On paper, it's a brilliant concept. Developed by Plato, published by Ubisoft, and originally known as Sing & Play DS Guitar M-06 (Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06) in Japan, Jam Sessions gives players the ability to take their guitar on the road. Without the guitar or amplifier, of course. In what's arguably one of the more creative uses of the touchscreen on the Nintendo DS, players use the touchscreen to strum while selecting chords using the d-pad. And, that's pretty much the beginning and end of it - there's no competition as such, there's minimal guidance beyond some sample songs, and there's no multiplayer to speak of. Be warned - Guitar Hero or Elite Beat Agents, this isn't.
What it is is a surprisingly creative tool. The controls manage to offer surprising depth while somehow missing out on the necessary breadth. First, the good. The six strings are represented by a single horizontal string strung across the bottom screen. Strumming without selecting a chord creates a muted strum, strumming up while selecting a chord starts it from the high E, and strumming down starts from the low E. Up to eight chords can be mapped to each of the directions of d-pad, with an additional eight chords available through holding down left shoulder pad button. The strength of the strum is controlled by the speed at which the stylus is moved across the string.
Play that gee-tar, dude.
To mix things up a little, players can also access a two-stage sound effects path to apply various acoustic transformations including distortion, a low pass filter, a high pass filter, delay, chorus, flanger, and tremolo. Each can be applied separately or together, and each offers various tuning options to further customise the sound. While six effects chains can be stored in memory, only one can be accessed while playing through the right shoulder pad button. Shortcuts can also be defined, but they only provide fast access to the menu screens. It’s also worth mentioning that players can select alternative background themes, even though it’s purely aesthetic and has no impact on sound reproduction.
While the game comes with a tutorial, for the most part it steps the player through the obvious. The core mechanics of holding down a chord, learning to strum up and down, and keeping time are covered through the use of tutorial songs with sample music. Once these are understood, the player is set free to either play through the sample songs included in the game or simply jam away in free play mode. Each of the sample songs include basic notation describing the chords and strum direction. Some, though not all, even include sample music to help learn how they should be played.
Play it again, Sam.
The included songs are a rather hit and miss affair. While there’s such playables as ‘Yellow’ by Coldplay and ‘No Woman, No Cry’ by Bob Marley, there’s also a smattering of Beck, The Fray, Nirvana, Avril Lavinge, Johnny Cash, Cheap Trick, and The Jackson 5. It’s a rather strange assortment, probably driven by licensing restrictions more than anything else. It’s quite a significant shame that on one hand the developers didn’t include a greater selection (especially given the small storage requirements for chord notation), as well as on the other that they didn’t go for a more ‘thematic’ selection.
Once players feel comfortable with their musical abilities, it’s time to perform. By using the microphone input and headphone output together, the idea is to play live through an amplifier, stereo, or other loudspeaker system. Taking this idea a step further, there’s even apparently plans for a bundle to be released in the US in early December that includes a small amplifier and various ‘picks’. While there’s no ability to play backing from anything other than the included songs, the intention is apparently to allow players the ability to play along with their favourite songs. The game even includes pitch controls to ensure accompaniment is calibrated to the source material. While up to five songs can be recorded onto the cartridge itself, it unfortunately only offers the ability to record the music, not the voice track. So, while it’s a nice capture system, one can’t feel that it could have been so much more.
Tune it, tweak it, crank it, record it.
And that, fundamentally, is the feeling after having spent a few hours playing around with Jam Sessions. It’s creative, it’s novel, and it’s ingenious. It offers composers a unique way to practice and create when away from their guitar, which, if you’re like most people, is the vast majority of the time. However, it’s missing functions which would have been really appreciated. There are no multi-track recording capabilities, so it’s impossible to create a backing track and create a one-man band. There’s no ability to play individual strings which, while understandable given the feature set the game comes with, is an unfortunate exclusion – given the game was designed to allow players to play accompaniment with existing source material, it would have been nice to be able to play both rhythm and lead. Especially in a ‘multi-player’ environment, so to speak.
Jam Sessions is likely destined to be one of those games that polarise gamers. And, unfortunately, scoring it as a traditional game really does miss the point - the true tragedy is that while games like that are unlikely ever to do well in traditional reviews, the industry as a whole is screaming for boundary shifting 'games' such as this. Those that appreciate what it offers will revel in its freedom. However, what is offers is unfortunately neither comprehensive enough to thoroughly satisfy a true composer nor entertaining enough to satisfy the casual gamer.
With no game in the game, so to speak, it's unlikely to appeal to most. If you’re a guitarist, on the other hand, Jam Sessions is truly an interesting proposition – carrying a guitar on the bus to practice rhythm can be somewhat difficult, not to mention potentially painful to the passengers sitting around you. While it’s not quite the same, it’s close enough to be a serviceable companion. And, it’s worth bearing in mind when considering the overall score – Jam Sessions is more of a tool than a game. You may not break it out by the campfire at night with your friends, but then again, you actually might.
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