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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.
DS releases for the week of September 24th
Feel like learning? We sure hope so, since that seems to be the theme for this week's releases, at least in the U.S. Personally, we'd be most interested in learning how to win lots of money at poker, but we're not sure World Series of Poker falls in line with most of this week's titles ... if only it was a training game! Animal Genius Crayola Treasure Adventures Math Play Race Driver: Create & Race World Series of Poker 2008: Battle for the Bracelets To see what's up with the rest of the globe this week, jaunt on past the break.
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.
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!
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 gets the demo treatment
Advertising for Jam Sessions may be somewhat less than good, but that doesn't make the title less worthwhile -- nor does it detract from this hilarious E3 demo! We've tucked it away after the jump, but first you have to run the screenshot gauntlet. We're bad, bad people.We do find some of the screens a little disturbing, however. Is that redheaded chick puking? We really only need so much rock-and-roll realism in our video games, thanks ....%Gallery-3427%
Promotional Consideration: Come As You Are
Promotional Consideration is a weekly feature about the Nintendo DS advertisements you usually flip past, change the channel on, or just tune out.If you missed our spotlight on Leo Burnett's "Communion Day" ad last Sunday, make sure to give it a glance. Even if you've already skimmed through our words on the award-winning piece, we've updated our summation with some insight from art director Rosemary Collini Bosso.This weekend's installment of Promotional Consideration takes a critical eye to an unconvincing ad that might actually drive away consumers. Read on for more details.
Conjecture Countdown: One more day!
With only one more day of waiting before the debut of the diminished E3, we've decided to get serious and offer up some real predictions about what we will -- and won't -- see at the show. Check after the jump for the breakdown, by writer, of the good, the bad, and the ugly sides of our E3 hopes and fears.
Jammin' Guitar Pick stylus lets us shred our touch screens
We've seen a GameStop.com listing for a product called the "Jammin' Guitar Pick" for a while, but we've been patiently waiting for a picture to show up. Today, one day before the product's release, one has surfaced. It's a very simple idea: a guitar pick with a stylus stuck to it, and it comes in a pack of three for $8. Oddly, the pointier part of the pick doesn't appear to be the part where the stylus is attached.We're just thrilled that someone at Naki thought Jam Sessions was going to be big enough to call for its very own third-party accessory. Too bad the picks are coming out just as word comes out of the game's delay. We're thinking about picking up the accessory now in anticipation, and so we can pretend we're giving one of them sexy solos while we're playing Meteos.
Jam Sessions delayed until September
Ubisoft's Jam Sessions, which would officially be our personal most-anticipated game if it were a game, was originally slated for a summer release in both Europe and the US. It was going to be a beautiful summer of trying to play metal on a fake acoustic guitar. But fate (or Ubisoft; the two are interchangeable) had other plans.Cubed3 reports that Ubisoft has confirmed a delay for the European release of Plato's guitar simulator, to September 28th. We don't have an official word on the US version, but GameStop lists the release date as September 11th, which is corroborated by Ubisoft's website. How long does it take to translate guitar notes?
Friday Video: NMS round-up edition
This week, it's all about the Nintendo Media Summit, and we thought we'd wrangle all the videos into our weekly spotlight, even if it does get a little crowded in here. See what we're willing to sacrifice, just to bring you videos?Okay, okay, you caught us. We like watching the videos too, so it's not much of a sacrifice at all. The overview is particularly nice, as we get footage and discussion of so many forthcoming Nintendo titles. Check 'em all out after the jump.
Just because: Jam Sessions video
This Jam Sessions video is just too great -- we love the way it's shot, so that it looks like the guy is actually playing a guitar, and then ... oho! Behold, for it is a DS Lite. What can't the DS do? We keep waiting for it to just take over the world. While we await our new DS overloards, hit the jump for the video.
DS Daily: We just want to talk about Jam Sessions some more
It's been a popular topic of discussion lately-- the DS guitar simulator/toy/thing that Ubisoft is surprisingly localizing for a US audience. For some of us, weirdly enough, it was the biggest story to come out of GDC. We're still actually not sure why Ubisoft, a company generally known to play it safe and never release anything that hasn't already been released on other systems, decided to pick up something that isn't even a game. A misguided attempt to jump on the Guitar Hero bandwagon, perhaps?Whatever the reason, we heart Ubisoft for doing it. We haven't made any attempt to hide it: we are eager to try Jam Sessions. We want it to be out right now. We don't care that it isn't a game, or whatever.So what about you commenters? Are you ready to strum-- but not solo-- on a virtual guitar doodad? Have you learned to stop worrying and love the non-game?
