Samba De Amigo

Samba De Amigo - (Wii)
Developer: Gearbox
Format: Wii
Genre: Party


A blast from the past that's bang up to date!



Hands up who remembers playing Samba De Amigo on the long defunct Dreamcast? Sega's classic Samba-inspired music title was a pioneer in the rhythm gaming genre. The title came with a set of maracas, and at the time at least, felt unlike any game you ever played. Just watching someone play made you want to try it yourself - the idea of waving a set of maracas at the screen - who'd have thought it? It was quite literally a party in a box and flew off the shelves quicker than free money.

Fast forward eight years or so and now Wii owners have the opportunity to grab a bunch of friends and shake themselves silly in a variety of wacky environments, full of zany characters intended to keep the party going.

Any remaining fans of the original title should feel right at home with the updated version - the gameplay is virtually identical. Rather than maracas, players can use either a Wii Remote and Nunchuk (or two Wii Remotes), in time with the visual beats of the music on-screen.

There's over 40 songs to get you in a Latin mood, which is fortunate as they're nearly all of a Latin flavour. Sega also plans to make a whole bunch of new songs available for free to download - although there are no additional tracks currently available.

There's also a whole host of game modes to shake your virtual maracas at. Career, Single-Player, Multiplayer, Training, and Records all feature. Special minigames expand gameplay with Quick Play, Classic, Battle, Survival, Hustle and special Sega levels that include characters from past Sega titles. You can even upload you high scores to global leaderboards to see how you compare with other maraca maestros.

A maraca shaking fiesta of fun for all the family. What's not to like?