Could it be?

It seems that today is a day of potential E3 leaks, and this one will likely divide Nintendo gamers. We're aware that some of the Nintendo Life community enjoyed Wii Music, so this writer will restrict expressing his feelings of trepidation and fear at this possible reveal — the lead image says it all.

When motion control was dominating the world Wii Music attempted to incorporate a fun, musical learning experience into the system using its controllers and accessories. If a freshly discovered patent is anything to go by, Nintendo may be working on a follow-up project — filed in late April but made available to the public today, it shows the GamePad being utilised for a musical game with an uncanny resemblance to the Wii title.

The inventors are named as Takehiko Hosokawa (Rhthm Heaven Fever and others) and Goro Abe (most recently Game & Wario) — the patent primarily revolves around software to capture data for multiple sounds, incorporating interactions with the GamePad.

[0003] Conventionally, there is a game apparatus that outputs the sound of performing one composition as an ensemble using a plurality of instruments. In the game apparatus, a user selects a part to be assigned to the user themselves. When the selection of the assigned part is completed, the ensemble is started. Then, the user can participate in the ensemble by performing an input operation based on the assigned part.

[0004] The game apparatus, however, can merely provide the audio output of the composition performed as an ensemble from, for example, a pair of loudspeakers provided in a monitor. Thus, even a composition performed as an ensemble may lack variety, as compared to other types of sound outputs.

[0005] Therefore, it is an object of an exemplary embodiment to provide a storage medium having stored therein an information processing program capable of a wide variety of sound outputs, and an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, and an information processing method that are capable of a wide variety of sound outputs.

Though the images below focus on the GamePad, various charts showing the processes of the software refer to multiple instruments and input devices — controllers, in other words. The idea seems to be playing in a band much like Wii Music, but with the GamePad featured in its own way.

There are some key points to make. A patent arriving this late before E3 can either mean it's in preparation for the event, is too early in development to be shown, or it could be a patent like many others that'll never see the light of day. While it undoubtedly looks like Wii Music, meanwhile, the named Nintendo staff are particularly experienced in the WarioWare series, and this may be just a part of a different project.

We may see more soon enough. In the meantime check out some diagrams below and let us know what you think.

Wii Music U1
Wii Music U2
Wii Music U3

[source neogaf.com, via appft.uspto.gov]