Originally released way back at the turn of the century (eight years ago) on the Dreamcast, Samba de Amigo is, for those not in the know, a rhythm game - where players must shake their controller, maraca style, along to the tune on screen. If you've ever played Donkey Konga, then it is the same sort of thing. But utterly bonkers.

The first thing that will grab your attention is that this game will practically burn its way through your screen with its eye-poppingly bright visuals and spicy Mexican flavour. As you play, grinning suns and anthropomorphic cactuses dance away in the background with your Mii characters - which are heavily featured throughout. You choose your profile from the main menu by clicking on your Mii, who is then seen bopping along to your maraca shaking.

A genuinely bizarre visual experience.

But on to the most important part - the title's controls. The title is pleasingly controllable with both Wiimote and Nunchuck and two Wiimotes, which are held as if maracas, and must be shaken and pointed at the right time and in the right direction.

Players must move their controllers in time to the beats on screen and either up, down, or out sideways, plus at the end of their routine must perform a pose to match the random figure stick figure that appears on screen. Three difficulties segregate the vets from the newbies, with Hard requiring lightening fast shaking with each of your arms having to complete complicated routines individually. It will sure get gamers breaking a sweat, and is possibly as much fun to watch someone play as it is to play yourself!

Other gameplay options include Hustle Mode, which replaces the shaking of the maracas with large arcing swings and poses, which turns the game more into a dance game than a musical instrument simulator. There's also Love Love Mode, where two players must perform the same movements exactly together to earn points based on how synchronised they are.

Quickly! Pose!

Early builds of the game were found to still not quite have perfected the controls, but in our personal experience we encountered no major issues. Some of our directional shakes were definitely not being picked up in two-player, but looking at how much we were beaten by, we're willing to put this down to us just being a complete rookie at the game.

Regardless, Sega have promised the title will be perfect for launch - which still isn't until "sometime this September", we were told. There were also still a few things Sega were being secretive over - including the exact nature of the title's extra downloadable tracks. An early packshot for the title has shown it to be one of the first games to include the red online symbol denoting Pay & Play downloadable content, suggesting a pricing structure to obtain extra tunes for the game. We'll be letting you know of all the specifics nearer the time.

Online content that has been confirmed however includes online leaderboards for players to show off their best times, as well as a friend roster to keep track of your buddies.

It's Hustle Mode in multiplayer! Notice how each player can use separate difficulty levels to keep the playing field level.

According to Sega, the final roster of songs is still being finalised, but when asked how many roughly would be included, we were told "lots." We're expecting at least forty to be unlockable in the title, with more then to be available via download. We got to play some of the tracks unlockable from the beginning of the game, which included the Macarena, Hot Hot Hot, and Papa Loves Mambo.

We'll be bringing you more on Samba nearer its release. Keep it locked to N-Europe to be the first to know...