Game review: Samba de Amigo

 

Once a cult classic on the late, ahead-of-its-time Dreamcast, Samba de Amigo now has a deserved shot at the big time on the Wii.

It proves to be ideal for the Wii: utterly infectious and endearingly silly. The original's motion-sensing maracas-controllers have, of course, been replaced by the Wiimote and Nunchuk, and, to the accompaniment of some of the cheesiest music ever heard in a game (think samba versions of tracks like A-Ha's Take On Me and Chumbawumba's Tubthumping) you must point the controllers in the correct direction and shake them when beat-indicating balls hit the appropriate targets. You are often encouraged to pose with the controllers or to wave them about as though you were re-enacting Saturday Night Fever. There's not a vast amount to the single-player game (you merely unlock new difficulty levels and sounds, such as a whistle, for your maracas) and most of the mini-games are pretty lame, but you'd have to be churlish in the extreme not to find the manically energetic gameplay (which quickly raises a sweat) irresistible. This is what the Wii is all about.

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