Create Digital Music » Guitar Strumming on the Nintendo DS, Coming Stateside; Videos Galore

May 30 2007

Guitar Strumming on the Nintendo DS, Coming Stateside; Videos Galore

M-06, the previously Japan-only game that allows you to transform a Nintendo DS into a guitar, is coming to the US via Ubisoft, reports Newsweek’s OneUp. (What’s this? DS music in Newsweek? Times have changed!)

Exclusive: Ubisoft to Publish Jam Sessions, an Improved Version of Japanese Cult Hit Guitar Game, in North America This June [OneUp -- and you complain about my headlines being too long?]

OneUp exclusive announcement video

The results aren’t quite competitive with an actual guitar, but as a novelty it looks like great fun, it’s amazing it’s possible at all, and it might actually be useful as a portable songwriting device.

Commercial software isn’t the only way to make the DS into a music controller. We first saw the awesome DSMidiWifi back in November, which allows you to use the DS with any standard MIDI software.

Since M-06 has been out in Japan, we’ve got lots of videos, like Play-Asia’s in-depth overview (prior to the US announcement, so ignore the import mention if you’re in America):

Our friend and resident graphicalist Nat has some great shots of the box art:

DS Guitar…. DS SOLOOOOOOO! \m/ [onetonnemusic]

Thanks to Patrick Murphy for this one.

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9 Comments

dead_red_eyes

Nice to see that it’s coming stateside. My friend in Japan LOVES this game .. and has been raving to me about it. He’s actually running it thru a bunch of pedals into his Orange amp … he’s really getting a kick out of it.

May 30, 2007 @ 2:14 pm

Patrick

I wonder if this game will be able to be ported to the ds-x hardware?

Plugging a Nintendo product into an Orange amp is the funniest thing I’ve ever heard. I can think of no better way to thum one’s nose at all the purism and snobbery going on in the name of “tone” these days.

Anyhow, love to see more.

May 30, 2007 @ 2:24 pm

dead_red_eyes

Haha, yeah it’s funny Patrick.

I’d really like to try out that DSMidiWifi thing, but I need to get one of those flash carts for the program. Thanks for the linkage Peter … I just bookmarked it so I could find it later.

I have Electroplankton for the DS, and let me tell you what Patrick … that shit sounds awesome going thru a Korg KAOSS Pad 3 into my Orange amp. Loud and crisp baby! If they ever get the Tenori-On up and going … you better believe that I’ll soon be running that badboy thru the ol’ Orange … hell yes!

I hate running everything thru the house system … and if I could I’d have an amp on stage for every real/virtual instrument.

May 30, 2007 @ 6:16 pm

Fer

Now, do we really need a Nintendo to play the guitar?

May 31, 2007 @ 7:44 am

Peter Kirn

I think it’s best to think of this as a better way to play the DS, not the DS as a better way to play the guitar. And unless you have a really tiny ukulele, the DS is easier to keep in your jacket pocket, etc. ;)

I can see being squeezed on a bus and thinking about new tunes, tapping away chord progressions. I hope there’s some record capability, as missing on ElectroPlankton?

May 31, 2007 @ 8:52 am

deltasleep

It’s interesting to me how different Japan’s standards are for games. To me, this doesn’t look like a complete game, it looks like a small part of a bigger game.
I guess thats why the American market sees fewer, bigger games?

May 31, 2007 @ 10:05 am

dead_red_eyes

Yeah, there’s no real recording ability on Electroplankton … which sucks. But I can still sample stuff later on …

There were these really cool games that came out for the Gameboy Advance, and they were released in Japan only. Think puzzle game meets music game. The series was called “Bit Generations”. There is one game called “Coloris” and all the sounds & music were created by “Cornelius”. It’s an awesome little game.

May 31, 2007 @ 12:31 pm

dead_red_eyes

Japan puts out all sorts of cool games … probably 5% of those come over here to the US. My friend has this one game for the Playstation 2 that’s all about digging with a backhoe … and that’s it. They have all sorts of crazy games with wacky concepts and ideas … I love it! I wish that we’d see some of that over here.

May 31, 2007 @ 12:33 pm

Joaquins Musikblog

Gitarre spielen mit der Nintendo DS…

Von der Microsoft XBox kennt man ja das Spiel Guitar Hero, bei dem es sich eher um ein Geschicklichkeitsspiel handelt. Anders jedoch verhÃ¤lt es sich bei dem in Japan erfolgreichem Spiel M-06, welches Ubisoft unter den Namen Jam Sessions auf den Markt …