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.
In addition to the music games, there are seven other games, most of which use the stylus or your voice. You control Hannah as she ice skates by tracing shapes on the screen, and you play a Pong -type game by singing into the DS microphone to control the moving paddle on the bottom of the screen. You also have plenty of opportunities to dress Hannah in crowd-pleasing outfits.
In the Creative Play mode, you can compose songs by laying down four musical tracks for rhythm, lead and bass guitars and drums. The software combines your tracks to produce a song. Innovative programming provides guitar chords that sound good together, so the composing is simple enough for even novice musicians. In addition to composing, the game also gives you a music video studio in which to create your own videos using either your own music or the music of Hannah Montana.
Even better is the ability to jam with others who own the game. Up to four friends can play together, each using a DS as an instrument, and the jam session can be saved as a song. That song can be used to create a music video featuring backgrounds found in the adventure game. If you have a Nintendo Wi-Fi connection, you will be able to upload your video to the Internet and explore the videos others have created.
For Hannah Montana fans, this software is a must. And it will be interesting to budding musicians as well.