Sega's Samba de Amigo, the maraca-shaking Dreamcast classic, is headed to the Wii courtesy of developer Gearbox Software. Those unfamiliar with the series can get up to speed with a quick trip to YouTube, but in short, Samba is a music game that features two maraca controllers which must be shaken in time with the music and the visual prompts on the screen. The Dreamcast's maraca controllers featured motion sensors not unlike those in the Wii Remote that detected whether or not the player using them was pointing the maracas high in the air, low toward the ground, or out in front of them. Prompts called for combinations of these positions to create various moves and poses.

The Wii version doesn't have maracas (at least, not yet; Sega says it's looking into possible maraca accessories for the Wii), but it has something for which Wii owners have been waiting quite a long time: Samba de Amigo will be the first Wii game to support double Wii Remote control for a single player. Each controller acts as a maraca and shaking it will produce the maraca sound out of the Wii Remote speaker. Two players will require a total of four remotes. The game also supports the Wii Remote and Nunchuk combo in the event that there aren't enough remotes to go around.

Samba de Amigo for Wii will have over 40 songs, which will include those from the original game, the 2000 version that was only released in Japan, and new tracks. Songs are of a Latin flavor, which includes hits like "The Cup of Life" and "Samba de Janeiro." The game will also include some of the game modes from the 2000 version, such as hustle mode, which requires extra controller waving movements and poses during songs. There will also be additional Wii-specific touches, such as dancing Miis in the background.

The intriguing thing about Samba Wii is that Sega wasn't the company behind the idea. Instead, Sega told us that Gearbox approached them about doing a Wii version, to which Sega agreed. We'll see how well things work out when Samba de Amigo is released on Wii this Summer.