This week we look back at Amigo, a crazy little cube-headed monkey and his maraca shaking ways!

Starting off life in the arcades, as is so often the case with these late 90’s/early 2000’s SEGA games, Samba de Amigo was an arcade cabinet with motion-controlled maracas that had you shaking to the rhythm of the music, later being ported to the Dreamcast with its own maraca-based peripheral. Samba de Amigo become a cult-classic but got over-looked by many thanks to the need for additional expensive controllers.

So, the future of Samba de Amigo was uncertain... until the Wii Remote raised its motion-sensing head. Getting SEGA developers and sombrero wearing monkeys hot under the collar when the Wii Remote was first unveiled, a port of the Dreamcast title was quickly green-lit to appear on the console, utilising the Wii Remote and over-coming the huge barrier of having to be bundled with an expensive extra controller. Sporting improved graphics, most of the original soundtrack and an additional 20 songs exclusive to the Wii game, Samba De Amigo was re-born to a new generation of dancing gamers.

Squeezing into my tiny bedroom in 2008, me and my friend managed a two player Samba battle without whacking each other around the face which is no mean feat with the amount of posing, waggling and shaking you have to do in this game, not to mention our dance area that was probably smaller than an elevator. Still, it’s testament to the fun of this title that we persevered under such dire circumstances, and it’s no wonder - in a pre-Just Dance world where dancing videogames were all about stomping your feet on dance mats, being able to dance with your body was a revelation – A crazy, camp, over the top, latin-infused revelation... with monkeys!

Samba De Amigo has you shaking your Maracas, or indeed Wii Remotes, in one of 6 directions by following the balls on screen. The core gameplay is found in following the on-screen actions with your maracas, with a silhouette man dishing out simple arm waving dances and poses to pull off to shake things up when times get tough.

Dancing your way to victory over a bunch of popular latin music with a few pop songs thrown in (Latin-flavoured covers, mind), you have to work your way through a career mode, beating a bunch of different Amigos to unlock sound effects for your maracas and songs to play along to.

Ain't no party like an Amigo party!

If you had to define ‘crazy party game’ then you’d probably point to this. Musically with it’s bass-heavy, fast-paced pop-latin songs it feels very much like a disco from the 90’s and visually it’s probably the most colourful and vibrant thing I’ve ever seen, giving even Muscle March a run for its money (or indeed, protein) for sheer bizarreness, with it’s thumping sun, bouncing houses and dancing Elvis.

The songs are corny and not exactly what you’d have on your iPod ready to blast for a night out, which is something Just Dance has over this, but the music does fit the theme of the game perfectly and works for the kind of situations you’d find yourself in when playing this game – Namely, drunk and at a friends house. In fact, these songs are the only ones I can imagine being fast-paced and crazy enough to do the game justice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wweL_qLqB3E

The Gorilla Stare

One great memory I have is with my friend Foo and an online friend we somehow came across that we know as “Gorilla Joseph” because of one fateful day involving Samba de Amigo and a webcam. As an ice breaker, Joseph decided to show us a video of his DDR skills, stomping like a mad man by himself in the communal area of his university, it was slightly hilarious and a bit worrisome, but to return the favour, Foo decided to show him the ways of the maraca and dance to Samba de Amigo on webcam and the response from Joseph was one of... confusion. For the full 3 minute song, Joseph didn’t break eye contact, he didn’t even crack a smile, stone faced he glared at Foo’s dancing, frown getting ever-slightly more prominent with each second to the point where it started to look like a gorilla stare. Like a gorilla before it charges to kill, Joseph looked as though he was under some kind of trance, like he was viewing a religious ritual or sacrifice for the first time. We’ll never quite know what was going on in his head that day, but something about maracas and Foo changed him forever and made him feel things he’d never felt before and it's a feeling I'm sure many people had upon viewing this game for the first time. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-S-mRnAB0M

S.O.S. The Tiger Took My Soundtrack!

The Wii game doubled the soundtrack of the original title with new music whilst retaining most of the old songs but sadly... one slipped through the cracks. A classic that is destined to be lost in the pool things that make you scream ‘did that really happen’? I am of course talking about Dr. Bombay, and yes, it did happen, it was the 90’s – Anything was possible! Whilst appearing on the Dreamcast game, perhaps for licensing reasons or otherwise, it never made it to the Wii. 

End-Game

The controls can get a bit perplexing in the harder difficulties but this game is so crazy and extreme in every aspect that you can’t help but have fun whilst playing. Grab a bunch of colourful cocktails, squirt on some lotion and shake until you can’t feel your arms! Samba De Amigo is the most unique dance/rhythm game you’ll find on Wii and one we probably won’t see again any time soon, so embrace it for what it is as games with cube-headed monkeys, dancing scenery and bass-heavy latin music don’t come by often!