Parappa team's Wii rhythm game: Monkey trombone marching band explosion

Lunker

http://kotaku.com/351063/parappa-team-creates-major-minors-majestic-march

MAJESCO ENTERTAINMENT ANNOUNCES 'MAJOR MINOR'S MAJESTIC MARCH'

Legendary Designer Masaya Matsuura and Artist Rodney Alan Greenblat Bring First Marching Band Game Exclusively to the WiiTM System

(BRISTOL, U.K., January 31, 2008) - March to the beat of your own drum as Majesco Entertainment Company (NASDAQ: COOL), an innovative provider of video games for the mass market, today announced Major Minor's Majestic March for the Wiiâ„¢ home video game console. Developed by NanaOn-Sha, Major Minor's Majestic March marks the return of the creative team behind the renowned PaRappa the Rapper franchise-legendary game designer and multimedia musician Masaya Matsuura and famed New York artist Rodney Alan Greenblat.

"There's something magical about marching bands that truly captures the imagination. The concept of leading a virtual band that's reliant on your musicianship is a perfect fit for the interactive capabilities of Wii," said John Merchant, Marketing Manager, Majesco Europe. "The combined musical and artistic superiority of Matsuura and Greenblat make them a natural choice to deliver this innovative title exclusively to the Wii audience."

Major Minor's Majestic March turns the Wii Remoteâ„¢ into a "special" baton that the bandleader, Major Minor, uses to keep tempo, recruit new band members and pick up valuable items. While marching through eight whimsical locations that contain various hair-raising events, Major Minor strives to create the most impressive parade ever. Players can add up to 15 different instruments to their dynamic procession--including brass, woodwinds, and percussion--to alter its composition and resulting performance. Players are scored on how well their band maintains its rhythm and manages obstacles that could otherwise throw the procession into disarray. The band keeps tempo to more than 25 popular marching band songs from around the world, composed into original medleys for each stage.

More Kotaku pics here.

I have no qualms telling you all that I was a diehard marching band nerd in high school. This has the potential to be completely amazing, especially if it's as absurd and fun as Parappa and Um Jammer Lammy ended up being, and the vague gameplay description reminds me a lot of Space Channel 5.

This is the best time in the world to be a rhythm-game fan.

Lave II

INSTABUY!

Colour me Orange, size me up, Impact my font, and tilt my text - I am excited. Better get a UK release.

RainbowDespair

I was a huge Um Jammer Lammy fan back in the day so color me, I don't know, let's go with dark purple.

urahonky

Oh shit! My fiance will love this game! She did this for 3 years in high school. :P

SirUltimos

I love the acronym for this game. Say it with me now!

MMMM!

Tig

Lunker wrote: »

monkey trombone marching

purchased

FireWeasel

There is nothing that is not awesome about this.

Houk the Namebringer

I had already bought it in my mind before even clicking into the thread. The thread only confirms my proper mental decision.

Khavall

Has there ever been a year with such incredible ideas before?

Off-Road Velociraptor Safari
Shut up and Jam: Gaiden
Monkey trombone marching


I love 2008

Varega

I'm angry. Enraged even.

I bought the Parappa PSP re-make. I expected quality. I was disappointed. I swore to myself I would not buy a game from them ever again.

Then this is announced? This has potential. REAL potential. Why would you do this to me Majesco?

I Majesco.

Ronen

Lave II wrote: »

INSTABUY!

Holy shit. A marching band game? Fuck. Yes. I can't believe this.

I love my Wii. If one minute I want to perform surgery and the next lead a marching band, I can!

Slagmire

Lave II wrote: »

INSTABUY!

That's better. It conveys the message more appropriately - that mother is getting bought day of.

Guek

finally! a game for marching band nerds!

*sniff*....YES!

Lave II

Slagmire wrote: »

Lave II wrote: »

INSTABUY!

That's better. It conveys the message more appropriately - that mother is getting bought day of.

Much improved! Many thanks.

Everything written about this game could be in "Italic Orange Impact for Awesomeness"

I mean, the Pig is wearing a suit!

A SUIT!



...okay so he's taken his jacket off, but still!

Slagmire

Lave II wrote: »

Slagmire wrote: »

Lave II wrote: »

INSTABUY!

That's better. It conveys the message more appropriately - that mother is getting bought day of.

Much improved! Many thanks.

Everything written about this game could be in "Italic Orange Impact for Awesomeness"

I mean, the Pig is wearing a suit!

A SUIT!

A SOUSAPHONE!

Ah_Pook

awesome upon awesome, cant wait for this

Walrus Pete

Monkey Trombone Marching Band Explosion would be a way better title, but this still looks neato.

cloudeagle

Monkeys with trombones, pigs with sousaphones. What's not to love?

Wonder how this will compare with the fabled Wii Music. Then again, Wii Music doesn't have monkeys with trombones.

Ronen

cloudeagle wrote: »

Monkeys with trombones, pigs with sousaphones. What's not to love?

Wonder how this will compare with the fabled Wii Music. Then again, Wii Music doesn't have monkeys with trombones.

...yet.

Redmond, start your photocopiers.

Note: I know Nintendo games aren't developed at their US headquarters. I just had to.

Lunker

cloudeagle wrote: »

Monkeys with trombones, pigs with sousaphones. What's not to love?

Wonder how this will compare with the fabled Wii Music. Then again, Wii Music doesn't have monkeys with trombones.

The rumors I've heard about Wii Music are that it's more about playing the instruments -- the impression here seems to be that you're leading the band like a drum major or conductor. Which sounds amazing; I'm picturing something like the dance minigame from Wario Ware Smooth Moves and the Wind Waker baton sequences. Which sounds like electric sex to me.

This is really part of the reason I bought the Wii: completely absurd ideas that would just seem ludicrous on other systems but instead get me to say, "Hmm...that sounds kind of cool, actually."

Walrus Pete wrote:

Monkey Trombone Marching Band Explosion would be a way better title, but this still looks neato.

There's always the sequel.

Guek wrote:

finally! a game for marching band nerds!

*sniff*....YES!

IT IS OUR TIME TO RISE UP

Khavall

I am concerned about my virtual ability to control phrase structure and dynamics.


I hope this game addresses these very important parts to conduct...


oh right marching band.


LOUD NOISES ONE TWO THREE FOUR.

Xagarath

This could work well.

YaYa

Bought.

Now where the hell is our Um Jammer Lammy PSP?

MC Mystery

I was never a band nerd in highschool, but I was always friends with the band nerds, up until I switched schools upon which the band nerds became my worst enemies, mainly because of awkward girl trouble between everyone. Stupid girls.

Loved every Parappa Universe game though, even the remake on PSP, I just want PtR2 and UML to get put out on the lil' system as well.

This is an instant purchase.

Lunker

N'gai Croal's excellent Level Up blog has an interview with Masaya Matsuura with details on the game's creation, controls and more. More and more I get a very cool Space Channel 5-ish vibe from the vague gameplay details. I love it! Some highlights:

What was it about marching bands that you thought could work well as a game?

At the start, I thought that simply controlling the band by defining the tempo, or the BPM [beats per minute] by shaking your hands--it's like conducting a band. But after that, I started to think about much more game functions. Certain instrument players love a faster BPM and other instrument players may not like that. So the conductor has to concentrate on all of his band members and figure out what kind of BPM will be suitable for the current membership of the band. Of course, the player can control the BPM, so you can play with very slow tempo or a very fast tempo. But if you play the very slow tempo then maybe some members will disappear from your band. So these kind of things were the basic start of our game function ideas.

How would you describe the structure of the game? Where do you start and what's your goal?

The goal depends on the game mode. We are still thinking about how many game modes we'll have. For example, time challenge requires you to clear the hole music course as quickly as possible. Another mode may be how many band members you can get at the course. So there will be different game modes.

But for the basic game function, you will set up an initial BPM [beats per minute] by shaking the Wii controller and you start marching. Along the street and the road, you can find some one who wants to join your band. And you can invite these kind of people into your band. So it requires some kind of rhythm-based actions. But, of course, this kind of action is already controlled by your shaking the controller. And if you successfully invite the member into your band, you not only get that new member but also their new instrument as part of your band. And you keep doing that.

At the start of the stage you will not yet have a gorgeous orchestration. Maybe it will be a very simple and monophonic type of music coming from the speakers. But if you get a new member, one part will be played by that new member. If you can keep going and recruiting new members, the music grows bigger and more gorgeous. And finally, you will reach the goal or the stage rank. We will have very kind of simple stories that leads the player to understand what's the broader mission of the game. So that is the basic structure.

Will the music be original music or licensed?

Basically, licensed music, but we will make very aggressive arrangements for the original music scores. I mean it's not just arranging but for the game, if you play with something--we have a situation where if you shake the remote to quickly switch from faster tempos to slower tempos or vice versa, the music goes very strange. Everybody plays a very strange sound. Those kind of things are very interesting for me. It really sounds like original tracks.

So you're saying that even licensed music can still sound original because of how the music changes in the game?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and the music changes in real time.

Just to make sure I understand: the music, can you change the tempo of the song while you're playing the song or do you set it and then it stays that way for the whole song?

You can change it. But we are still trying many ways to set up controlling input method so that it's easy to understand for everybody. Right now, we are doing simultaneous concerts--changing the tempo when you get new band members. Or sometimes we separate controlling the tempo and getting new members independently at different times. So it's changing dynamically right now.

The game obviously uses the Wii remote. Does it use one or two?

We are focusing on one controller. But we are thinking about a cooperative mode with several players or a competitive mode or something like that. Basically the game is one controller for one player. But maybe several players will be able to play together.

Are you investigating online play, or does it make more sense for this kind of game to be played on a single machine?

Currently, we are focusing on the single machine instead of having network facilities.

And the very, very cryptic...

Well, thank you very much for your time, Matsuura-san. I appreciate it.

So I'll see you at DICE?

Yes. I'll look forward to seeing your talk.

Yeah. I will play the _______ ____ there.

You will play the _______ ____ there?

Yes. It's secret.

Okay. So we won't reveal it. But will you be--I know you're giving a talk at DICE. Will you be showing the game or just talking about it?

We are showing something, but not yet the game.