Samba de Amigo

"Time to shake it up with Amigo! Just make sure to go through the tutorials..."

Samba de Amigo on the Dreamcast was an energetic game with dancing monkeys, maracas as controllers, seizure inducing bright colors, and a song list that was interesting at times and other time brought back painful memories of the 90's (I'm talking to you, Macarena!). Now, that energetic game is back with a better price tag than the Dreamcast version since no maracas are required. All you need is two wiimotes or a wiimote-nunchuck combination and those tutorials in the game or the instruction booklet. I'll explain in just a bit why the tutorials are crucial for playing the game.

Graphics/Visual: 8/10

Nothing graphic-wise has really changed between the two besides obvious improvements from DC to Wii. The bright colors give the game its energetic feel and really captures the feeling of the Latin music. The characters are bold and by the time you finish the career mode, you'll be able to recognize them from miles again. The only complain is THE BRIGHT COLORS! No matter what screen you're on, the bright blues and greens will follow you. So please play this with plenty of light on in the room if you don't want your eyes hurting.

Content (Modes, unlockables, etc.): 8/10

Modes are just your average modes. Battle, survival, cooperative (known as Love Love on SdA) in multiplayer. Single you got your career mode to unlock songs, maraca sounds, dance sounds, and some gameplay modes. You got your quick play and mini-games to either help you with some of the game play elements or to waste time. Nothing ground breaking. There is, however, a new way to play. It's called "Hustle". It was in the version 2000 and was suppose to be in the version 2001 for the US, but was canceled. Hustle combines the classic play with the beats and poses, but adds "dance moves" to them. You'll either move your controls back and forth in the two two rows, the right upper corner, the entire left side, or go around the world in a full circle. Your arms might hurt after doing hustle on hard, but it's an interesting concept that I'm not sure why they didn't put it in the first game. The game doesn't have that much replay value if you're a single player person, but there's a lot if you're a party person.

Gameplay/Controls: 8/10

This is where tutorials become essential to playing the game successfully. To those that have played the original, you will have the hardest time adapting to the controls. The rest of you, go through the tutorials and you should be fine.

The controls in this game are based on tilt. If you point at the screen, the cursors are in the middle. Point up and the cursors go up. And down goes down. The original Samba de Amigo is based off of height, so this will throw original players off and claim that the controls are broken. The fact of the matter is that you can hold them as low as you want, but if they're tilted up, they will point to the upper cursor. If you can master the tilting controls, then it won't be impossible for you to beat super hard. It gets an 8 because they controls don't always register even if I have them pointing the right way and standing up seems to ruin my score as well, but that could be fixed with raising my TV up a bit so the sensor bar can register it, but that remains untested.

Song list: 8/10

Majority of the songs from the original are on the Wii version along with some new ones. Although Pon de Replay isn't the greatest song for this series, other new songs like "Jump in the Line" and "Oye Como Va" make up for that. About 95% of the songs on this version fit well with the Samba de Amigo fiesta that goes on in the background. Sadly, to get some of those good songs, you have to go through the ones you really don't want to play (Again, I'm talking to you Macarena!), but if you can suppress those bad memories of doing that dance back then, you can get all those great songs that are locked when you start the game. Also, another nice feature is the downloadable content. Song packs include three songs for 500 wiipoints ($5.00). How many there will be and how often they will come out it unknown right now.

Overall: 8/10

It's worth renting a few times when you have a party coming up, but if it seems like your friends are always around and they like all those music games, I would recommend buying it. Keep a look out for the used copies because people will surely return this if they're not a fan of the controls. That means you'll get it cheaper! The game is beatable, it just takes time and patience. So, if you're ready for dancing monkeys, seizure inducing bright colors, and a song list that was interesting at times and other time brought back painful memories of the 90's on the Wii, then grab some friends, tacos, and a copy of Samba de Amigo for the Wii and let the FIESTA begin!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/29/08

Game Release: Samba de Amigo (US, 09/23/08)