As though Air Guitar isn’t enough, a game in the works from Nintendo has players pretending to be musicians with their Wiimotes.
Some 40 instruments are going to be offered, including the marimba, congas, shamisen and of course the guitar.
Above is a demonstration today by Nintendo employees “playing” the Mario theme song.
Nintendo says you can be totally non-musical but still enjoy the musical experience.
Virtual virtuoso
Microsoft’s Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 event was video show after video show of games in the works for the machine that’s losing out big time to Nintendo’s Wii and Sony’s PlayStation 3 in Japan.
Japanese gamers like role-playing games and so Microsoft must sign on star game creators to get people to buy the console.
The obvious catch is that these designers would rather make games for machines owned by more people.
But you know what? A lot of these games look the same.
There’s a lot of blood and gore, choice of weapons (knives/swords of all sizes/shapes, etc. ), knights’ armor/the billowy ninja-look.
And the obligatory cast: (1) young male hero (2) sidekick (3) cute female facing off against (1) monsters (2) faceless soldiers.
When you think about it, it’d seem there could be some variety.
Why not a game that takes place in a kitchen (there are knives there as well)?
How are games as a genre going to maintain the momentum for creativity, given the growing competition from entertaiment on the Internet for spending free time without leaving your home?