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Best of the Rest: Scott's Picks of 2007
Odin Sphere (PS2) Vanillaware's side-scrolling action RPG caught me completely off guard when it came out, but I fell instantly in love with the game's style. Practically everything about Odin Sphere is unique: the circular levels; the gigantic, beautifully-drawn sprites; the bizarre food-crafting mechanics. Toss in a healthy amount of Norse mythology, and you've got one damn fine, under-appreciated game. Here's hoping Vanillaware's upcoming Wii title is up to snuff.
A year of Promotional Consideration
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.The titling of this post is a bit of a misnomer, as we didn't start this column until early July, so it's more of a "half-year of" piece. No, you jerks, the humor in us beginning our Promotional Consideration retrospective on a disappointing note isn't lost on us.Still, with 26 articles now behind us, one every week since this feature's inception, we've written enough of these to develop a few that are actually worth reading. We've picked out our five favorite Promotional Consideration posts of 2007, carefully hiding them after the post break, that magical realm where anything seems possible.
UK gets a price break on select DS games
UK gamers, you've got a heck of a sale going on. Select titles from online retailer Play.com have gotten their prices slashed, with free shipping on all titles purchased. Any games purchased won't get there before Christmas, sadly, but you will get one heck of a sweet deal. Perhaps you've shopped for everyone else and now it's time to treat yourself? As far as good games you can get on the cheap, Drawn to Life (£12.99), Custom Robo (£14.99) and Jam Sessions (£17.99) are a few of the titles that are up for grabs. Not only that, but newer games like Call of Duty 4 (£17.99) are even getting in on the price cut action.
New Wiimote hack for the air guitarist in all of us
The idea of using the humble Wiimote to create music seems to have really fired the imagination of the hacking community recently. DJing WiiJing and drumming are already both possible with the waffly versatile controller and a bit of know-how, and now those of you who lack the funds for Guitar Hero III can get your virtual shred on for free.Hacker Evan, maker of the Wiimote drum sampler we linked to exactly one paragraph ago, has developed software that allows users to play air guitar, simply by "strumming" the Remote while holding down the d-pad to alternate between chords, or the B button to toggle between major and minor chords. As Evan points out, this has a similar feel to Jam Sessions on the Nintendo DS, which is far from a bad thing if you ask us.[Thanks, Evan!]
Today's most vulgar videos: Jam Sessions' instant rockstar
The North American marketing for DS guitar simulator Jam Sessions has been pretty low-key, comprised of a MySpace page, uninspired print ads, and a bevy of videos showing real artists using the non-game to play fake guitar.Off the charts, then, are New Zealand's excellent television spots for the title, which emphasize how having Jam Sessions in your DS repertoire can transform you into an instant rockstar. According to the ads, being an instant rockstar involves hitting on your buxom aunt, and cursing out your mum for baking you the wrong birthday cake. Honestly, the things those New Zealanders can get away with on television!If we haven't made it abundantly clear, these videos are definitely not-safe-for-work material. Catch all the raunchy, raucous action after the break (and not a single shot of gameplay, either!).
Promotional Consideration: Party Like a Rock Star
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/videos/gaming/Outrageously_saucy_Jam_Sessions_commercials_in_New_Zealand'; Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out. This marks the third time we've featured Ubisoft's Jam Sessions in our Promotional Consideration column, but these latest ads for the New Zealand market are the best ones yet. We're not going to ruin their illicit content for you before you've had a chance to watch these not-safe-for-work commercials yourselves, so hurry past the break and see what all the kids are nattering about at recess.
Promotional Consideration: Santeria
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.It physically pained us to see Ubisoft's print campaign and European boxart for Jam Sessions, but the publisher came through with its commercial for the recently-released guitar sim. The 30-second spot is broken up into three scenes of alleged teenagers playing and enjoying the game, all of them singing along to Sublime's "Santeria," a track that isn't actually included on the Jam Sessions cart. It's a catchy tune, one we're sure you've heard many times on the radio, and we can see why it was picked for the piece. Continue past the jump for the commercial and this week's installment of Promotional Consideration.
Ubisoft looking for Jam Sessions musicians
Up until October 23rd, those who're able to construct their own tunes, complete with vocals, in Ubisoft's Jam Sessions have the chance to win a trip to New York city. There, 2 winners will perform live on Fuse TV. All one has to do is upload a video of themselves performing their track to Ubisoft's YouTube page, where winners will be selected on November 6th.So, any of our fine readers plan on participating in this contest?
The Jam Sessions bundle-within-a-bundle
The Jam Sessions Performance Bundle, with its included amplifier, was only kind of big. It was an "awesome" bundle, but not a "DUDE OMG AWESOME" bundle. If you want to give a loved one a "DUDE OMG AWESOME" gift this holiday season, GameStop may have the solution with their DS Lite Music Bundle.Comprising a Polar White DS Lite, the Jam Sessions Performance Bundle, and a set of JAMMIN Guitar Picks, the set makes up a complete musical instrument (and a set of JAMMIN Guitar Picks). And it only costs $207.97, a savings of ... hey, wait! Nothing! This bundle is just three currently-available regular-priced items sold together! Well, even so, this would make a great gift for the musically adventurous.
DS Fanswag: Win a copy of Jam Sessions
Are you strapped for cash after facing the deluge of awesome DS releases? We understand, and DS Fanboy is here to help. We've got three copies of Ubisoft's Jam Sessions, valued at $29.99, for three lucky readers, and we need to make sure they go to good homes. If you have the urge to get your strum on without giving up any cash, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post telling us what song you want to learn to play sometime between now and Sunday, October 7, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern. You may enter as many times as you'd like, so long as you always answer the question. On Monday the 8th, we'll select three lucky winners in a random drawing and ship off your free games. Does it get any better than that? We think not. There are, of course, a few caveats. Winners must be both U.S. citizens and over the age of 18 (sorry, guys!). You can check out the full official rules here.So ... what song will you be attempting?
DS Fanboy Review: Jam Sessions
Ubisoft's Jam Sessions isn't a guitar. It sounds kind of like one, and encourages you to play melodies with it that were written for guitar. There have even been guitar-pick-shaped styli designed to be used with the program. But don't think of it as a guitar. It's not even a "virtual guitar." It's certainly not a game either, and not in the way that Brain Age is a non-game, but rather in the way that the web browser is not a game. Jam Sessions is a new, digital musical instrument that is every bit as innovative as Toshio Iwai's Tenori-On, with the added benefit of making sense to someone other than Toshio Iwai. It is endlessly configurable, ridiculously feature-rich, and easy to operate. It is potentially useful for traveling musicians, but is just as enjoyable for amateurs who just want to mess around and make some impromptu music.
Jam Sessions lets you play show tunes
Fans of Firefly and Serenity (which, is all of you ... or else), we've got a nice little video for you. If you've picked up Ubisoft's Jam Sessions, then you too can play the theme song to Firely. It's actually quite simple. And, you don't even need to have a ridiculous haircut, either!
Creepy Jam Sessions audio clarified, un-creepified
Remember how we were so spooked out by last week's hidden message in Jam Sessions that we swore off haunted houses for the rest of our lives and ran home to eat pizza rolls, sans ghosts hovering over our heads? We haven't been that scared since, well, since we saw the game's European boxart! Oh, burn!One of the programmers from Plato, Jam Sessions' developer, posted a video to explain the voice that seemed to be whispering, "Don't kill us," or "Forgive us," whenever users let the A6 chord play out. It's actually one of the recording engineers saying, "Tsugiikimasu," which is Japanese for "next," as in, "I'm going to play the next chord."While that makes a lot of sense, it doesn't explain that tapping noise we hear on our bedroom window every night, nor does it clear up the moaning and creaky mattress sounds coming from the apartment above us. We think it might be the Chupacabra. Bring your ghost hunting gear past the post break for videos of the creepy message and Plato's explanation.
WRUP: Drawn to jam edition
This week's releases included a little game by the name of Jam Sessions. Oh, and another called Drawn to Life. And we're not even including all of the wonderful releases hitting other territories. So, there's plenty of titles available to gamers looking for something new to play. Will you get your jam on, or do you plan to release your inner artist? What will you be playing?
Konami codes and secret messages in Jam Sessions
If you're one of those completists who felt Best Buy's blue fist closing around your wallet when Ubisoft announced exclusive songs for people who purchased Jam Sessions through the electronics retail giant, allay your fears!It turns out that all you need to do to unlock the three bonus songs is enter a shortened version of the Konami code while in Free mode: Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, and Right. Those of you who've set the game up with left-handed controls should be able to enter the sequence with the ABXY buttons: X, X, B, B, Y, A, Y, and A.The three extra tracks, in case you've forgotten, are the following: Brad Paisley - "I'm Gonna Miss Her" Jimi Hendrix - "Wild Thing" Tom Petty - "Needles and Pins" Speaking of hidden stuff, the murmur amongst murmuring folks seems to be an eerie message in Jam Sessions when you hit the A6 chord and hold it out. After a few seconds, you can hear what sounds like someone whispering, "Don't kill us." Other interpretations of the barely audible voice include "Forgive us" and "Oh god, this is sooooo creepy. What the hell, guys. What. The hell. Seriously ya'll, quit messin' around, this ain't a game. Let's get out of here and eat pizza rolls at my place."Check past the post break for video and audio proof of the spine-tingling whisper. We guarantee that your spine will be tingled!
DS releases for the week of September 10th
This is such a good week for releases that we're not sure if we'd rather be here at home or over in Europe, where DS owners can get a taste of Tingle this week! Not that we're displeased with the array of titles available anywhere, frankly. If only every week could be this week. Except then we would be poor, and would require a very large cardboard-box-house in which to store our massive DS collection. Every rainstorm would see us huddled under a garbage bag in a futile effort to protect our babies. It's not a pretty picture. Drawn to Life Jam Sessions Spelling Challenges and More! Zoey 101: Field Trip Fiasco Travel past the break to see what's out in the rest of the world this week.
Wanna rock out? Jam Sessions bundle comes with mini amp
It might not go up to 11, but the miniature amp included in an upcoming Jam Sessions bundle shows that Ubisoft is definitely taking their music simulator seriously.The "Performance Bundle" -- which includes a First Act-branded mini amp -- will retail for $69.99 USD, but won't be out until November 1st, despite the game being released next Tuesday. The bundle's a clever move by Ubisoft to appeal to the more earnest musicians with their product. Now all we need is Guitar Center to start stocking the non-game.[Via DS Fanboy]
Jam Sessions Performance Bundle includes mini-amp for your DS
If the DS hasn't managed to catch you in its deathly, irresistible, touch-sensitive grasp by now, Jam Sessions just might be the title that pulls it off. The "game" is basically a guitar simulator, and while you can play along with built-in songs if you so choose, the real power of Jam Sessions is in the improvisational aspects: you can pretty much play thing the like a guitar, and that's where Ubisoft's Performance Bundle comes in. You can pick up one of these First Act amp / Jam Sessions bundles in November (the game itself hits this month) and really crank the tunes -- and finally annoy your neighbors in a way you've never quite managed with Guitar Hero.[Via DS Fanboy]
Jam Sessions Performance Bundle revealed
What's the perfect accessory for a pocket-sized guitar? A teeny-tiny amp, of course! Ubisoft is bundling their remarkable Jam Sessions software with a First Act mini-amplifier in a special "Performance Bundle." Even though the standalone game is coming out on the 11th of this month, you'll have to wait until November 1st for this package. We hope this bundle signals the start of a big Christmas rush in terms of promotion by Ubisoft. Jam Sessions could easily become one of the more popular toys this holiday season, with the right advertising. It could also become one of the more annoying toys this holiday season, with the right amplifier volume settings.
Play fake guitar at real band competitions
Looking for a chance to play Ubisoft's Jam Sessions? So much that it's worth going to a high school band competition? No offense, high school marching band members, but given that we don't currently have any children in band, we really wouldn't have any other reason to go, and it would be awkward for someone to find out we were just there for the DS.The surprisingly fun guitar simulator will be playable at the Bands of America regional championships in 20 cities, from September 15 to November 17. Apparently Music for All isn't concerned about a wave of teenagers casting their tubas and euphoniums aside in favor of DS Lites with some sampled guitar sounds-- but maybe they should be.
