Orchestra is a demo created for E3 to show off how the remote might be used in a musical game. It is apparent from the very first glance that this is simply a demo, and confirmed so by a helpful Nintendo rep handing you the controller. The characters making up the orchestra are toy-like models with no arms or legs and simple balls for hands. Each has a different face, though some are repeated, and they perch in front of their music stands with instruments in hand waiting for you to begin conducting your masterpiece.

In the demo there were two songs available: The Zelda Theme and Carmen. You choose between the two from a simple menu using the remote to point at which song you want. Then short instructions appear. The game uses only the remote, and tells you to swing it up and down to a certain tempo. Then after four beats the music is in your hands, and how it sounds is up to you.

By bobbing the remote quickly with no real rhythm the musicians will play frantically on their tiny cartoon instruments, and contrary slow, graceful movements will create dragging notes and longer tones. Though there are no indicators of any kind to tell you how you are doing, you find yourself trying to match the original music as best you can remember, and see what movements give different results.

The demo seemed to work best when the remote was pointed towards the sensor located at the bottom of the TV. At some points when more enthusiastic players waved the controller in all directions, the music stopped and did not begin again until the remote was back in range. That isn't to say one couldn't wave about madly, simply that the game did not perform as well while doing so. The sensor limit was unclear, however a normal range of movements easily fell inside the functioning range.

At the song's conclusion a round of applause emanates from the TV and the game gives you a numerical score. Most often this number is in the 70 range, going as high as 91 at one point. What this number means is unknown, however, as it doesn't give any indication of if high is better or lower is what you should be shooting for. Below this number of mystery, the game informs you of what type of conductor you are. Some ****fications seen were Passionate, Graceful, and Methodical. Those players who seemed to keep an even tempo were usually in the methodical category, where as amateur conductors who swung wildly with no sense of rhythm were usually deemed passionate. Then the screen fades to white with the simple message "Thank you for playing this Wii E3 demo" once again making certain you are aware it is not a full game.

Wii Music: Orchestra is a ****c example of a non-game type game that could potentially draw in people who have not played games before, and it is clear that is Nintendo's intent with the demo. Though there are no current plans to release the title outside of E3, the colon after Wii Music is very similar to the colon after Wii Sports; a collection of games that are indeed planned for the system. Could this be a clue that an assortment of Wii Music titles will eventually find their way to Nintendo's latest console? Time will tell.