STsung’s Blog

Samba de Amigo

The only game that interests us at SEGA stand is Samba de Amigo. Announced quite a long
time ago was a Nintendo Wii version of Samba de Amigo. A game played usually with two
controllers in a shape of maraca. Maraca is a Latin American percussion musical
instrument. This game will let you be the maraca player. You have to confirm notes that
come from the middle of the screen at one of the six receptors located on a imaginary
hexagon few cms away from the center of the screen (of course you confirm the notes
with music^_~).

The game is same as any other Samba de Amigo game. Of course songlist is different, see below. The only new thing I can think of is that Ulala is a playable character in the game and that there is also a full space station stage.

SEGA had many people telling you how to play the game and you could come to the stage and compete with Sonic the Hedgehog in Samba de Amigo.

From my personal feelings the game just does not feel right when played with Wiimote and nunchuk instead of maraca controllers. Both make the sound of maracas but wiimote and nunchuk has completely different feel when you shake them with music.

Songlist

Bellini - Arriba Allex
Las Ketchup - Asareje
Gypsy Kings - Baila Me
Charo - Borriquito
Chelo - Cha Cha
Ozomatil - Como Ves
Miami Sound Machine - Conga
Jennifer Lopez - Do It Well
Dee Lite - Groove Is In The Heart
Harry Belafonte - Jump In The Line
War - Low Rider
Ken Woodman - Mexican Flyer
Bellini and Mondonca Do Rio - Magalenha
Lou Bega - Mambo No. 5
Perez Prado - Mambo No. 8
Santana - Oye Como Va
Perry Como - Papa Loves Mambo
Rihanna - Pon De Replay
Tito Puente - Ran Kan Ran
Santana - Smooth
Wavegroup - Solo Tu
Wavegroup - Tango With Me
Wavegroup - Un Aguardiente

KONAMI stands are usually white with nothing special and nothing that would catch the
eye. This year at GC nothing has changed. On the first day of GC there was a preview of
Rock Revolution (imagine Guitar Hero stage and people from KONAMI on the stage showing
their new cool game). Rock Revolution is a KONAMI US game similar to Rock Band. How the
game will look like/feel like is yet up to see.

DS Supernova 2
At KONAMI stand we could play Dancing Stage Supernova 2 which was supposed to be
already released in August but was delayed. They say that the game is still not
finished. But I don’t see anything unfinished about the game except for example the
fact that after an extra stage all the modifiers you set are reset. (at least you don’t
end up with Beginner difficulty). Well, DS SN2 is same as DDR US. It is easier in game
play with more licensed songs with nothing special to offer. Should be released in September this year.

DS Supernova 2 box art is more red/pink than anything. It has a red female dancer (which is not even attractive) in the middle of the box art. Also this color can be seen on all the Dancing Stage t-shirts you could get at KONAMI stand. (pink….why pink???)

DS Hottest Party
The second dance game at the stand was DS Hottest Party 1. Yeah, you see it correctly
1. Not 2 as promised. I better not comment on this game. This game is played on a dance
pad, but you are also forced to use nunchuk for left nunchuk notes and wiimote for
right wiimote notes. There are also other items like step/hand mines which are moving
objects that scroll up to the targets and if you DON’T step on them it will take some
of your life from the life bar. Thus “oh, this is a mine I should avoid it will make
you fail.” The game is targeted at beginners and people who will hardly play any other
DDR game….

DS Universe 2
The last game at their “enlarged” dancing stage stand was DS Universe 2. I’ve never
played the previous games on this console but I have to say I was disgusted with it.
The songlist is bad for a CS version. The game was far more offsync than Hottest Party
and Supernova so I suppose that even on lag free TV it would be offsync. The
animations are quite nice. But who needs big and “nice” note judgements? Who needs
different colored target arrows? Seems like bright pink is now popular at KONAMI.
Empress and now DS Universe? I just can’t write anything objective about this game. The
whole feel of the game is like “KONAMI US just made another bad DDR game…”.

Well, most of the people could be found at Games Convention could be found at
Activision stands. Most of them were playing Guitar Hero, waiting in line to play
Guitar Hero, watching other people play GH, screaming and yelling to get some GH/Rock
Band goodies, “enjoying” rock concerts by some unknown German bands….
….you get the idea.

GH On Tour Decades
Guitar Hero On Tour for DS was available in a really nice booths or on a quite nice and
confortable benches. GH On Tour is played with the four action keys available on
Nintendo DS and a special strumming “thingy” you use to strum. You put it on your
finger and with it you scratch the strums on one of the DS screens.

The song list of this game is similar to GH World Tour it features songs from Linking Park, Red Hot CHilli Peppers or REM.
The game is also linkable with the original Guitar Hero On Tour.

GH World Tour
Guitar Hero World Tour was played in way bigger booths. GH World Tour is a game similar
to Rock Band. Four players can play it. One player plays the normal guitar, other one
is playing bass, the third one is playing the drums (two kind of cymbals, three drums +
kick) and the last one sings/screams.

The Game engine seems to be the same as of Rock Band - it looks the same, it feels the
same, it has the same features and weak points. Overally in game the game is much more
legible than Rock Band (also it’s not that bright and gold).

The notes are similar to previous Guitar Hero notes. There is a new note type for drum note charts. It’s a two layered note which has to be confirmed with both drum sticks. The solo parts in GH World Tour have a different colored notes for some reason. What is completely new is the piano roll with notes for the singer. There are the long notes you actually have to sing, then there are parts were you have just to yell and some parts where you have to be on time with the music (more like rapping from Singstar - anyway it’s same as in Rock Band).

KONAMI in the US have filed a patent lawsuit against Harmonix (and thus also MTV and Viacom) in the federal court in Tyler, Texas.
They started the lawsuit because they think that Rock Band (Harmonix) violates KONAMI patents which relate to “simulated musical instruments, a music-game system and a musical-rhythm matching game”.

Well, the lawsuit has been around for a while but I wanted to find out more information about KONAMI vs. Harmonix.
Why did not KONAMI sue Harmonix for Guitar Hero? Even though that Harmonix itself claimed that the game is based on GFDM? (as well the idea of FreQuence/Amplitude came from BEMANI games). Well, I don’t know why didn’t this happen. But with Guitar Hero III being released we could find out that Activision and KONAMI have some kind of agreement on several ““simulated musical instruments, a music-game system and a musical-rhythm matching game” patents. In my eyes this can mean that Activision pays KONAMI for the use of these patents in their games. Also Activision bought Devecka patents “Methods and apparatus for providing an interactive musical game” so it seems that Activision plans something bigger in the future with music games.

Anyway it seems that KONAMI is not looking for competition nor killing the game(s) itself but for settlement. (I would personally say that cash settlement is not the only thing KONAMI wants, but after finding out about Activision using KONAMI’s patents….). Harmonix in the time being fully localized Rock Band (with Japanese songs as well) for Japan. This game might become a rival to GFDM….What do you think? I seriously find this outrageous.