Japan-Inc. reported:
Following straight on the heels of the Wii Music release last month and the announcement
of several new mobile music games from Taito, Japanese game developer Yudo came out
with a press release last week saying it will create its own set of instrument-simulation games
for the iPhone (see newsbrief below). Along with Plato’s Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 and
similar releases last year for the Nintendo DS platform, these latest offerings from Japan’s
music game developers mark a definite trend away from rhythm games and toward instrument
simulation using mobile devices and controllers.
One thing that all of these new music games have in common is that they put far more emphasis
on the music creation and performance aspects and much less on the competitive gaming
element. In fact, legendary Nintendo game designer Shigeru Miyamoto has been quoted as
saying ‘I don’t know if we should even be calling Wii Music a video game. I have been likening
Wii Music to something that’s more along the lines of a musical instrument than it is a video game.’
One of the central ideas behind Wii Music is to introduce players to music making and musical
improvisation, by making it easy for anyone to start playing the virtual instruments in a matter of
minutes.