Eight long years after Samba De Amigo crept quietly onto an already ailing Dreamcast with a price point and level of availability that had cult classic written all over it, SEGA has wisely decided to bring this much loved title to what is surely the perfect console for its zany brand of addictive but accessible gameplay. With the Wii all but having maraca peripherals as standard, surely this is the time for Samba De Amigo to turn itself from cult classic into mainstream mega-hit - and why not?

Ask anyone lucky enough to have owned or played the original Dreamcast release with its wacky but extremely fun Maraca peripherals and they will more than likely wax lyrical about the game's incomparable charm, addictive gameplay and abundance of style. So now, on a console with a huge user-base in a time when rhythm-based videogames are all the rage, surely the stage is set for Samba De Amigo to receive the plaudits and recognition it so rightly deserves? You would think so wouldn't you? All the pieces are in place for Samba De Amigo to be the kind of hit it should have been first time around - the Wii and Samba De Amigo have to be a match made in heaven right? Right? Well, not quite actually.

If you are playing Samba De Amigo casually then you can pretty much ignore the above comment, as on Easy and Medium difficulty settings it's every bit as fun and addictive as it was on the Dreamcast. Crank the difficulty up to Hard though and suddenly the Wii's imprecise control scheme comes to the fore, all but ruining the experience for long time fans and players of a more hardcore persuasion.

Samba de Amigo is, as you have probably guessed all about shaking your maracas - or Wiimote as is the case on Wii. You can use a combination of either Wiimote and nunchuck or two Wiimotes to fill in for the brilliant but expensive Dreamcast maraca peripherals. From here you are tasked with shaking your choice of controllers to the Latin flavoured sounds on screen. There are six target areas in all, with high medium and low level shakes for both your left and right hands. Music orbs scroll from the centre into the target areas and you have to shake your controllers in time with them. It's a simple system but one that proves to be both addictive and pleasingly unique in an increasingly crowded genre.

While this serves as the basic challenge, SEGA has also thrown in a few curve balls in the form of rolls, poses and dance moves. Rolls ask little more than the furious shaking of the controllers while poses require you to match and hold the pose performed by the onscreen character animation. Although simple, both serve their purpose to successfully break up the gameplay and keep you on your toes throughout. While the dance moves aim to work in a similar fashion, thanks to the occasionally imprecise control scheme, any dance move required can often be pulled off by simply shaking your controller, thus making them largely null and void.

Of course, there's a useful tutorial to help ease you into the experience and get into the swing of things before you go jumping into the game proper. This also allows you to calibrate the control scheme so that it knows where you will be standing come game time. Although calibration does give the controls a level of accuracy that's more than adequate for easy to mid-level play, as soon as you start pushing towards the harder difficulty settings, the Wii's accelerometer-based control scheme can no longer keep up with the quick and precise motions needed to succeed at this level. While the Dreamcast controls were height sensitive and subsequently very precise, the Wii struggles to tell the difference between mid and low level shakes and often misreads any movement whatsoever as a shake. While this inaccuracy does rear its ugly head every so often on lower difficulty settings, there is often enough time to correct any misinterpreted input on the part of the Wii's pedantic control scheme. There is also the matter of subtle onscreen indicators that show where your controllers are currently held in comparison to the high, medium and low target areas. While again helpful and more than adequate for lower level play, on Hard mode you simply don't have enough time to check this as the rhythm orbs come at you thick and fast.

So, Samba De Amigo's success is completely dependant upon what kind of gamer you are. If you buy this as a casual title, the kind you occasionally play with a group of friends (and preferably a few drinks) then for the most part it's a complete success. The game is great fun when you lose your inhibitions and really dance along to the brilliant selection of music on offer, especially when playing in co-op or competitive game modes. If however you are the kind of gamer who is looking to beat every aspect of a game and not rest until every song is completed on the hardest difficulty setting then you might as well give this a miss. The imprecise controls really do ruin any form of higher level play, making progress both random and stringently robotic as you attempt to force your controllers into the areas that the Wii deems successful. To make matters worse, the unforgiving difficulty inherent in the game's higher levels means that one or two mistaken readings can ruin your chance of getting the passing grades needed to move on - infuriating!

Luckily, beyond the control issues, every other aspect of Samba De Amigo really is a huge success; from the brilliant Latin-infused soundtrack to the outstanding visuals and art design, Samba De Amigo simply drips with style. The superb soundtrack, which includes all the songs from the original Dreamcast release, with some brilliant Latin takes on hits from bands ranging from Reel Big Fish to the Gipsy Kings, now includes a surprisingly large and diverse collection of Wii-exclusive Latin based songs to shake along to, with acts as wide ranging as Jennifer Lopez and Rhianna to Dee Lite and Santana making an appearance for some maraca-shaking fun. While I would be lying if I said that every song was a winner - believe me, some have been butchered - the majority are extremely catchy and in many cases a lot more fun than they are in their original chart form!

Some songs need to be unlocked via the single player campaign of course, with a small collection only unlockable via the dreaded Hard difficulty setting, so there is ample choice if you want to jump directly into the multiplayer. Beyond the collection of songs available there's also an assortment of unlockable maraca sound effects that add an extra bit of longevity to the overall package. Surprisingly, for the Wii, there will also be pay for downloadable content, with SEGA promising a large collection of songs and maraca sound effects to add to the game's already diverse and extensive playlist via Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection.

Beyond the single player campaign and competitive multiplayer modes that include basic play and dance mode for those feeling especially inhibited, there is also an extremely fun co-op mode that tells you how compatible you and your partner are and how long your relationship will last. Honestly, I wouldn't go planning any long-term relationships based on the results but it's good, harmless fun nevertheless. There is also the now standard inclusion of mini-games that, while diverting, are for the most part a token gesture. Volleyball is fun for a few games but even that wears thin pretty quickly, while other games including Simon Says and Whack-a-Mole are additions that most of us could happily live without.

On the visual front, Samba De Amigo really shines - quite literally. This has to be one of the most colour-drenched, psychedelic and brightly lit games of all time. Although there is a huge amount going on at any one time, with an array of dancing characters, including Miis and some notable SEGA cameos (Sonic proves himself quite the adept little dancer!) along with the exciting backgrounds all vying for your attention, due to the concentration it takes to actually play the game you are unlikely to ever be perturbed by the background festivals of fun. Of course, if you aren't playing you can just sit back and enjoy the show, making this one of the most enjoyable games to watch while you're awaiting your turn. The carnival atmosphere is a joy to behold with each location delivering new sights and sounds to delight you at every turn.

So, is Samba De Amigo a resounding success or a bitter disappointment? If you're a hardcore gamer or have played the Dreamcast original to death then this has to be seen as a bitter disappointment; the imprecise controls on Hard will drive anyone looking to play the game at its most challenging level up the wall - the controls simply aren't accurate enough. For those looking for a casual bit of rhythm-based fun with friends though, Samba De Amigo is right up your street. If played for fun rather than achievement, Samba De Amigo is as fun as it ever was, and for that reason it deserves to find as big an audience as possible. Samba De Amigo and the Wii might not quite be the perfect match we were all expecting, but it's still a unique and extremely enjoyable pairing nonetheless.

Reviewed by Liam Pritchard for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).

Read external SAMBA DE AMIGO reviews on ciao.