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Jam Sessions

Published By: Liam O'Connor On: 31/07/2007 10:00

AT A GLANCE

"A fresh look at the rhythm genre."

The Good: The ability to create your own masterpieces.

The Bad: The inability to shred like no one's business.

The Ugly: Trying to strum, sing, and act serious.

By Liam O'Connor

Take one look at Jam Sessions for the Nintendo DS and you might think: 'What's the point?' Guitar Hero is successful not because you are pushing buttons in a slightly more complicated version of Simon, but because a little Fisher Price guitar makes you feel like a rock god. Play the game with a joypad and it's not really fun at all.

However, Jam Sessions is marketing itself to a different breed of guitar fan: creative musicians. Although players can follow licensed set pieces from a range of musicians, there is a freeform mode that allows players to create and share their own masterpieces.

And surprisingly, the music sounds really good. The first time you hear it blast from the tiny little DS speakers, you won't believe it's actually coming from a DS. The sound is rich and full, sounding so much like a real guitar that this could easily be the best sounding DS game yet.

However, the game does have one major downfall: the interface. It provides a rather steep learning curve, even more so than a real guitar. You can teach someone the chords E, A, and D and they'll be playing Wild Thing in no time. It's initially hard to even do this on Jam Sessions.

Although strumming the single string with the stylus works fine, changing between the chords with the d-pad isn't the ideal way to do things. Sometimes you'll find that you're actually pressing up, instead of up-left, and you'll play a different note altogether. Additionally, because of the large number of possible chords, you need to toggle between chord sets with the shoulder buttons; which, again, isn't ideal.

Additionally, when we had a play with Jam Sessions, it was also unclear if it was possible to do any raging guitar solos or shredding rifts. It might end up that you can only strum chords. So Mad World is in, Run to the Hills is out. At least you can plug in the DS mic and sing along if you want.

Ultimately, Jam Sessions looks set to bring a fresh new take to the rhythm genre. It's perhaps more of an alternative software package, ala Electroplankton, but it's certainly shaping up to be a welcome addition to the increasingly diverse DS library. Keep it locked to NZGamer for a full review in the near future.

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