is a 1999 rhythm game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega for arcades. It later saw a port to the Dreamcast in 2000 and the Wii in 2008. Based primarily on Latin American culture, the game sees players shaking maraca controllers to the beat of a song in order to score points.
A sequel, Samba de Amigo: Party Central, which is focused more on pop music in general, was released in 2023 for Nintendo Switch, the Apple Arcade mobile game subscription service, and Meta Quest virtual reality headsets.
Gameplay
thumb|left|Gameplay of the primary game mode on the [[Dreamcast version]]
Samba de Amigo is a rhythm game that is played with a pair of maraca controllers. 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 monkey. If the player does well, the scene around Amigo (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 Amigo 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 their 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") 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.
Game modes
In the original arcade game, the player is given two or three stages to play through, depending on how the options are set. Each stage has three songs to choose from. If the player does well enough on each stage, an additional Special stage is enabled, where three of the more challenging songs are made available.
In the Dreamcast port, this version of the game is playable as Arcade mode. Original mode is the same game, except that instead of being limited to three songs in each stage, the player gets to choose from any song in the game that has been unlocked. Initially, six songs are available in this mode, while more can be unlocked by playing the Arcade or Challenge modes.
The home game also adds a Party mode, with minigames such as Guacamole (pronounced and played much the same as "Whac-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). Also included in Party mode is the Battle game, where two players compete to score high combos and knock out their opponent, and the Couples game (known as "Love Love" in Japan), where two players play through a song to test their "compatibility". Along with this, the home version has features which can be unlocked, such as alternate sound effects and downloadable songs.
Finally, a Challenge mode has been added, where the player is given specific goals in order to proceed through stages. These goals include having to reach a certain letter grade or to pass a certain score while playing a song. There are 25 challenges total, separated into five stages.
Maraca controllers
The original arcade game used red maraca controllers modeled after their in-game design. Magnetic sensors were used to determine their position. As this was an expensive process, it had to be reworked for the home version.
In the Dreamcast version, each maraca has a cord which is plugged into a bar that lies 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; this allows the system to triangulate the position of each maraca. The rattle part can be unscrewed from the top of each maraca for quieter play. Included in the box is a plastic mat with two brown footprints, which helps players properly position themselves in relation to the sensor bar.
In a Flash version mini-game used for the promotion of the Wii version of the game, keys W, D and C, then O, J and N is used to tap the drums. The mini game also played an introductory movie showing a family playing the Wii version of the game.
Development
Samba de Amigo was first developed as an experimental arcade game during the time of attractive music arcade games and swiftly by a team with little experience in game development. Shun Nakamura, the game's director, was more focused on creating a music game where players could have fun and enjoy the performance of music, instead of just playing music. The choice of maracas was inspired by how Japanese people would use maracas to add interest to karaoke performances. As the game was originally developed for the local Japanese market, Western songs that were familiar to Japanese audiences were chosen, as well as songs with rhythms that were easy for one to immerse into. The main character, Amigo, was determined based on how his cheerful personality matched the typical portrayal of monkeys, and finalized by Yuji Uekawa, the character designer for the Sonic the Hedgehog series. The game received positive reception every time it was presented by the team, which would lead it to being ported to the Dreamcast. The default setting of the game uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to simulate the maraca-shaking from the original game, with the option to use two remotes for completely wireless play. Optional maraca-shaped attachments are also available to provide the full experience. Unlike the maraca controls of the Dreamcast version, which could detect the height at which they were shaken, the Wii sensor bar is not capable of this. Instead, the angle at which the Wii Remote is being shaken determines if high, mid or low notes are hit. The rotation of the controller also has an effect on note detection, especially when doing cross-over moves.
All the characters and stage designs from the original game return with enhanced graphics. Many of the additions from Ver. 2000 that were not available to people outside Japan are included, such as Hustle Mode and the new character Amiga. A "Career" mode exclusive to the Wii version is included, consisting of challenges in which players must clear songs to earn various unlockables, including maraca effects and additional songs. Unique to the Wii version, new stages based on other Sega games were added, including ones based on Sonic the Hedgehog and Space Channel 5, complete with cameos of Sonic and Ulala respectively. Nearly, but not all the songs from the original game are included. It also includes many of the songs from Ver. 2000. 23 Wii-exclusive songs were added, bringing the total to 44. The game supports Miis and displays them next to the player's score, as well as showing two random ones in-game during stages, with their expressions changing based on performance (Bad, Medium or Good). Online leaderboards and friends lists let players post their best scores and compare them, but only when an original, player-created Mii is used. This feature cannot be used with the guest Miis.
In addition, downloadable songs were available for an extra charge. These additional songs came in download packs. The first pack included the songs "I Want Candy (cover version)" by Bow Wow Wow, "Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet and "Mambo Mambo" by Lou Bega (all master tracks), and were available upon the game's release. Download packs came in sets of three and cost 500 Wii points. A total of three download packs were released by December 2008.
Samba de Amigo was the first retail Wii title to support the "pay and play" portion of the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection, previously used exclusively by WiiWare titles.