Posts with tag music
Posted Oct 2nd 2007 4:40PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Meta
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?
Posted Sep 29th 2007 7:51PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: Reviews
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.
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.
Continue reading DS Fanboy Review: Jam Sessions
Posted Sep 7th 2007 2:00PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: News
We haven't heard much about
Guitar Hero DS since it was
confirmed, but Adrian Earle of Vicarious Visions let a few tiny tidbits slip at the Austin Game Developers Conference. The first is really no surprise: the peripheral that was
being considered is a go, though the design is not yet completed. Earle only promised that we would "absolutely love it." Perhaps his Magic 8-ball told him so? Or maybe the peripheral is closer to completion than he wants us to think.
The second bit is the one we found more interesting, and potentially either horrifying or fantastic. Graphically, they're planning on keeping the DS installment as true to the look of the
Guitar Hero franchise as possible. The series has a pretty distinct look that has grown more and more detailed over time, and we can't wait to get a glimpse of how they plan to translate that to the dual screen experience. It sounds like they've set themselves quite a challenge here, and we hope they can pull it off. After all, DS gamers already have some of the best
rhythm games ever made ... our standards are high. But the
Guitar Hero series is all about fun, so if done well here, it should fit right in.
Posted Aug 30th 2007 11:30AM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Video, Imports, Sales
We've put up several posts in the past about
Nodame Cantabile, a conductor-themed
rhythm game that follows
Ouendan's tap-circles-to-the-beat formula, hoping someone would eventually pick it up and let us know how its mechanics compare against its predecessor's.
If we haven't convinced you to try it out yet, perhaps Play Asia's discounted price will; the import shop will have the
Bandai title listed at $14.90 ($2.90 US shipping) until next Monday, less than half of its original price!
Speaking of
Nodame Cantabile DS, have you ever seen the commercial that aired for it in Japan? It's pretty wacky! Jump past the break to watch the clip.
[Via CAG]
Continue reading Play Asia conducting a Nodame Cantabile sale
Posted Aug 29th 2007 10:00PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: GBA, Features, The DS Life
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handheld and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to
thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.
You don't always have to be playing the same game to share an experience ...
Continue reading The DS Life: Multiplayer
Posted Aug 22nd 2007 10:40AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
The song list for
Ubisoft's
Jam Sessions has been revealed, and it's pleasant enough to be worth checking out when you get tired of randomly making noises. There are some great selections, like "The Man Who Sold the World" and Bob Marley's "No Woman No Cry" as well as a lot of stuff that we're too old and lame to know anything about. There are a few songs like Beck's fantastic "Jack-ass" that don't seem to have that much guitar in them, which leads us to question their appropriateness for this game. On the other hand, it's (sheet music providing instructions for playing) a
Beck song in a video game. That's awesome.
We also have to wonder how Ubisoft decided to categorize covers by artist: for example, "Life Is A Highway" on the card is billed as the Rascal Flatts version rather than the original Tom Cochrane version, and the aforementioned "The Man Who Sold the World" is billed as Nirvana and not David Bowie, despite the guitar arrangements being identical in both cases and therefore indistinguishable. Oh, right, marketing. We should learn not to think too deeply about these things.
Speaking of marketing, Ubisoft is including a bonus that is either awesome or infuriating, depending on your proximity to a Best Buy. Three exclusive songs will be on copies of the game sold at Best Buy, including Jimi Hendrix's "Wild Thing" (what were we just saying about the covers?). GameStop shoppers will get a preorder bonus that
doesn't require a separate pressing of the game: a free subscription to
Spin magazine. The full song list is available after the break.
Continue reading Jam Sessions contains Best Buy-exclusive songs
Posted Aug 15th 2007 9:50AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
At this point, even if there hadn't been official confirmation, it would be no surprise that
Guitar Hero III is on the way to the DS. Never mind that the DS is ill-suited for the
Guitar Hero experience-- it's a
game console.
At least there's evidence that the RedOctane/Neversoft/
Activision Power Team is considering ways to make the DS less ill-suited for the game, including the method they used to make the original
Guitar Hero something other than just a simplified
Frequency: peripherals. "It's an integral part of the Guitar Hero experience, so as much as possible, we would like to keep it within the experience as long as it makes sense and it plays well," RedOctane's Charles Huang told CNET.
Bring on the
peripherals, RedOctane. The more ridiculous the better. We're already
pretending we're playing guitar on the DS-- we don't need to look dignified doing it.
Posted Jul 21st 2007 11:30AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
The more we hear about
Ontamarama, the less like an inconsequential game for kids it sounds. We've already established that it has a challenging control scheme, but this rundown of the game's controls by Fanboy BFF Ludwig Kietzmann is the most detailed yet. Will we have the intelligence and dexterity required to manipulate the touch screen and the d-pad at the same time? Probably not? Will we enjoy trying and failing? Indubitably!
After posting all of these favorable impressions from friends and colleagues, we want to be able to post our own impressions! Even some of our commenters got in on the act
last time, telling us about their experiences with the Japanese version of the game.
You guys are
killing us. But thanks for your comments! But
killing us.
Posted Jul 19th 2007 2:00PM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
Phoenix Wright is the most unlikely success story on the DS. First, a series of
very Japanese Game Boy Advance graphical text adventures about murder trials was ported to the DS.
Then the series started getting localized for the US, and it became a surprise hit. It just got
more unlikely: not only are we getting US releases of game soundtrack CDs for a handheld game, but we're getting
themed arranged soundtracks. Now we are so happy,
we do the dance of joy!
Capcom announced a licensing deal for
Gyakuten Meets Orchestra and
Gyakuten Meets Jazz, to be released here as
Ace Attorney Meets Orchestra and
Ace Attorney Meets Jazz! Go buy them.
Go buy them and tell Capcom they're doing a good thing.
[Thanks, CJMErl!]
Posted Jul 16th 2007 1:20PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Video
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 ....
Continue reading Jam Sessions gets the demo treatment
Posted Jul 16th 2007 9:50AM by JC Fletcher
Filed under: News
We were
piqued by the puzzlish multitasking rhythm
gameplay in Noise Factory's
Ontamarama before its Japanese release as
Ontama. But now that
it's being localized and we may actually have a shot at playing the thing, we've graduated from
piqued to
some degree of interest that is a little greater than 'piqued.'
Siliconera's Spencer Yip played
Ontamarama at
E3 and wrote up a description of the game, which sounds as complicated as ever: it involves first touching a little creature of the correct color, then tapping the D-pad in the direction of a scrolling arrow. We knew that those two components were involved, but didn't know the chronology. We're glad
somebody got to play it and tell us!
80Pan fans take note: this game,
for once, will be keeping the original Japanese music. Is that a good thing? No idea! If it helps, we're pretty sure there was no Avril Lavigne in the Japanese version.
Posted Jun 28th 2007 11:45AM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: News
We've been in love with Jake "Virt" Kaufman's video game soundtracks (e.g.
Shantae,
Godzilla: Domination,
Scurge: Hive) and micromusic remixes for years now, so it pleased us to no end to hear that he would be working with
WayForward on
Contra 4's themes. Not familiar with his discography? Here are three of our favorite Virt arrangements and chiptune covers that we grabbed from his site:
- Contra - "Contravirt" (6.0 MB MP3)
- Castlevania II - "What a Horrible Night" (2.0 MB MP3)
- Michael Jackson - "Thriller (VRC6 Cover)" (4.1 MB MP3)
How did the
Konami fanboy react when he was initially approached with handling
Contra 4's music and sound design? "After I got off the phone with the dude I couldn't stop pacing back and forth for like 10 hours. I was afraid I would suddenly grow tentacles and then question reality and then wake up in my bed and it was all a dream ... Alas, my tentacles are REAL."
Posted Jun 24th 2007 7:45PM by Eric Caoili
Filed under: Fan stuff
It could be months before
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass makes it to America, but you can count on us to bring you everything we find pertaining to the Japanese game --
commercials, video of its
first six minutes, and now, its soundtrack. It's as close as you can get to playing the game without actually having to import it! Sort of.
The Hylia has ripped over 75 tracks directly from
Phantom Hourglass, posting them all for you to listen to. Aren't you glad that you have friends like us to tell you about the awesome going-ons of the internet?
Posted Jun 19th 2007 4:55PM by Alisha Karabinus
Filed under: Fan stuff
We spent this last weekend
rocking out at Bonnaroo down in the drought-ravaged state of Tennessee, and look who had a prime spot right between What stage and Which stage! Yep, it's our own overalled mascot. With his mushroom habit and hairy neck, Mario fit in nicely with a good portion of the crowd. Maybe he was responsible for the orange confetti that rained down during the Flaming Lips show on Saturday night. With the insane heat, there was sure to be a fire flower around there
somewhere.
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