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‘Jam Sessions’ hits flat note

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by Alex Garens

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Once again, the DS serves as a platform for atypical gaming, if it can even be called that. Although there are much more bizarre games in Japan — like housewife training — the DS has been known to host a slew of games that are really more pastimes or educational programs. Jam Sessions joins this ever diversifying group, adding yet another application for the handheld.

In Jam Sessions, the DS becomes your guitar as you change chords on the D-pad and strum a single string with the stylus. Misleadingly advertised as being in the same vein as Guitar Hero, the only similarity is their homologous virtualizations of the same instrument. Whereas Guitar Hero is largely a rhythm game, Jam Sessions is just what it sounds like: a game geared toward fans who want to rock out in their garage with their alternative rock band that's “gonna make it big someday.” For most gamers, the results on Jam Sessions will be just as cacophonous, and only slightly less embarrassing — assuming you're playing with headphones. There is no “Game Mode,” and the closest thing to it, the “Play Song” mode, is really no different than free play, as there are very few play prompts, leaving you dumbfounded unless you're rather familiar with the songs, which are relatively obscure.

If you can discern an A chord from an E -sharp chord and own a DS, you'll probably love this game. For the musically disinclined, it will impress you with musical jargon like flanger, but will be nothing more than a 'neat' novelty you'd never purchase. Admittedly, it's a rather complex program, allowing you to play around with chords as well as write and record tunes, and any guitarist would likely love the program. But if you're no Tom Petty, you're much better off sticking to Guitar Hero, Elite Beat Agents, and Electroplankton, a bizarre electronic music creation game also for DS that actually does allow virtually anyone to make pleasing sounds, something Jam Sessions should have striven to achieve. For what it is, and whom it's made for, it succeeds very well, but most people will want to avoid it in favor of an actual game.

3 stars out of 5

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