Over the weekend I picked up a copy of Jam Sessions, an acoustic guitar simulator for the Nintendo DS. Jam Sessions shares much in common with other music-based games currently on the market. For instance, the game comes packed with at least a couple dozen pop songs spanning a diverse range of artists from Beck to Blind Melon. However, unlike those other music games, you won’t find any predetermined rhythms to follow along with, no varying difficulty settings to master and certainly no discernible objectives to complete. In fact, gamers who purchase Jam Sessions solely to play along with the included tracks are missing the point entirely.
What differentiates Jam Sessions from its music game bretheren is that it functions more like a guitar sketch pad than a traditional guitar game. Just pop the little card into your DS and it becomes a stripped down acoustic guitar. The touch screen functions as a virtual representation of all six guitar stings rolled into one. Strumming the stylus (or your favorite guitar pick) up simulates the sound of an up stroke while strumming down produces the sound of a down stroke. The speed at which these motions are performed determines the volume of the sound. Meanwhile, chords, of which there are over 100 to select from, can be mapped to the 8 directions of the d-pad (or face buttons for leftys). But this is just the tip of the guitar-burg.
Users can alter the clean acoustic guitar sound with a handful of effects like distortion, chorus, delay and several others. Each effect comes with its own set of customization options and once adjusted as desired can be saved to one of two effects slots. But if that isn’t enough customization, a simple cable allows the DS to be plugged into practically any guitar pedal or amplifier you have laying around.
Finally, Jam Sessions allows musicians to begin recording their creations at any time. Although I’m not certain how long recordings can last, the game offers six slots. You can even sing along using the DS microphone, although vocals will not be recorded. This is most probably due to space constraints inherent with the cartridge format.
These impressions only represent a fraction of what is actually possible with Jam Sessions. For the most part, if it’s possible on an acoustic guitar, it’s possible here (save for picking individual strings, of course). The last thing I’ll mention, however, is that although playing Jam Sessions is far easier than playing an actual guitar, it still requires a considerable amount of skill to produce anything remotely pleasant sounding. So, buyer beware.
That’s really neat. I remember seeing videos of this a while back and it is quite an interesting use of the DS features. My only worry is what your screen will look like after extended use (all those scratches from your pick!).