Samba de Amigo originally debuted on the Sega Dreamcast to much critical acclaim. In fact, the only major negative most folks had to say about the game was that it was too difficult to find a pair of the maraca controllers in order to play it how it was meant to be played. Nearly ten years later, Sega has brought back the Samba de Amigo franchise and now everyone can experience the game the way it was meant to be since the Wii’s remote and nunchuk make good maracas!....At least that’s what I wish I could say.
Don’t get me wrong, Samba de Amigo is still fun to play....But there just enough faults to really bog down the enjoyment level...The main one being the controls. I’ll admit that the Wii’s remote and nunchuk would make good maracas...However, when a game like Samba de Amigo has imprecise controls, it’s really difficult to feel like you have any control. When you’re playing an easy song that doesn’t require a whole lot of moving around the maracas, you won’t notice the problems quite as much...But once you begin making it to more and more difficult songs, you’ll feel as if you’re losing more and more control. The controllers just won’t register sometimes. This can be very frustrating...Especially when you’ve had a perfect song and you missed a single note just because that one controller didn’t register when you shook it. As you get to more advanced songs, the difficulty just becomes overly frustrating simply because of the lack of communication between the controllers and the game.
While the controls really take a lot of wind out of the sails of the game, Samba de Amigo isn’t without its charm. For the most part, the music is pretty nifty and pretty fun to shake the ‘maracas’ to. There are some songs that’ll make you want to play with your television muted, but for the most part, it’s a decent collection. Also, two-player mode is an absolute blast to play even when the controls begin to get buggy. On top of all of that, one of the best things about this game doesn’t even have anything to really do with the actual game disk; the price. These days, most music games can fetch you $150 or more due to peripherals packed in. Heck, back in the day, Samba de Amigo on Dreamcast had the maraca peripherals that cost about $80. However, this Samba de Amigo’s usage of the Wii’s controllers makes it not need a peripheral and that really makes it a cheap alternative as far as music games of today go.
If you love music games, you’ll find plenty to like in Samba de Amigo. Even with its problems, it’s still a decent game worth a try. If you’ve got a Dreamcast and are willing to spend some cash on eBay for some maracas, that version of Samba de Amigo is far superior. However, if all you have is a Wii, Samba de Amigo still has some fun to offer...Just don’t expect a whole lot. - Ape
September 23, 2008
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