Whatever happened to Sega? They used to be at the top of their game, cranking out consoles like there was no tomorrow, and now they've been relegated to producing games for other companies. It was probably due in part to the failure of the Sega Saturn and their Megadrive periperhals, the Mega CD and 32X.  By the time they got round to releasing a decent console, the Dreamcast, so many gamers have defected to Sony's Playstation range that there wasn't really much Sega could do to claw back their popularity. Which is a shame since the Dreamcast was the home to Samba De Amigo, one of the most enjoyable and original games Sega ever produced. Samba De Amigo was a rhythm game where you held two plastic Maraca peripherals in your hand and shook them in time to the on-screen action. Yes, it does sound like Guitar Hero, but Samba De Amigo was released well before Harmonix came up with their plastic guitar based game. And you know what? It's back, this time on the Nintendo Wii.

The Wii version of Samba De Amigo is a port of the original Dreamcast game, with an expanded list of songs and some slightly enhanced graphics, rather than being a proper sequel. As in the Dreamcast original, you control a strange little orange guy who I presume is meant to be some sort of monkey. Though this time around you use the Wii Remote and Wii Nunchuck in place of the plastic maracas that came bundled with the Dreamcast game. Three pairs of colour circles appear on screen, and little notes travel towards these circles. You have to hold the nunchuk or remote in a high, medium or low position and shake the appropriate device just as the note passes through the circle. You keep shaking until the song finishes, then pick another song. Complete a set of songs, and you unlock another set, and so forth.

There's forty or so songs in the game, many of which are exclusive to the Wii version of the game, though only a few of these are actual master recordings - the rest are just cover versions. As you'd expect, there are a lot of Latin-style songs such as La Bamba and The Macarena, but there are also other songs included in the game that you might not have been expecting, such as Tubthumping by ChumbaWumba and Take On Me by Aha. And like Guitar Hero, Samba De Amigo grades you on how well you complete a song, harder difficulty levels offering more of a challenge.  At least, that's how it's supposed to work. In fact, just playing Samba De Amigo without hurling the controller at the screen is a challenge in itself, thanks to the game's inadequate control system.

The problem is that while Dreamcast version of Samba De Amigo came with its own custom controllers, this version relies on the Wii controllers, and they just aren't up to the job. Quite frequently the game will select any circle other than the one you wanted, particularly when you're trying to hit a note in the middle of the screen. Meaning that when you actually do shake the controllers, you end up hitting the wrong note. If you have a second Wiimote then you can use that in place of the nunchuk, which makes the controls slightly more responsive. But they're still far less accurate then they should be. And that's a real shame because it ruins what could be a hugely entertaining game. And it's not even the programmers' fault, which makes it all the more unfair. Nintendo are apparently going to release a peripheral to make the Wiimotes more accurate, and I suppose it's possible that it may at last make Samba De Amigo worth playing. But till then, if rhythm games are your thing, you're best off sticking with Guitar Hero or Rock Band.