At first- I thought meh. And the reason I thought “meh” was because I read other reviews of the product that gave it horrible reviews. I saw remarks that went along the lines of “only for children,” “not for hard core gamers” and “no fun.” However, I couldn't let this go. I had to give it a try.
But I wasn't going to do it alone. Instead, I recruited an army. This army consisted of myself, my husband and four other friends (two of which are heavy gamers) who had nothing to do on Friday night except test out this game with us. And, of course, eat free food! And so, with nachos in our bellies and shots of Jaeger in front of us (just in case we needed to make it more fun), I broke open the copy of rented Wii Music and started it up.
At first, it didn't seem promising. We were all treated to a mandatory lesson about how to play each type of instrument (piano, guitar, violin and trumpet). Our impatience with this probably had to do with our age and the simplistic controls that we could have figured out on his own. But the game is for all ages. Fair enough. I understood and we plodded through it.
Then the fun began- or so we thought. We had exactly one song to play, which turned out to be “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”. At this point, as the hostess, I thought that this party game was going to be a flop. I was mortified that my guests would find no fun in this and that they would turn to the alcohol to escape the impending boredom.
But oh how wrong I was!
After playing it a couple of times, allowing everyone to play at least once- as we only possess two controllers- more songs opened up. We were having a grand time, and then someone discovered the games. Mii Maestro, actually. The laughs were going- someone found a camera- and the party moved into full swing. We watched each other try to lead “Carmen” as quickly as possible, just to see arms flying like furious hummingbird wings and faces stern with concentration.
Though that part of the party didn't last all night- due to a group call for more food and a popular movie- the stories did. We continued retelling the funny parts and the camera was pulled out for proof. The next day, we all woke with sore arms from our “Carmen” antics and my husband and I picked up the controllers to explore other parts of the game- like the Pitch Perfect game. That is still my favorite part because it really is quite a challenge.
All in all, the game's entertainment value hit us out of left field. Maybe it's not the action, shoot-em- up kind that you're used to, but that doesn't deter from the entertainment. If I had to rate it, I would place it below Wii Sports, but well ahead of the low marks that it has from everyone else.
