The Black Sheep: Wii Music by Nintendo

Every family has one - the Black Sheep. It's that one member that doesn't quite fit in. That guy that never gets an invitation to the family reunion. Join me as I explore some of video gaming's most notorious outcasts. This is Black Sheep!


By 2008, Nintendo had somehow managed to convince the entire world that their Wii was the next-generation game system to own. Despite its low-res graphics, terrible online infrastructure and dangerous controller, the Wii was a massive hit. By targeting your mother and grandparents, Nintendo was able to look past the hardcore gamers and capture a segment of the market that had otherwise been untapped.

A lot of the success can be linked back to Wii Sports, the addictive mini-game collection that taught an entire world how to use imprecise motion controls. Wii Sports was quickly followed up by Wii Fit, featuring one of Nintendo's most popular accessories. And then came Wii Play, one of the best-selling games of all time. Despite its unimaginative name, the Wii series looked to be unstoppable.

And that's when Nintendo introduced the world to Wii Music, the embarrassing next step in the Wii series. Here we have Shigeru Miyamoto doing his best to convince a silent E3 audience that they should forget about Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Wii Music lets you play guitar, as well as drums, saxophone, violin and even piano. All without having to worry about hitting the right notes or having any actual skill.

So how does it work? Well let's have Miyamoto and his translator set-up a best case scenario for Wii Music ...

Don't these people look like they're having fun? Hey look, this guy is pretending to blow into the Wii remote. And so is this guy. Don't forget to smile, Ravi. Now this is a party. Not a Wii Party, that's still a couple years off, but look at the excitement in the room. I'm sure the internet will agree.

Oh. Well, maybe it's because the people on the internet noticed that there were five people playing a four player game. See for yourself: We have Shiggy playing cow bell, Denise on the marimba, these two guys on horns and our good friend Ravi on drums. How many players does this game support again? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Wii Music has the distinction of being the only disc-based game in the Wii series to not get a sequel. Wii Sports eventually went to the Resort, Wii Fit got its Plus and Wii Play has Motion. With only three million units sold worldwide, I doubt we'll ever hear from Wii Music again. But hey, at least Ravi was able to get good at playing his fake invisible drum set.

Next Week: In one week, we'll attempt to figure out one of the video game greatest mysteries of time. I'm serious, this is a real riddle. It involves a ninja, procreation and cyborgs of some kind. What could it be? Find out on July 29! And don't forget to subscribe to the official Defunct Games YouTube channel for more great content.