Lumines Creator Developing Music Game for Wii

Tetsuya Miziguchi, the creator of Lumines and Rez, is working on a new music game for the Wii.

Miziguchi himself revealed the game, titled QJ, at Atari's recent Atari Live press event. Reports from the affair were scant on details regarding QJ, aside from the title and that Miziguchi expressed a hope that the title will deliver a new type of experience by utilizing the Wii's motion controls.

The announcement of QJ aside, the partnership between Atari and Miziguchi's studio Q Entertainment will bear further fruit in the form of Q3 (pronounced "Cubed"), a boxed compilation of some notable works from Miziguchi's career, including Rez HD, Lumines Live and Every Extend Extra Extreme. All three games were previously released on Xbox Live Arcade, and will be packaged with all released downloadable content. The Q3 set will run for 20 Euros (about $40 USD) and has no set release date.

Source: Gamesindustry.biz

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I have this weird suspicion that the next big thing with video games is going to be music stuff. Guitar Hero and Rock Star have dethroned sports games as the most popular genre for the masses (not just gamers) and are selling music for musicians at a blistering pace. Plus they're just easier to make.

You can love Fallout 3 or Fable 2, but in terms of being to create a believable emergent narrative they've still got a long way to go. Even with their amazing accomplishments, those game cost millions to make. Music? A student art project could create an emergent music game. Everyday Shooter is an amazing example of that and Audiosurf is a great stab in the opposite direction by making a game that responds to your choice of music. If you glance through the Independent Games Festival entries this year, you'll see several games that also incorporate music into their design.

I dunno, if I had to bet I'd say this is going to be the next big thing. Not this game in particular, this entire genre.

Oh man, this has some serious potential to be awesome. However, that part about trying to utilize the motion controls is always a dangerous variable. It seems that with the motion controls you can't have any middle ground. It will either add a ton of value to the game or single handedly destroy it.

Here's hoping it's the former.