Jam Sessions from Ubisoft is one of the first music games for the DS that has come from a non-eastern market. We have seen a fair few music games flooding the Japanese market and they have managed to have quite an impact on that side of the market. However, virtually none of them have made it across to our side. Ubisoft are now looking to see how this type of game takes off on our side of the world.
It looks confusing but it isn't.
Essentially, Jam Sessions is set to turn you DS into a guitar. On the touch screen, there will be line across the screen that represents a guitar string. The individual chords have been mapped into the d-pad. So it is up to the player to press the right chord and “strum” the screen in order to hold a tune. The harder and longer that you hold your strum, the louder the sound made. While it is something that may take a little while to get used to, it is actually a very good setup. In fact, it is perfectly viable for you to use a guitar pick as opposed to the stylus.
There are meant to be 20 songs that will be included in the final game, but the final list has not been decided upon. You’ll be able to play to each song and on the top screen, you can implement tools and prompts that will help you learn how to play the game and learn a bit of music along the way. An interesting feature that has been added is that you are able to go and manipulate the songs in virtually any way that you like. This is only part of the many options that will be available to players in the final game.
Probably the most exciting aspect of the game is the potential recording feature that the game offers. At any time on the go, if a budding musician feels the need to record the tune that has just played through their mind, they can pull out their DS and simply record it on the spot. Furthermore, this tune can then be saved and listened to later, or even transferred to a person’s PC. It’s a feature like this, that opens up the unparalleled potential of the game. It’s something that Electroplankton severely lacked and is the first of the first titles to offer such a feature in the western market.
It's time to RAAAWK! again
In terms of presentation, the game is disappointing, graphically. It looks a tad bland. However, in terms of the music and sounds, we were pleasantly surprised to hear how rich and full the music was that came out of the DS. Of course, this was partially because the sound was coming out of an amplifier but we were assured that we’d get a similar result with a good set of headphones.
Jam Sessions for the DS is the result of what happens when a platform really takes off. It is not only unique, but extremely well built and has an edge of quality that a lot of the earlier DS games don’t have. Not to mention, it has some insane potential and would likely appeal to a huge market. We look forward to jamming more with Jam Sessions in the near future.
Loading...
