The Best Wii Music Games of All Times

Who doesn’t love a good song or tapping to the beat once in a while? It gets a funky mood going either when alone or to spice up a party. Check out these rockin’ Wii video games to challenge musical genes.

There is no need to press specific buttons as players just need to mimic the actions associated to the specific instrument. Unlike other music games that correct players if they don’t play the tunes right, Wii Music is a musical playground where there are no mistakes. Up to 30 music videos can be saved and playlists can be created as well. It offers background stages and players can shake, move, and press buttons to play up to 60 different instruments for hours of fun.

The Wii version of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock might be the weakest of the three versions before it, but it’s a small price to pay for those bought a PS2 or Xbox 360 just to play Guitar Hero.

The game uses a special guitar controller which features a strum pad and five different colored fret keys which plays along to songs by punching notes on-screen. A meter tracks accuracy and predicts crowd response. New songs will be unlocked if notes are hit on-target and players can receive cash to unlock additional bonus tunes and other goodies. Players will be kicked off the stage if they play poorly.

The Les Paul style controller for the Wii is a bit different from the other systems where guitar controllers are wireless with the Nintendo version using the motion sensing capabilities of the Wii Remote. The remote is slid into the backside of the Les Paul’s body where it plugs in and is visible through the front faceplate and the game becomes more realistic with the notes’ sounds coming out right from the guitar through the remote’s internal speaker instead of the TV.

The Wii Rock Band lets players and three friends form a band and includes a wireless guitar, drum kit, and microphone. The game supports a second guitar for bass parts and to use all four instruments at once, the USB adapter has to be plugged into the Wii and then the instruments and wireless dongles need to be hooked into the adapter.

Single players have a variety of solo acts and can sing, drum, or strum along to any song, but Rock Band is a game best played with friends. Although it can’t customize the appearance of individual band members and doesn’t travel the world earning new fans, equipment, and money, it allows players to name their band, decide song selection, activate overdrive and can also blame bandmates for messing up the end of songs and switch instruments between tunes.

Rock Band’s tracklist features a mix of songs like classic rock, punk, ’80s rock, alternative, and modern rock. Most of the songs are performed by the original artists — there’s music from the Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, KISS, Bon Jovi, R.E.M., The Who, Weezer, Stone Temple Pilots, Radiohead, Beastie Boys, Soundgarden, and many more.

There are a total of 63 songs which include the newer songs like “Roxanne” by The Police, The B-52’s “Roam,” “Dirty Little Secret” from the All-American Rejects, Oasis’ “Don’t Look Back in Anger,” and “Rockaway Beach” by The Ramones. However, the Wii version has no online play or the option to download tracks.