Customer Reviews

Wii Maracas

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I have read some of the reviews, and I agree with some, but overall this is a great addition to the game. The feeling is authentic and it gives your arms a good workout. Some mentioned the poses and such not registering. That is probably because the person is not posing correctly. The Wii is very picky about the position of the pose/remotes; for example, when you move both arms left or right to do that side pose, you must twist your wrists, which will twist the remotes to face you, as well. You cannot just point left or right (leaving the remotes facing up). It took me a few times to realize that, but it DID in fact show this in the instructional portion of the game, which everyone should pay attention to. That helped me clear those poses. As for having to take the Wiimote out to change songs/mode/etc., you can simply use the up/down/left/right (+ button) to select that stuff. Ole!

I owned these Maracas controllers for 30 minutes before I started researching how to get a refund.

They slide on the Wiimote and nunchuck with a fairly loose fit, so the controllers sort of slip around inside the Maracas, with the Nunchuck constantly in danger of slipping out.. There are covers over the end that look like they should allow signal from the Wiimote through, but it just barely works, meaning you will need to pop the Wiimote in and out of the Maraca in order to navigate the on-screen menus. While using the Maracas, about a quarter of the shakes weren't registered, and I wasn't able to complete a single pose. These Maraca shaped controller covers detract from the gaming experience and make Samba de Amigo virtually unplayable.

The maracas look the part and sound good, but when you try to play Samba De Amigo with them you instantly realize how poorly designed they are. The game becomes an irritating disaster with the Samba Samba maracas and my wife and I pulled out hair out in frustration before throwing them in the trash after half an hour of trying to play with them.

The game plays very nicely without these maracas, it's unfortunate that the maracas are so bad and may turn players off the game if you only try to play it using the maracas.

I would definitely buy the game but the maracas are huge and make accuracy and timing more difficult. I would stick with the controllers only.

These are a fun addition to the Wii and the game is fun and entertaining.

I love Samba, but the maracas made it unplayable. Like some of the other reviewers, I found that the maracas interfered with the controller signals to the point where it hurt gameplay significantly. I got through two games with them, trying to get them to work, then packed them back up for return.

Wii Maracas Quit whining. The Wii maracas are great! Yes they are a little big and no you can't scroll down the screen as easily, but all you have to do is use the arrow keys instead to navigate to the games and music that you want. They are great for helping you hear & time the maraca sound with the beat. I easily got many more points when using them.

My 9 year old has trouble holding them b/c of their size, but people 12 and older ought to be fine with some practice and patience. Please, people, if things don't come easy, we have to throw a fit and get rid of something?!!! Grow up, and have some fun. Life without challenges is boring and creates whiners! These are a great buy, and I'm going to buy a 2nd pair soon.

These were just a silly purchase to go with the samba de amigo game for xmas. Even keeping that in mind, I wouldn't waste my money on them again. They are huge and the wii remote doesn't work when it's in the maraca. You have to take the remote out after each song to navigate the menus.

We bought these thinking our 3 year old (and us of course) would love the way they would enhance gameplay for Samba De Amigo. First off, we love the Samba game and would recommend it for adults and kids, but these Maracas fall short for 2 reasons. First, they are quite heavy. Not that big of a deal for an adult, but I'd say most young kids would have a little trouble shaking them and keeping a grip on them.

The main issue with these however is that they really seem to interfere with the signal from the Wiimote. There is about a 6 or 8 inch distance between the end of the Wiimote and the little window on the Maracas and we noticed a big difference in the accuracy of the signal when both my wife and I tried these. The game already has a little issue with accuracy as it is, and this made a noticeable difference.

Apart from that they are pretty much what they appear to be. A fun gimmick but certainly not a way to enhance gameplay.

So I tried these out last night. They are horrible. You can't play with them on the wii-mote. First the pointer only makes it half-way up/down the screen when it is inserted into the maracas. Second even if you pop it out, point to where you want to go, and start to play it just doesn't work. More than 75% of all my attempts and my wife's attempts to use the maracas fail. Neither of us could get the maracas to point left. Plus if you are trying to calibrate the controller before you start playing you will not be able to point left or right. For some reason left seemed to be more difficult to pull off than right not matter where we stood in front of the sensor bar. Luckily these are cheap, unluckily I now have two pairs of useless maracas. I guess I'll give them to the dogs to play with.