Nintendo's highly anticipated and oft-criticized new rhythm game (or maybe just music game) Wii Music, originally placed somewhere within the nebulous Q4 region of 2008, has been officially dated for October 20, 2008 according to a Nintendo press release. Unlike Guitar Hero and Rock Band, the game contains no competitive aspect.

Like Wii Sports and Wii Fit, Wii Music is all about the fun of the experience, so it allows players to ease along by simply controlling the tempo and style of their music rather than the notes. Naturally, this style of play has met with a harsh reaction from the gamer demographic. Also naturally, this game will sell like gangbusters. Sorry kiddos!

An announcement that would have made a lot of people feel better about Nintendo’s press conference was revealed yesterday evening during Nintendo’s Developer Roundtable event. Nintendo mastermind Shigeru Miyamoto confirmed that a new Pikmin title is on its way during a Q&A session at the end of the roundtable event.

Pikmin aside, the event mostly talked about the “big” three titles revealed during Nintendo’s press conference: Animal Crossing: City Folk, Wii Sport Resort, and Wii Music. The ability to transfer your character from Animal Crossing: Wild Word to City Folk was confirmed by AC producer Katsuya Eguchi.

During the Wii Sports Resort Q&A Nintendo’s brass artfully dogged some questions concerning the Wii MotionPlus and whether it was an admission by Nintendo that the original Wii-mote’s sensitivity was sub-par. Finally, while talking about Wii Music, Miyamoto mentioned that, of the 50 songs available in the game, most of them will be public-domain tracks but some will be “popular” licensed music. Hopefully that means we’ll get something a little catchier than “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”