Have you played Guitar Hero and Rhythm Paradise to death on all possible platforms, and aching for some more musical action? Jam with the Band might just be your next gaming purchase.
Hugely anticipated since 2006, it never found its way out of Japan with its original title Daigasso!, Band Brothers (we wonder why!), but it’s finally on our shores to deliver budding rockers a jam session on the go.
Loaded with an impressive 50 tracks, Jam with the Band for DS caters for a wide audience, boasting the likes of Queen, Deep Purple, Police, Boy George, Madonna, Madness, and to tickle your nostalgia, Super Mario and Zelda themes amongst others. You can add another 50 tracks via wi-fi, but with no options to delete or exchange songs, and a limit of 100 tunes on your cartridge, you will be called to make final choices, so no “Let’s check out this fan version of ‘Baby one more time’ allowed.
Unlike Guitar Hero and Rock Bank models, Jam with the Band doesn’t come with a career mode; you can choose between Sing, Play and Studio, all accessible from a virtual music store.
On Play you choose your song, then take your pick between up to eight instruments to jam with, although with the exception of the guitar, which you strum with your DS stylus, all the other instruments will be played by pressing buttons when prompted by a bar across the screen, which makes for quite a challenge as soon as you get rid of Beginner mode. Apparently the Master mode (if you’re good enough to get there, and as you guessed, I’m not!) uses a staggering 10 buttons, and even L and R buttons can be pressed for changing octaves: as much as I love a gaming challenge, the amount of notes to cram in became too tough after Amateur level: I blame the tiny controls.
After you’re done sweating over Play mode, have a laugh with Sing, where you’ll just use the DS microphone and your voice. The training mode is particularly interesting: the DS will actually point out your mistakes and help you ease in a style suitable for your voice tone. The downside is that, unless you have a few glasses of Chardonnay in you, playing in Sing mode anywhere but in your house is not going to happen.
Unique but I’m afraid already overlooked by early adopters of the game is the Studio mode, where budding composers can try their hand at creating tunes. Start with the basic studio, equipped with a virtual keyboard or, should you have had enough of your DS controls by now, a recorder for humming that little tune you can’t get out of your head. Hum in the mic, and the DS will recreate the melody with the instrument you are then prompted to choose.
If you want to step up your game, run along to the expert studio, where you can spend hours dragging and dropping notes, tweaking, listening, and actually creating music that you can share with the Nintendo community, add to your list to play with on your own or with your friends.
Unlike many DS games, Jam with the Band lets you play with your DS buddies via wi-fi without them owning the game themselves: a band session will support up to 8 DS armed band-mates.
An interesting product all-around, it will keep you entertained for hours on end if music is your boyfriend.
The Scores:
Concept – 7.5
Graphics – 6.5
Sound – 9.0
Gameplay – 7
Longevity – 6.5
