Adios Amigos?

Almost a decade ago, Amigo and his cutesy friends starred in Samba de Amigo for Sega’s now defunct Dreamcast. Combining vibrant and colorful graphics with addicting gameplay, Samba de Amigo became one of the platform’s best titles. A sequel to Samba de Amigo saw the light in 2000 but was not released outside of Japan. But now it is time for the rest of the world to get reacquainted with Samba de Amigo; A few months from now a new sequel will be released for the Nintendo Wii.

What’s This!? Two Wii Remotes?

Unlike most other Wii games, Samba de Amigo is played using two Wii Remotes at the same time, holding one in each hand. It is a cute way to make it seem as if you are playing maracas, but may seem a little awkward when you start. But don’t worry, once you have played the game for a few hours, it will seem perfectly natural. If you get completely lost, you can always play with the Wii Remote and Nunchuk instead.

Maraca Hero

Like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, Samba de Amigo is played by timing your motions to on-screen visuals. Shaking your Wii Remotes at the right time, blue orbs start moving outwards from the center of the screen towards high, medium, and low targets. When the orb reaches a target, you aim at it with the appropriate Wii Remote (left or right) and shake the maraca in time to the beat of the music. While playing, you may occasionally have to strike a pose by holding the remotes on two different targets.

The game will ship with 40 Latin-themed songs. Half of the songs in Samba de Amigo will be from previous Samba de Amigo games whereas the remaining tracks will be new to the series. In order to obtain all the songs, you will need to unlock them by completing stages with special requirements. Each song can be played in two styles: Original and Hustle. The latter style is much more active than the original, mixing in many more poses that require you to swing your body.