Nintendo Reveals Details for "Wii Music"

While Rock Band and Guitar Hero battle it out for the rockers, Nintendo's Wii is trying to appeal to the gamers who just want to play music with their video game system without having to hit the blue button when prompted on the screen. Amidst a number of Nintendo-related news bits that came out of E3 (including a DS-specific Grand Theft Auto title) Wii Music will transform the Wii Remote and Nunchuk into 60 different musical instruments. There's violin, steel drums, guitar and even cowbell. "Players strum, shake, tap and drum along to the music in a pressure-free musical playground where there are no mistakes," Nintendo says. Players can also create their own arrangements, which in turn can be sent to Wii-owning friends who can remix it, rearrange it, or whatever else Trent Rezno wants us to do with his songs these days. Nintendo anticipates the game will be released in time for the holiday season.

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Song Stories

“Help Me”

Joni Mitchell | 1974

Joni Mitchell wrote and recorded this song for her album Court and Spark, but she had to switch from her regular band to make the song sound exactly the way she wanted. "I had attempted to play my music with rock & roll players," she told Rolling Stone. "They’d laugh, 'Awww, isn't that cute? She's trying to teach us how to play.'" Mitchell switched to a jazz band, Tom Scott’s L.A. Express, and scored the biggest hit of her career in the process.

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