Hannah Montana fans jam on Nintendo DS

— -- If your Hannah Montana fan is licking her wounds from not scoring seats at the sold-out concert series, a new video game may be just the salve she needs.

Hannah Montana: Music Jam, a game created exclusively for the Nintendo DS, lets you play as Hannah in an adventure where she learns to play musical instruments. The game also is a rock band simulation where you and your friends can jam together and create your own music video.

The game offers two modes of play: Adventure and Creative Play. In both, you practice music and create your own music videos.

The adventure takes place in the world of Disney's Hannah Montana television series. You become Miley Stewart, the high school girl who is the secret identity behind the rock star Hannah Montana. Only Miley's family and close friends know about her double life.

The story line revolves around Miley trying to balance fame and friends. As Hannah, her fame is being challenged by Savannah Star, an up and coming rock star who can play her own instruments. The two are going head-to-head in the upcoming Music Jam competition. To keep up with Savannah, Hannah decides to learn to play all the instruments she will use in the rock videos she must submit for the competition. Learning to play lead, rhythm and bass guitars, as well as the drums, become minigames within the story. Likewise, you will put together music videos using the backdrops, lights, dance moves, clothing and songs that you earn during the adventure.

While talking to others and completing a series of routine fetch-it tasks move along the story line, the adventure is inventive because of the minigames embedded in the story. The three learn-to-play guitar minigames combine the popular Dance Dance Revolution (DDR) genre with the rhythm mechanics of games like Elite Beat Agents to produce unique play. For example, to play the rhythm guitar, the dual screens show the fret board of the guitar body. An image of the DS control pad floats down the screens toward the body of the guitar and when it passes across two arrows, you must strum the strings of the guitar with your stylus. One of the four sides of the control pad will be highlighted, and as you strum, you must also push the corresponding side on the DS control pad.