The “Break it Down” Blog

“Sounding good while playing Wii Music is… practically impossible”, as the reviewers from GameTrailers state. Even with that level of criticism, horrible control schemes and terrible sounding MIDI-based instruments (none of the tracks are originals), will Wii Music fail this holiday season? Michael Pachter thinks not.

The straight “kid/parent appeal” alone, Pachter estimates, is worth more than a good product; similar to what drove the Wii Fit to enviable sales numbers earlier this year. He also makes the assessment that game sites, usually whether they intend to or not, are implicitly geared towards the hardcore and will always rate something like Rock Band or Guitar Hero higher than a family-friendly Wii Music title.

We agree.

It’s still amusing to watch a game that we are convinced is garbage, outsell everything else around us. This ties directly into Howard Moskowitz’s work with the food industry in establishing that people’s collective idea of “perfect” cannot be distilled down into a single product; you must have options and multiple forms of “perfect” to succeed.

All Wii Music is, is a “perfect” music game for all the folks left unserviced by the Guitar Hero and Rock Bands of the world.

I found this to be an eye-opening realization for gaming and help explain why games like Portal and Gears of War are polar opposites and both sell a trillion copies.