TGS: Nintendo announces Game Boy Music

[03.29.01] » Music-creation studio due for release in September on Game Boy Advance.

   Nintendo today announced the tentatively-titled Game Boy Music, a "sound communication" kit for the Game Boy Advance.

   In Game Boy Music, as in most rhythm titles, players create music by pressing the A button, B button, and D-pad in accordance with the directions shown on the screen. Forty-five built-in tunes -- 25 themes from Nintendo games and 20 other popular pieces -- will be included. From the screenshots shown, it seems players can create their own songs as well. And when jamming alone gets old, up to four players can play together in the Band Play Mode, with each gamer taking a different part of the music.

   Around fifty instruments will be included in Game Boy Music. On the list so far are: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, distortion guitar, electric bass, chopper bass, synthesized bass, acoustic piano, electronic piano, rock organ, violin, viola, contrabass, drum, Latin percussion, trumpet, tenor sax, vibraphone, trombone, oboe, clarinet, piccolo, flute, marimba, harmonica, and whistle.

   Game Boy Music is due out in September in Japan at a price of 6800 yen ($55 US). The set will include the "Pocket Speaker", a portable GBA speaker that offers sound quality superior to the internal speaker's.