Samba De Amigo for Wii Reviews by Gamers

In the pantheon of music games, drums, vocals and guitars have been the main focus. Samba de Amigo puts it's focus squarely on the overlooked maraca.
The first thing you'll notice is the colorful landscape and quirky characters. And to it's credit, the game has a style befitting it's medium.
Also impressive is the wide array of music. Samba features some songs which seem inherent, like Lowrider, Smooth, La Bamba, Mambo Number 5 and Living La Vida Loca. There are also some songs that work, although you might not expect them, such as Pon De Replay and Take On Me.
Unfortunately, like so many games dripping with style, the main problem is the substance. Controls turn your Wiimote and nunchuk into maracas. Shake them while pointing up, down or the the sides to hit the corresponding dots as they appear on screen. Sometimes, you'll need to do a pose or a dance move using your controller. The dancing part works well, but the other gameplay mechanics are very unstable. There are far too many times when you'll have the controller in the right position and shake at the right time, but nothing registers with the game. As you try to get your controllers to do their thing, the game ignoring you the whole time, your score will slowly drop and cause you to fail. At these points, you'll likely experience a "giant question mark over your head" feeling.
It soon becomes apparent that you get better results by constantly shaking the controls in the general direction of the corresponding dots. This becomes less successful as you reach higher difficulty levels, at which point completing songs becomes downright aggravating.
The big problem is that you'll fail more songs because of the game rather than your ability. That's disappointing, because it's fun and upbeat. The concept is interesting, the music engaging and the presentation fitting. But if the controls don't function perfectly, the rest matters little.