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Jam Sessions Review
Written by Robert Falcon on Monday, September 17, 2007
User Score
Operates just like a real guitar would; pretty good song selection.
No way to really judge performance; can't record vocals with your guitar playing; you might smash your DS on stage.
Remember when you were in high school and you wanted to impress your girlfriend with something cool? C'mon, sure you did. So you walked into the mall one day and you saw that cool acoustic guitar sitting in front of the music shop. And you thought to yourself, "Hey, I know, I'll serenade her with a song. She always loved to hear me play some Hall and Oates." (By the way, Hall and Oates is just a random selection, don't get the wrong idea.) So you buy the guitar and go to her doorstep and begin trying to play "Private Eyes", only to find out a. she moved, b. you suck, or c. a guy named Guido pops out thinking it's a dead cat and shoots at you. Regardless, the moral of the story is you can't just pick up a guitar and automatically consider yourself a maestro. You need to learn. And that's where Jam Sessions comes in.
Ubisoft's latest offering for the Nintendo DS may in fact be one of the most accurate music games ever made. It doesn't rely on pre-set notes to be followed or a flashy presentation, merely the feeling that it's like a real guitar. A "strum bar" sits across the middle of the touch screen, needing to be strummed back and forth and sounding just like the real instrument when it is. The D-pad and shoulder buttons are set aside as chords, which need to be held in just the right positions for the correct ones to be played. So, yeah, you'd hold it like a real guitar, although that would make it a bit odd trying to see the tabs displayed on the top DS screen. Oh, well, you can't have everything you want.
The big difference between Sessions and Hero is that Sessions doesn't judge you in any way shape or form. It simply sets follow-along guidelines and releases you into the rocking wild, letting you learn the basics and eventually becoming a better virtual guitar player as a result. It even provides the option to save five of your "better performances" for later play, in case you feel like humiliating yourself or waking Guido at three in the morning (and then quickly running out of gunfire range). Unfortunately, you can't save your vocal performance along with your musical one, as the game requires you to sing along with each song instead of listening to pre-recorded vocals. Sometimes you just can't win.
Overall, the experience is a good one, but requires a lot of patience and work to really get the rewards out of it. Those expecting to learn to play the guitar overnight will be sorely disappointed, as Jam Sessions doesn't work that way. The game doesn't have a virtual judge to rate performance, nor does it have an easy-to-follow menu system. Sometimes you have to reset completely, you get so lost trying to navigate back to the main screen. Also, the game's song selection of twenty, feauring Nirvana, Brad Paisley (yes, Brad Paisley) and Coldplay, seems a bit paltry compared to other games. Still, maybe that leaves more breathing room for you to work on something original and cool. Well, OK, just original, let's not pray for a miracle.
Overall, though, Jam Sessions is different and enlightening enough to be worth at least a mild recommendation, especially if you're in the same boat as other aspiring guitar players around the world. It's a fun simulation once you get the hang of it, and it has its moments of rocking-out goodness. Just don't expect the next Guitar Hero (or happiness from gun-toting Guido) and you'll be fine. Oh, and a word of advice -- don't light your DS on fire or smash it on stage, unless you have another $130 to spend right away.
posted 12 months ago