Customer Reviews
Excellent game with poor instructions - By: Si, 11 Nov 2008 
Samba De Amigo is, undoubtedly, one of the best motion games I've played on the Wii so far. The basic idea is, asin many games like this, moving & shaking the Wii remote(s)in a specific way to "play" along with the music. Great music & fun visuals make it a really enjoyable experience. However, if you only read the instructions & the in-game tutorials, the controls are, indeed, very frustrating. It only gives you a basic idea, & the controlsin many ways are not intuitive.
The problem is the standard Wii remote (and nunchuk) only has a single 3-axis motion sensorin it, thus there were always going to be compromises on how accurate the controls could be. Selecting the top, middle & bottom circles is quite easy - you hold the remote upright, forward, & downward, respectively (making sure the underside of the remote faces you when down). Shaking can however, as mentioned by other reviewers, accidentally select another circle. I have found the best way to shake isin the direction the remote is pointing, so if the top circles, shaking it up & down, rather than left & right. Secondly, on the up & down crossovers the remote being crossed must be titled at 45-degrees horizontally toward the circle being crossed to. Neither of these are explainedin the instructions, which can make even Normal difficultly quite hard to pass, & Hard impossible.
Nevertheless, I have now been able to complete several of the hard songs & feel that my progression is now only stifled by my lack of skill(!) Thus I rate this game four stars overall - it is a fun game and, once the issue of the controls is overcome, very addictive. I highly recommend it for adults & kids alike.
Flawed. - By: A. Taylor, 02 Nov 2008 
I played this game at a friends recently. I own the Dreamcast version &in comparison the Wii version misses the mark considerably. It is fun & at the price I guess it's probably just about worth it. The Dreamcast version is *seriously* fun, with the Wii version you do not feel part of the game, the controls seem very very slightly out of sync with the graphics & this is were it fails. Having seen what SDA can be this simply should be better. Saying that It's still fun. I also tried the Wii Fit the same evening. This *is* fun & has that certain something that SDA doesn't.
Severely let down by faulty controls - By: Spuddy Spud, 19 Oct 2008 
This is -or rather SHOULD be - one of the best music & rhythm games available. When it was releasedin 2000 on the Sega Dreamcast, it came bundled with a couple of maracas & was phenomenally expensive (about £100 if memory serves, which was nearly as dear as the console itself). However, it was loved by all who played it, & players marvelled at how the console `knew' where the maracas were. One of the last hurrahs for Sega's dying DC console, RIP.
That was then, & this is now. Samba is as sanguine as it ever was - at least when it comes to the visual & aural presentation. Trouble is, if you try to play on anything other than the Easy level, the controls do not work. The issue seems not to be with the positioning of the controls, which is pretty accurate. If you point straight ahead or to the sides, the centre circles are correctly selected, as are the lower & upper circles when you tilt the controls down or up respectively. The trouble is with the shaking. When you shake the controls, errors occur. For instance, you inadvertently select one of the wrong circles because the controllers act as though you're tilting them rather than shaking. Or, the controller doesn't `reset' quickly enough between shakes, so shakes registerin the wrong place, or do not register at all. They are even less accurate when you try to double your hits by placing both controllers on the same side of your body. The problems only happen on songs where the up-centre-down positioning of the balls changes very rapidly, as it does on harder levels & faster songs, but that means that you won't be able to complete the harder songs because the controls thwart you, regardless of how skilful you are! I get the sense that the Wii remotes are not able to register position changes quickly enough. In fairness to the game developers, I think this is a problem with the controllers themselves: Wii Sports boxing suffers from similar problems, but at least on that game accuracy was less of an issue.
I think that Sega / Gearbox have released an incomplete & faulty game here, & they would have been better off charging a few more quid for it & bundling it with the old maraca controls, which WORKED. Given the popularity of games like Rock Band & Guitar Hero, I don't think people would baulk at paying an extra £20-£30 for the game, providing it worked! As it is, the lifespan of this game is artificially shortened by its unplayability on hard levels. Such a shame.
Oh & by the way - any Sega / Nintendo fanboys who give this review a 'not helpful' rating - just check out the other reviews here. Many of them mention problems with the controls. My point is not that SDA is a BAD game, it's a GOOD game let down by bad controls. Buyer beware - as you progress through the game, you don't 'get used' to the bad controls, the controls can't cope with the pace of the game & make it unplayable !
Shake it up! - By: Roxy Belle, 17 Oct 2008 I thought this game might be one of those games you completein a day & then store away, but I was playing it for hours. To play the main game you can use either two controllers or a nun-chuck & controller & the main game consists of 4 different levels & within each level there are 6 different types of music to shake to & 4 songs for each type of music. So the game is actually quite big with many well known dance tunes to move to. There is a tutorial for the game which teaches you about the circle on the screen with the 6 positions & where you have to hold the controllersin the air when the different aparts of the circle light up. Think of the game like dance mat but for your arms. There are mini games which are a bit hit & miss because the explainations aren't that great. The mulitplayer has as many songs to shake to as the main game & is quite fun, but remember to have space between everyone because my boyfriend & I ended up getting quite competitive & hitting each other with the controllers. In short it's a good game but be aware of the objects around you!
Samba Shaking Magic - By: Gordo, 11 Oct 2008 
This game is brilliant! Reminds me of being on holidayin Spain, just the tonic for those cold winter nights. Previous reviews have mention problems with calibration. I've found that you have to keep your elbows at your sides & let your wrists do the movement instead of your arms. This made the game a lot more accurate for me. One word to sum up...... Magnifico!
