Samba de Amigo - Review

Samba de Amigo
Ages: Everyone

It's hard not to fall under the spell of Samba de Amigo, a retro game, even with some concerns about the precision of the Wii controllers. You can forget the introductory story about Amigo and his sister Amiga - even the additional characters pale beside the steady Latin beat - frankly it has some of my favorite songs.

As a start, choose from easy or normal. Your Mii image sits on the top of the screen wagging its head to the beat. Amigo will give directions as to the play and how to position the controllers - take the tutorial to get a sense of how close or far apart your controllers should be and where top, bottom and center are. The game play is similar to other musical games - when the ball is in the center - respond. Pose wants players to mimic the on screen pose. This one was harder than just responding with the maraca shake but can be pulled off with a little work.

The game has many options, play modes and mini-games. Some are very particularly suited for multiplayer/partying: Love, a two player game that lets couples know how compatible they are; Battle, where you try to bomb your opponent's life gauge; otherwise, Classic gives plenty of variations and 48 unlockables. The game saves from the Pause menu and upon exiting. For the more competitive, there are leaderboards.

The four levels of play: easy, normal, hard and superhard, will accommodate all players. Hard and superhard are locked - probably a good decision. On easy mode, the one we tried, players can easily get a "C", the passing grade to level up. The game's first level starts with 6 songs - a generous amount for a warm up. The game is clearly a party game but be warned - from personal experience - you really have to use the wrist strap. Single players could put on wrist weights and go for upper body strengthening.


Fun Factor: A fun party game
Female Factor: A token sister
Player Friendly: Good in game instruction and manual

Reviewed by: Editor - 10/08

  • Samba de Amigo
  • © Sega
  • Platform(s): Wii
  • To Order: WII http://www.amazon.com/ $36.99