had for all.

No, Mr. Khan, people aren't being down voted for speaking the truth, they're being down voted for being annoying. If you knew these people's reputations/habits here and the fact they can't take it when something is said in a negative light about their beloved Nintendo, then you'd down vote them too. Not only that, but instead of discussing games, they're just downright being mean.. and I'm sure people are tired of taking it.

You'd think they were PR reps for the company. To not be able to acknowledge the faults of a system because you're so blinded by your loyalty towards it, is childish. I love my Saturn, but I also write a 5 page thesis on how it sucked ;).

lol@Khan

Actually, while I agree that City Folk seems like little more than a dull port (although I don't own it, so I could be wrong), the hatred towards Wii Music on here is ridiculous, and completely unfounded. If you really understand music and enjoy the little details of arrangement and bending a familiar tune into something entirely new, Wii Music offers you far more than any other game on the market.

I'm sick of this nonsense of "I and my younger siblings grew bored of it instantly." Yes, it does take some real effort to understand the game and begin to figure out how to create clever and complex arrangements -- it's not a casual music game that anyone can pick up, for that you should be buying GH/RB. All the badly targeted advertising notwithstanding, the only people who will truly be able to enjoy Wii Music are musicians or those who enjoy the prospect of sitting for a couple hours and thinking through all the minor points of an arrangement (phrasing, textures, sectional variations and dynamics, etc).

Also, the tracklist is not lacking, it contains widely familiar melodies so that you can focus on the process of remaking the familiar into something entirely new. Don't take my word for it alone, though; have a look at one of the people who can actually play the game well. This is a rearrangement of Happy Birthday, one of the tracks everyone laughed at when seeing it on the list, but if you watch this you'll understand how far from the original you can take any song in the game (no, this isn't my video):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHQLa3a2DIc

stop it already with the "real musicians appreciate this" I played the Viola, Cello, and Bass in High school and still pick up my Viola now from time to time. as WELL as play the piano/keyboard....the game is CRAP. Its not what it SHOULD be. PERIOD

I also have played multiple instruments and studied music theory formally for years, but perhaps that just points to the fact that you are approaching the game entirely wrong. It has absolutely nothing to do with being an individual performer -- if you think that picking up any one instrument in the game and playing it is the core of the game's intentions, you're entirely wrong. Instead, the game puts you more in the position of a band leader and arranger, and allows you to take a group of selected instruments and direct them to recreate and completely rework the song.

Any musician with an open mind could come to understand what the game offers, but it is true that simply thinking in terms of being a performer will make it impossible to understand the game's basic concept. You need to enjoy working with: arrangement, questions of proper balance, texture, and dynamics in an ensemble, the smaller changes that can completely change the movement of a piece (rhythmic density, variations on suspension, etc), and those kinds of things that pertain to the band as a whole. If you play X instrument and pick up that instrument in the game in isolation, it won't make any sense to you.

I've yet to hear a single coherent point from you about this game, just strangely obsessive anger.

I should also add that you nearly invalidated yourself musically by citing Rock Band as the pinnacle of what music games can be. I've played plenty of Rock Band, and while it's a lot of fun as a party game, it has almost nothing to do with music. It's a merely mechanical matter of following the falling button prompts, more or less attempting to simulate "virtuoso" rock guitar / drum skills, but it fundamentally misunderstands musicianship. Hitting notes at a fast speed has so little to do with the real musical skills involved in playing an instrument well. Wii Music, once you get the feel for it, will at least let you carefully control the dynamics on your instrument, and encourages you to play with timing and other little nuances rather than simply asking you to following along mindlessly.

"I think they sold poorly because Wii Music was a baby toy simulator and Animal Crossing was a glorified Wild World port."

...baby toy simulator? Really? Which reviewer you get that from? The one who barely tried the game or the one who didn't even open the game? :P

I'll just put it this way: Just the same as if you were to play with a toy piano or kid's xylophone, you can make "masterpieces" with WiiMusic.
Fact is, the game's rather advanced in its system, and most people dismiss it as a horrible game due to seeing horrible videos or reviews. It's like watching some new guy playing around with theremin: It sounds awful, to looks dumb and gimmicky, and you'd rather listen to real instruments. But a theremin's rather complicated despite how simple it is and it can sound amazing if played well. You can still prefer other instruments, but to dismiss the theremin as a retard's instrument makes you stubborn.

The answer is simple Obie, it's either you're not creative enough in music-making, or you had never actually tried the game. As for me, i belong to the former group :(

I was obviously exaggerating the simplicity of the game, but we can all admit the game lacked substance.

That's a given, but the question is will it sell as well as the PSP versions, and will it be enough to stimulate Wii sales? Granted, there will always be much more than we know of coming to the Wii in the future, and I think we often tend to lose sight of that, but for the moment alot is riding on the success of Monster Hunter 3 in Japan.

You know, I agree with ya, Nook. I was sorely disappointed with Animal Crossing: City Folk because it was akin to playing the DS version on a big screen. With my Animal Crossing Digital Crack addiction gone, I can now venture outside and see this "sun" thing everyone's talking about. Thanks Nintendo!

Awesome game. :)

You think the majority of Wii owners really care about review scores?

I think they should. Considering how bad they are and the amount of money wasted on those poorly developed games. It's bad for the industry when a company sells a quarter of a million copies of game that it took them no effort to throw together. What do they learn? "Oh, we can just throw any old thing together and people will buy it? Sweet!" What if all game designers start doing it? Now you're playing with crap....Super Crap!

A review is a single person's opinion, and that person may be subject to external pressures that you may not be privy to, pressures that could skew the copy one way or the other.

You must also consider the mentality of the reviewer and whether they have the tolerance to persevere with certain genres/games, especially those games that have suffered unmerited negative PR for one reason or the other.

Putting too much stock into reviews will leave you a poorer gamer. Those games labelled with low aggregate ratings may actually be the gems of this generation, but you'd never know due to a reliance on a cabal of reviewers.

What you are describing is the exact reason for the '83 crash.

I've been playing video games for some 22 years now. I like to think I have a firm understanding of what makes a quality game and what doesn't. I don't base my purchases on review scores, and I certainly don't rely on them. So as to reviews making me a "poorer gamer", I like to think that my gaming career has been rather stellar. Especially since I've made career out of video games. But when a reviewer (the good ones, anyway) scores a game, they stick to a criteria; a scoring system. It's not just, "Oh, I didn't like this game just because it smells funny." Some games put on the market for retail sale are, in the plainest of terms, broken. I've played games where you can't advance to the next level due to some glitch in the game that never gets patched. Or games where you can't even control the character well enough to negotiate challenging platforming levels. These are the games that get low scores. These are the types of games that fill the Wii library. And as a former Best Buy employee, these are the types of games I've seen people waste their hard-earned money on day-in and day-out regardless of my warnings. The games need to be better, or they need to be cheaper.

Of course tiamat... and after this, we'll all praise you and beg for forgiveness for being so foolish for liking a system that's fun to play with. :P

Troll bias.

Every console in Japan is loosing steam, Wii is just hurting the most right now. C'mon, it's not as bad as the 360's status; PS2 is outselling it 5-1 nearly every week.

This is Japan only... no consoles have staying power anymore...

But today is NPD numbers day... so, you will see that the Wii does have staying power.

If the Wii is losing steam, what does that mean for the PS3 which for the past 5 months has had lower YOY sales?
Or the 360, which sells less consoles total every year?

Sounds to me like they don't have much staying power either.

Or...you're just dumb. One of the two.