Mixed E3 impressions or not, Wii Music is coming out this October. And boy oh boy are Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and resident genius Shigeru Miyamoto excited. Thrilled, actually. In a "Creator's Voice" conversation posted on the game's official site, Miyamoto says, "I haven't really felt the happiness from making other games that I've had felt making Wii Music... I wasn't this excited while making Super Mario Bros."

The two men go on to talk about how people want to create music and how Wii Music can help people overcome playing instruments that and enjoy making music — by pressing random buttons, we guess? While Brain Age was so popular in Japan that some school began using it in class, Iwata and Miyamoto would totally love it if Wii Music could do more of the same:

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Nintendo is hoping that lightning strikes thrice with the October 20th release of Wii Music in North America, the rhythm game that, according to the company, "builds on that inclusive legacy" of Wii Sports and Wii Fit and translates into runaway sales. With more than 60 instruments, including guitar, drums, dog and cheerleader, and over 50 songs, Wii Music aims to bring music performance to the masses.

While the press release highlights the Wii Music elevator pitch, the newly updated product page gives us a look "Beyond the Jam." The playback mode lets you review your jam session with dramatic camera angles and the tone quiz "tests your musical ear by giving you challenges, like putting note-playing Miis in order from lowest to highest pitch."

And how could we ever forget that Wii Music will let us drum in tandem with the Wii Balance Board? We could never forget, is the answer.

You know, I actually used to be a pretty good cheerleader player back in high school. Thought about forming my own band, dropping out, taking it "on the road," but couldn't hit those high "Pretty!" notes consistently. Eventually I just lost interest in cheerleader playing, because all the chicks go for the tuba player in the end, and because every composition sounded like the soundtrack of insanity. Thank God for Wii Music, which captures that dissonance perfectly. I really can't wait to play the Super Mario Bros. theme in the key of "shrill pep."

We had our doubts about Wii Music after the "dog incident," but we're skeptics no longer. Nintendo, you had us at "dink dink dink dink dink dink DOONG! dink dink dink dink dink dink DOONG! dink dink dink dink dink dink DOONG!" See you there on day one.

After the first, we imagined there would be more Wii Music ads. Many more. And so it has come to pass. Here's the 13th commercial.

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Like Ashcraft said, "And so, it begins" We got some new Wii Music screenshots to fuel your harmonic needs. Soon you will be able to rock out with your Mii and your friends looking, well, ridicules. To be honest, I am so torn on this. I want to love this game because with the right combination of friends including Owen drunk, Wii Music could be a lot of fun. It just feels like we need to see more on this one.

Wii Music 'Today's Musical Instrument' #1 [Balance Board Blog]

That Wii Music release date rumour we posted were correct! The game has been dated for Japan, and it will be released on October 16th and priced at ¥5080 ($US 47). The game features something like over 50 songs and over 60 musical instruments.

「Wii Music」発売日は10月16日に決定 [IT Media]

Nintendo seem to think that air drumming is a good idea. After all, it was the highlight of their Wii Music presentation last week. Harmonix, though, Harmonix beg to differ. And we like to think Harmonix know a thing or two about music games. Company boss Alex Rigopulos:

...in the early days of the Wii when it was first announced, we contemplated using the Wiimote for a drumming interface. We backed away from it because we found that the tactile element of actually hitting a surface when you're drumming is a fairly critical part to the visceral feel of actually playing drums. So when you're air drumming, it was a critical element you're missing in the experience. So that's one of the reasons we backed away from it and decided to build a custom drum peripheral.

Plus, you know. When you're drumming against a drum, you're a lot less likely to make a complete arse of yourself.

Interview: Alex Rigopulos on Rock Band 2, Competing with Guitar Hero and Evolving the Music Genre [GameDaily]

Not confirmed, but Nintendo-centric Japanese blog Rambing Man has a street date for Wii Music: The game will apparently be released on October 16th for ¥5,800 ($US 54) as part of the Touch Generation Series and will have Wi-Fi. Other details floating include a Japanese release date for Captain Rainbow (August 28th for ¥6,800 or $US 63) and Valkyrie Profile DS (October 2nd for ¥5040 or $US 47). Oh, new Wii-mote straps, too. Make that new, coloured Wii-mote straps. Priced at ¥300 a piece, they'll come in white, pink, blue and green. All four will be available for ¥1,000. Those will be out this September, says Rambling Man.

Quick show of hands: Who's interested in picking up Wii Music? Who's keen for new strap colours?

Wii Music 発売日決定 [Rambling Man via Jonnyram@GAF] [Pic]