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Far Cry 3 And The Stranger In A Strange Land While it never exactly resonated with the more discerning end of the video game buying public, the average man on the street would still have put a fiver on Wii Music doing well in its first month of sale (the game was released in the US on October 20). After all, it’s for the Wii, it’s made by Nintendo and it’s got “Wii” in the title. Not to mention the fact it was the beneficiary of a fairly hefty marketing push from Nintendo. So heads were no doubt being scratched at Nintendo HQ when the game wasn’t among the top ten sellers for October. And scratched further when it wasn’t among the top twenty.
Nintendo seems convinced that people just need to try Wii Music to be enchanted and buy the game. They’re so convinced that it seems to have become a major part of their holiday push.
Shigeru Miyamoto is a great game designer, we all know that. He’s an incredibly insightful and intelligent man. Likewise, that we all know. Yet, lately his interview responses sound, we dunno, canned? Take these recent responses regarding Wii Music:
Cheerleaders might think it’s “bullshit”. Bands might think it’s not the best. It might put dogs to sleep… figuratively. But Run. Run LOOOOOOVES the beatboxing, drum tapping, piano tripping tunes coming out the Wii thanks to Wii Music. Oh Run.
Last week’s Japanese software chart champ Wii Music might not have the legs of Nintendo’s other first party Wii efforts if its second week performance is any indication. The music game dropped to fifth place amid new competition from Nintendo’s own Wagamama Fashion: Girls Mode and Atlus’ Devil Summoner: Kuzunoha Raidou tai Abaddon Ou. The latter would’ve topped the charts, if both the limited edition and regular edition were counted as one release by Media Create, for the record.
Brain Training is really Studying: The Game. Wii Fit is Standing Straight: The Game. Wii Music is Noodling: The Game. There’s nothing wrong with that approach. Those games are popular, and they’ve made Nintendo gobs of money. Nintendo didn’t always make those kind of games. Shigeru Miyamoto explains his change in approach:
We successfully tested Wii Music against a cheerleader and real musicians, but it was the last test that took the cake. As it turns out, Nintendo wasn’t ecstatic on the dog playing the Wii idea, but neither was the dog. We were however able to convince them to let us bring the dog in the trailer to see if he would react to the barking in Wii Music.
While Wii Music has been getting a tepid reception, at least Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto is excited. Really, really, really excited. So excited that even after working on the game all those months, he’s still rushing home to play it. When he’s not playing it, he’s thinking about it — a sign, Miyamoto says, that he’s created a fun game. Good signs! And to those who are sadden that their favourite Nintendo songs haven’t made it onto the game, Miyamoto explains:
Wii Music, as you may already know, topped Japanese sales charts in its debut week. While the Media Create numbers skew a bit lower than what Famitsu had to say, Wii Music won the sales chart crown handily, pushing Pokémon Platinum back to the number two spot.
Wii Music was the subject of a substantial marketing campaign that hit while we were in Japan for Tokyo Game Show. Rare was the train ride or subway station that didn’t have some kind of Wii Music presence. That advertising — and Wii Fever, no doubt — translated to some pretty healthy first-week sales of the title in Japan.
