Samba De Amigo E3 Impressions

Finally, one of the major publishers has grown some guts! After years of watching Konami deny the US market of home versions of its Bemani series, Sega bit the bullet and announced Samba De Amigo - with the maracas controller - for US release this fall.

The game hasn't changed much from the recent Japanese release of the game. You still play the maracas in rhythm to the songs, there's still a wacky monkey in the background, and it's still one of the most interesting and fun music/rhythm games to ever be released. However, we saw an interesting thing on one of the US version's menus. The Japanese release was missing two songs from the arcade version, namely Livin' La Vida Loca and Cup of Life, both by Ricky Martin, due to licensing issues that couldn't be resolved before the game's ship date. However, we spotted Livin' La Vida Loca on the US version's music select menu. Will the US version of the game be truly complete? We'll check into it and report back as soon as possible.