Dance Dance Revolution was the original, but until recently, Konami has not bothered to bring the game and it's dancing pad, over to North America. As a result, Samba De Amigo is the US's first real taste of the interactive rhythm/music genre, and so far, it has been extremely well received. Shaking a pair of maracas in front of a television screen, to a videogame, may seem embarassing and sound silly, but many people get over the feeling after playing a game or two. Then the addiction sets in...

The idea is simple, shake a pair of maracas at specific positions/heights along with some catchy music. In order to play along with the songs, little blue timing globes travel across the screen, from the center to one of six indicators (upper-left, upper-right, left, right, lower-left, and lower-right). When a globe makes contact with the center of any indicator, that is your cue to shake a maraca at the specified height and location. Parts of the songs which require some crazy, vigorous shaking of the maracas, are indicated by a steady stream of red globes. Every time you shake a maraca at the proper time, your rating increases and when you miss or are off-beat, your rating suffers. Some songs will require you to "strike a pose", in which you must freeze with the maracas in a certain position. Quite honestly, the whole thing looks hilarious, but boy is it a lot of fun!

Sonic Team created a cast of lovable characters to go along with the game, and they fit in just perfectly. Amigo the monkey is just too cool, as are the rest of the cast. They all happily dance and bounce around in the background, and the entire scene responds to how well you are performing. Racking up a huge combo, or maintaining a great rating, sends all the characters into a crazy dancing frenzy. It's both distracting and amusing at first, but it doesn't take all that long to learn to focus on the more important timing globes. The visuals, while not even close to being a priority in a game like this, are still excellent.

Sega and Sonic Team did a great job in selecting the music tracks for Samba De Amigo. With everything from Ricky Martin's "Cup of Life" to Reel Big Fish's ultra cool remix of "Take on me" to the usually annoying "Macarena" to the the classic "Tequila"; the selection of Latin themed music to shake to, is very impressive and extremely catchy. You are not able to play all the songs initially, you must actually earn them while playing the Challenge Mode, as described below.

Arcade Mode is the plain vanilla way to play Sambe De Amigo. Pick a level of play (easy, normal, hard), choose a song, and off you go. Original Mode allows you to choose from all the songs which you have either earned or downloaded, and more or less plays in a similar fashion to the Arcade Mode besides that. Challenge Mode is where things really get intense. You get to play through levels of ever increasing difficulty, and completing a set of challenges will reward you with new songs. Party Mode, is just what it sounds like. Sega has added a bunch of mini-games and sub modes which all cater to multiple players. Of course, to get the most out of it, you will have to pick up a second set of maracas.

Speaking of maracas; While it is possible to play Samba with just the controller and get some enjoyment out of it, it isn't recommended at all. The maracas, while being quite costly ($79.99 - $89.95 per set at most places), are really solid and durable, and work amazingly well. The infrared technology Sega utilized in the Dreamcast maracas are even a step better than the method used in the arcade version. Also, who would have figured that we would be playing games with a pair of maracas one day?

Not everyone may have rhythm or be able to really dance, but that shouldn't stop a single person from at least giving Samba a try. After a few successful games, you will feel like a confident maraca shakin' fool. If you have a few dollars to spare and want a fun addictive game for you, and all your friends and family to play, you can't go wrong with Samba De Amigo.