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Samba De Amigo


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I reckon it's in the fridge! :D

 

Are Marracas coming with the game or not then people? I've heard contridicting reports..:smile:

The game comes with one pair and additional pairs will be sold separately...

 

 

http://www.cubed3.com/news/10616

 

Sega had hinted and had previously released mockup images of the Wii-remote attachments and voila, it seems the final version of the gorgeous red pieces of plastic have rolled onto Amazon with a reasonable price of $14.99 and a store date of September 23rd 2008.

 

For those who like to fap their Wii remotes alone, the game fortunately comes shipped with a pair to get going right away.

 

sambawii.jpg

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It's out on the 19th. In NGamer, they gave it a 60%. Whilst they enjoyed the game, they said they found it nigh impossible to hit the 'mid-height' shake with the Nunchuk. They said that two Remotes works better, but doesn't feel right.

 

Hmmm, if it works well with 2 wiimotes thats good enough for me.....

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Gamespot's Samba de Amigo Hands-On

 

Before the days when rhythm games were commonplace in the US, Sega took a "Rock Band"-style chance and released Samba de Amigo for the Dreamcast back in 2000. The game was a home conversion of a popular arcade game that starred Amigo, a sombrero-wearing, maraca-shaking monkey. Back in the day, the release was seen as a bold move due to the fact the game came bundled with maracas controllers, a sensor bar, and decorative mat for roughly $100. The ensuing years have seen all sorts of changes to consoles and to the game market, all of which have paved the way for Sega to revive the rhythm game on the Wii with developer Gearbox Software handling the conversion to Nintendo's platform. We've periodically seen the game for a while at various press events, but we recently got our hands on a near-final version of the game and were able to put it through its paces.

 

If you've never played the original game, you shouldn't feel intimidated. While there is some history to the game, it's not exactly as complicated as the Metal Gear series. A new opening cinematic sequence shows Amigo with his eccentric friends posing and dancing in surreal manner, which just about sums up the game. Basically you're a monkey with a near-insatiable urge to get your groove on. And you do, repeatedly. The core of the game is you grabbing ahold of a controller and shaking your little heart out in time to onscreen prompts that require you to shake, pose, or wave your virtual maraca. We say virtual maraca because, sadly, there is no maraca peripheral or official maraca sleeve for the game, although there is at least one third party attempting to make a sleeve.

 

As with its Dreamcast predecessor before it, Samba de Amigo for the Wii gets a whole lot of mileage out of this simple mechanic. You'll find three main game modes--Career, single-player, and multiplayer--as well as a training mode. The Career mode is series of sequential challenges that you unlock in order. As you go, you'll unlock 48 pieces of content that includes sound effects, music, and stages. The single-player game is a straightforward run through various songs played on various stages. The multiplayer mode features five game options: Quickplay, Love Love, Battle, Minigames, and Classic (which is basically similar to the original game). Quickplay is just that; you and a friend dive into a song. Love Love is a two-player mode that determines your compatibility with a second player based on how in synch you both play. Battle mode has you creating a bomb through successful play that, once full, gets lobbed at your opponent and drains his or her life bar. Minigames is a collection of seven games, some of which you unlock, that run the gamut from traditional gameplay to longer stretches of the maraca theme. Guacamole is a whack-a-mole-style game. Power Rush is a fast-paced maraca-shaking fest. Monkey See, Monkey Do, is a "Simon says" style game that requires you to repeat sequences. Strike a Pose challenges you and a friend to match onscreen pose prompts. Pinata has you and a friend bashing a pinata open. Dance Dance Amigo tasks you with matching a frenzied pace of action. Volleyball is a somewhat awkward game that has you lobbing and hitting balls over a net. Besides the game modes, you'll find a training mode, a records viewer, and a Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection option that lets you download content. The game will also let you upload your scores if you choose a personal Mii to represent you in the game.

 

The fun factor of all the various modes and minigames hinges on the game's control. The work-in-progress game we tried has been improved since the last time we tried it. Gearbox has made some smart choices with the control scheme. You can choose to use the standard Wii Remote and Nunchuk setup or two remotes for your simulated maraca action. The training mode does a fine job of walking you through how the game controls. The biggest learning curve, which is true of many Wii games, is that you need to be pretty precise with your hand motions. The game isn't very forgiving of manic waving, which newcomers to Samba are likely to do.

 

 

The visuals in the game are on par with the Dreamcast game, which had a unique goofy charm that still holds firm on the Wii. Amigo and company are a cartoony bunch that sport a whole lot of personality. The stages are bouncy complements to the characters that groove along to the tunes in the game. There hasn't been any radical upgrading to the original game's look, although you'll now spot Miis in the crowd and play on some new stages not found in the earlier games.

 

Samba's audio is also on par with the original game and benefits from more tracks. You'll hear just about all the songs you'd want to from the original games along with more modern tracks from current artists, such as Rhianna. The additional sound effects and the like that can be unlocked help add to the goofy atmosphere as well.

 

Based on the version we played, Samba is looking like it's making a solid enough leap to the Wii. We're still not totally sold on the controls, but if you never played the original, odds are that you'll be fine with them. However, anyone hankering for the good feelings found from waving around maracas may be left wanting. From a content standpoint, the game's certainly got variety going for it.

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And how difficult can assigning, up shake, down shake, left shake, right shake etc... really be?!

 

This what Gearbox did with the controls:

 

"The first pass at controls involved selecting low, medium, and high note targets. The accelerometer inside the Wii Remote measures two kinds of movement: static acceleration to determine tilt when the device is at rest (affected only by gravity), and dynamic acceleration for when the device is moving. To determine which target the player is selecting, we used the static acceleration data to figure out the orientation of the Wii Remote as it relates to the ground. Challenge one: solved!

 

This was the most challenging part of developing the controls. How would we differentiate a shake from target selecting motions while the player was in a maraca-shaking frenzy? We came up with a few possible solutions to the problem, but in the end the solution we stuck with was a system that took into account the intended target for the note and the target that the player had currently selected. If those two matched and the player shook at the right time (as the note indicator reaches the target), it would be interpreted as shaking instead of target selection. Problem solved!

 

So at this point we had the controls implemented. You could select targets and shake, and it worked perfectly. There was one last control-related concern: Hustle Mode. In this mode, users still shake along, but must perform additional combinations of gestures such as shaking the maracas back and forth between two positions. Implementation for this mode turned out to be fairly easy; after all, measuring movement over time is one thing the Wii Remote's accelerometer is good at! The gesture system looks at the direction the player is moving the device to determine a direction."

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GoNintendo have got the NGamer review summary up, they gave it a very average 60 with the controls being the main problem.

 

http://gonintendo.com/?p=55591

 

Im quite suprised that from the looks of it they still didnt nail the controls which is a major downfall for a game of this nature.

 

Having read the review, they really enjoyed the game but the Nunchuk's inaccuracy ruined it. They said that previous builds actually nailed it, though - the transition to the final version has broken it.

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Having read the review, they really enjoyed the game but the Nunchuk's inaccuracy ruined it. They said that previous builds actually nailed it, though - the transition to the final version has broken it.

 

Really? Thats very starnge. Its such a shame aswell as I was really looking forward to it. I will wait and read some other reviews and then decide if this is a release day purchase or bargain bin material.

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Sheesh after reading about the half assed controls for this I'm glad I put my name down to review it as this doesn't sound worthy of full price purchase atm... I'll be sure to give it a fair review but from what I'm hearing it's a 7 at best which is dissapointing. :/

 

Heres hoping they use motion plus for a sequel...

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It looks like they've done the seemingly impossible and cocked up the controls for Samba de Amigo then. Are you still gonna take a chance on it, Hero-o-T?

 

Seeing as my Wii is packed away I dont think so. Saying that after Star Wars Force Unleashed my 360 will be gathering dust until Fable 2 so now may be a good time to get know my Wii again.

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Seeing as my Wii is packed away I dont think so. Saying that after Star Wars Force Unleashed my 360 will be gathering dust until Fable 2 so now may be a good time to get know my Wii again.

 

No Strong Bad, Wario, Sam & Max, Disaster and De Blob? :shakehead Get lovin' it again! :heh:

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No Strong Bad, Wario, Sam & Max, Disaster and De Blob? :shakehead Get lovin' it again! :heh:

 

Well the Wiiware and VC games aint being bought til Nintendo get their fingers out and give me storage space, then I will unleash and buy alot of classic games that I have been wanting off the service.

 

As for retail games yeah there are a few I want but whether I play them is another matter. Me and darksnowman discussed it briefly in pms how I have kinda lost my love of Nintendo this generation and I find it hard to play anything on the Wii now. I even discussed buying a NES on ebay and getting aload of classic games that I had from my childhood to try and reignite my love for Nintendo.

 

Dont worry I will never sell my Wii, its just that im going through a bad patch at the moment when it comes to actually wanting to play on the thing. No kidding I have about 15 games on the shelf that I havent even started and I cant see me doing so anytime soon. Darksnowman was even kind enough to send me a game from the VC so I unpacked my Wii and sent it back to him so he could get his points back. I did this as I really havent a clue when I will be back on the console.

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They've cocked up the only thing they had to get right with the game. Oh dear.

Hi everyone, ive been reading for ages but this is my 1st post.:yay:

I don't get why everyone seems to be moaning about Samba.

Yes I can understand that all we want is the controlls to be perfect, but one thing that everyone seems to be forgetting is what has been said in the reviews so far.

Now the only gripe ive seen is that the controls dont seem to function properly when playing on hard level when everything is frantic and your waving your arms all over the place.

For me personaly, you also had the issue of not registering moves,hits etc on hard mode for the dreamcast versions too as you were moving so fast the sensor was moving all over the place, together with tangled wires you were very lucky if anything registered at all and even more lucky to get anything above a D rank.

As long as Samba plays ok on normal mode then im gonna be happy with that.

I would rather wait and see for myself how it plays before passing judgement.

Also most of the comments have been good from normal gamers(ie non reviewers that dont do it for a living) and have said how enjoyable it is.

Obviously im gonna be dissapointent if the controls such big time, but im looking forward to finding out in just over a weeks time and if it does suck then ive still got my Dreamcast originals of Samba and Ver.2000 just in case.

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