For what it is, it's pretty good... but it's NOT a game.
User Rating: 7 | Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar ''M-06'' DS
Jam Sessions is not a game, or a guitar simulator for the DS. It's a "strum simulator" with some built-in songs to act as a tutorial. That's really all the included songs are for, since there's no scoring or challenge as you play along with them. If you don't already know how a song goes, Jam Sessions doesn't help you out too much. It shows the lyrics below the chords, but does nothing to show rhythm or melody beyond a simple metronome which you can toggle and some mildly useful up-or-down strum suggestions. So that's the bad news. The good news is that the acoustic strums sound really good, and the cart supplies you with a lot of chord, strumming, effect, and performance options. I honestly expect to see DS players showing up at open mic nights soon. I'll probably be one of them... I'm a musician & songwriter, and while this will never replace my real guitar, it's a pretty useful little workshop tool that bends my mind and ear differently enough to inspire me in some new directions. I think even non-musicians will have fun playing with the included song charts and learning to make music, and that's a big part of Jam Sessions appeal. Anyone who puts in a little time can enjoy the simple reward of playing some songs and sounding pretty good doing it. Finally, there is plenty of room for improvement here. I've seen suggestions for single-note picking options and the option to create your own chord shapes. Or to be able to strum at different speeds. I'd personally like the effects to sound better and the "muting" still doesn't sound right to me. Still, as "DS Guitar v1.0" this is pretty good.
