SAMBA DE AMIGO

'''Samba de Amigo''' is a rhythm game developed by Sonic Team and released in 1999 by Sega in arcades, and in 2000 for the Sega Dreamcast video game console. Similar to games such as ''Guitar Hero'' and ''DrumMania'', the player uses controllers shaped like instruments -- in this case, maracas -- with the goal of matching a series of patterns displayed onscreen. It can be played by one or two players simultaneously.

Contents

Gameplay

Version 2000

Hustle Mode

Characters

Song List

Songs originally available

Songs added to ''Ver. 2000''

Downloadable songs

Awards

See also

External links

Gameplay

''Samba de Amigo'' is played with a pair of maracas. As a song plays, the player (guided by on-screen graphics) must shake the maracas at high, middle, or low heights with the beat of the music, or occasionally must strike poses with the maracas held in various positions. The player is represented on-screen by "Amigo", a grinning monkey with a square head and a sombrero. If the player does well, the scene around the monkey (usually a concert or a dance) will attract more people and become more vividly animated; if the player does poorly, characters leave and eventually all that's left is the monkey alone, looking sad.
In the primary game mode, each player has six spots arranged in a circle on the screen: two red meaning 'shake high,' two yellow meaning 'shake middle,' and two green meaning 'shake low.' Blue dots will appear in the center of this circle and move towards the spots; as soon as the blue dot touches a spot, the player must shake a maraca at that location. For example, if a blue dot touches the upper left spot, the player must shake either maraca above his left shoulder. If both maracas are shaken in that location, the player gets an 'Amigo' bonus. Occasionally a long line of dots will flow into a spot and the word 'Shake' appears, telling the player to continue shaking his maraca rapidly there. Sometimes a stick-figure (named "Pose-kun") appears on the screen holding its maracas in a certain position; the player has a second or two to match the figure's pose for points.
The home game adds a "party mode," with minigames such as Guacamole (pronounced and played much the same as "whack-a-mole"), Strike A Pose (consisting of a long sequence of poses to make), and 1-2-Samba! (where spots must be hit in sequence - the Japanese version's name for this minigame, ''"Ichi Ni San-ba,"'' is a pun on counting to three in Japanese). The home version also has features which can be unlocked, such as sound effects and hidden songs.
For the home version of the game, the Sega maracas controllers are red, and the rattle part can be unscrewed from the top of each for quieter play. Each maraca has a cord which is plugged into to a bar that lays in front of the player's feet. The bar is slightly more than two feet in length and has a sensor at each end, and each maraca has an ultrasonic transmitter mounted on its cord; presumably this allows the system to triangulate the position of each maraca as the player holds it. The game can also be played with the standard Dreamcast controller, but this makes the game trivial to play.
With the exception of the ''Ver. 2000'' sequel, the maracas were never officially used for any other games, though they can be used with Namco's ''Mr Driller'' for approximate control of the player's character. A single maraca could also be used to control the SNK produced game ''Cool Cool Toon''.

Version 2000

''Samba de Amigo: Ver. 2000'', a follow-up to this game, was released in Japan for the arcades and the Dreamcast. As the name suggests, it is more of an upgrade than a sequel, and it contains the following additions:

★ 14 new songs have been added, as well as six new downloadable songs for the home version.

★ Whereas in the original game, there were only three songs to choose in each stage, this version allows the player to choose several.

★ A new character named Amiga joins the cast. She is Amigo's sister, and wields a tambourine.

★ In the home version, a new volleyball game replaces the original minigames. Survival Mode was also added, where the player must finish as many songs in a row as they can. In addition, the Challenge Mode has new goals, as well as five new "Secret" stages that are quite difficult.

Hustle Mode

The most significant addition to ''Ver. 2000'' is the new "Hustle Mode". In this mode, the player still must follow the dots and shake the maracas in the appropriate location, but this is done a lot less often. Instead, Pose-kun appears frequently, and in addition to making the player do static poses, he will be shaking his maracas in certain patterns that the player must mimic. These patterns include either shaking one or both maracas back and forth between two of the six positions, or doing a full 360° rotation starting from one position, and looping all the way back around. All the songs in the game, including the ones previously found in the first version, have both Original and Hustle Mode patterns, adding a whole new dimension to the game.
''Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000'' was announced for U.S. release, under the name ''Samba de Amigo Ver. 2001'', but it was among the games that were canceled when Sega discontinued support for their console.
While ''Ver. 2000'' was the last ''Samba'' game, that same year, Sega released a spiritual successor named ''Shakatto Tambourine''. It was very much the same game as ''Samba de Amigo'', except played with a tambourine controller, and featuring popular J-pop music.

Characters

★ Amigo: The protagonist of the game.

★ Amiga: Amigo's tambourine playing sister. Only appears in ''Ver. 2000''.

★ Linda: A beautiful "butterfly girl" who loves to dance.

★ Bingo and Bongo: Two large mechanical bears who play bongos. Bingo is blue and male; Bongo is pink and female.

★ Rio: A male (but often taken as female) animal of indeterminate species who wears cheetah pattern clothing. He carries a horn but apparently prefers dancing.

★ Chumba and Wamba: Two male cheetahs who play mandolin (Chumba) and conga drums (Wamba). They were named for the band Chumbawamba, whose song "Tubthumping" appears in both games (although it's a cover version by No Smoking).

★ Pose: A stick-figure-like character who tends to only appear as player instructions, although he is a computer opponent in one of the mini-games.

Song List

Most of ''Samba de Amigo's songs are covers composed by Wavemaster, Sega's in-house music studio, and performed by sound-alike vocalists. Songs by the original performers are listed in 'Bold'.

Songs originally available

Songs in the original game include an even mix of classic Latin songs mixed with popular tunes from the late 90s.

★ "Al Compás Del Mambo" / "Mambo Beat" - Perez Prado

★ "The Cup of Life" - Ricky Martin^†

★ "El Ritmo Tropical (El Bimbo)" - Dixie's Gang

★ "La Bamba" - Richie Valens

★ "Livin' la Vida Loca" - Ricky Martin^†

★ '"Love Lease" - Masao Honda'

★ "Macarena" - Los Del Rio

★ "Mas Que Nada" - Jorge Ben^‡

★ '"El Mambo" - Solemar'^‡

★ '"Samba de Janeiro" - Bellini'

★ '"Samba de Amigo (Samba de Janeiro 2000)" - Bellini.' Remix of "Samba de Janeiro" by P.K.G. Production

★ '"Soul Bossa Nova" - Quincy Jones'

★ '"Take on Me" - Reel Big Fish.' Cover of the song by A-Ha.

★ "Tequila" - The Champs

★ "The Theme of Inoki" / "Ali Bombaye" - Michael Masser. Originally composed for the 1977 film ''The Greatest'', and modified to be the theme song of wrestler Antonio Inoki.

★ '"Tubthumping" - No Smoking.' Cover of the song by Chumbawamba.
^†_{These songs were not included in the original Japanese home release, due to rights issues. They were, however, included in the English release, and in ''Ver. 2000''.}

^‡_{Neither of these songs were included in the English release, or in ''Ver. 2000''. "El Mambo" was included only in the Japanese home release, and not the arcade version.}

Songs added to ''Ver. 2000''

Version 2000 added a different mix of songs, many of which were contemporary hits. The songs were also of several different styles, and not just of the Latin variety. In addition, "Mambo de Verano" and "Vamos a Carnaval" were two original songs created just for the game by Wavemaster.

★ '"Bamboleo" - Gipsy Kings'

★ '"Cha Cha Cuba" - Matt Bianco'

★ '"Djobi Djoba" - Gipsy Kings'

★ "Games People Play" - Inner Circle

★ "The Theme of Rocky" / "Gonna Fly Now" - Bill Conti

★ "Hot Hot Hot" - Arrow

★ "Mambo de Verano" - Masaru Setsumaru

★ "Salome" - Chayanne

★ "S.O.S. (The Tiger Took My Family)" - Dr. Bombay

★ "(Mucho Mambo) Sway" - Shaft

★ "Tout Tout Pour Ma Chérie" - Michel Polnareff

★ "Vamos a Carnaval" - Tomoko Sasaki and Naofumi Hataya

★ '"Volare" - Gipsy Kings'

★ "Wedding March" - Felix Mendelssohn

Downloadable songs

By selecting the "Internet" option in the menu, the player could visit the ''Samba de Amigo'' home page using the game's built-in browser. Here, additional songs are available for download, all of which are taken from various games in Sega's library.

★ "After Burner" - from ''After Burner''. Composed by Hiroshi "Hiro" Kawaguchi.

★ "(Angels With) Burning Hearts" - from ''Burning Rangers''. Composed by Naofumi Hataya.

★ "Dreams Dreams" - from ''NiGHTS Into Dreams''. Composed by Tomoko Sasaki.

★ "Magical Sound Shower" - from ''Out Run''. Composed by Hiroshi "Hiro" Kawaguchi.

★ "Opa-Opa!" - from ''Fantasy Zone''. Composed by Hiroshi "Hiro" Kawaguchi.

★ "Open Your Heart" - from ''Sonic Adventure''. Performed by Crush 40.

★ "Rent-A-Hero no.1" - from ''Rent-A-Hero no.1''

★ "Sonic - You Can Do Anything" - from ''Sonic the Hedgehog CD'' (Japanese version). Composed by Masafumi Ogata, vocals by Keiko Utoku.

★ "Super Sonic Racing" - from ''Sonic R''. composed by Richard Jacques, vocals by T.J. Davis.
'available after Ver. 2000'

★ "It Doesn't Matter" - from ''Sonic Adventure''. Performed by Crush 40.

★ "Lazy Days (Livin' in Paradise)" - from ''Sonic Adventure''. Performed by Crush 40.

★ "Let Mom Sleep" - from ''Jet Set Radio''. Composed by Hideki Naganuma.

★ "Let's Go Away" - from ''Daytona USA''. Composed by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi.

★ "My Sweet Passion" - from ''Sonic Adventure''. Performed by Nikki Gregoroff.

★ "We Are Burning Rangers" - from ''Burning Rangers''. Composed by Naofumi Hataya.

Awards

★ E3 2000 Game Critics Awards: Best Puzzle/Trivia/Parlor Game

★ GameSpot's Best and Worst of the Year: Best Console Puzzle Game, 2000

★ 1st Annual Game Developers Choice Awards: nominated for the Excellence in Audio award and for a Game Spotlight Award [1]

See also

★ Music video game

★ Dance Pad Games

★ Dance pad

★ List of dance video games

External links

★ GameSpot entry

★ GameFAQs entry

★ ''Samba de Amigo'' page at ''The GHZ''

★ ''Samba de Amigo Ver. 2000'' page at ''The GHZ''

★ Category at ODP

★ The Chaos Rift entry

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