Hannah
Montana is back on the DS in another adventure, but this time she gets to jam
in her own videos. Whether this is a music game or an adventure is hard to say;
it’s a strange blend of the two.
Hannah
Montana is a popular Disney show that features a high school girl named Miley, who is also a pop star by the name of Hannah
Montana. Only her family and closest friends know she is one and the same. In Hannah
Montana Music Jam, Hannah is upstaged by a new pop sensation, Savannah Star. To
further complicate high school life, a new girl is making moves on her friends.
In order to resolve these conflicts, it is necessary for Hannah to prove her
musical “wow” ability and become an errand runner for all her
friends. By being everything to everyone, she will succeed and become……burnt
out before she’s 19.
As
mentioned, this game is a dual package of a music making tool and an adventure
game, with some mini-games added to the mix. In the adventure, Hannah has a
list of tasks that she has to do in order to advance to the end of the
chapter. Once the level is won, she
will make a music video which will be compared to Savannah Star’s. There
are lots and lots of tasks, most of which involve “go there and do that”
errands. When the player does the task, they’re immediately presented
with another that is often a continuation of the prior task. These are basic
errands and don’t involve any puzzle solving or searching.
There
are mini-games scattered here and there which help to break up the game, but
most of them aren’t much fun. The main problem is they are too long and
repetitive. The ice skating game in particular seems to go on forever. This
game has players tracing patterns on the screen with the stylus, which quickly
becomes boring. Other games include a solo racing game, a shape puzzle game, a rhythm
matching symbols game, and a pizza making game, amongst others. The pizza game
and the shape puzzle games are the most fun and involve critical thinking type
play, but the rest are pretty ho-hum. Players are able to play them at any time
after they are unlocked, though, which is good.
While
the adventure aspects aren’t all that much fun in actual experience, the
adventure does capture the spirit of the show nicely. The humor of the comments
is spot on, and the look and feel of the whole game is directly inspired by the
show.
The
musical portion of the game is the best part and is very well-designed. There
are a lot of features packed into this DS game! Players can design and record
tunes using various types of guitars and also drums. The guitar sections
feature three sets of chords each, which can be played in any order, and
involves players strumming the strings with the stylus. Players will first edit
the rhythmic guitar, then add the other types of instruments and also choose
two different types of beats. They can then play back the song to listen to it
before saving the tune. These tunes can be shared online or with friends who
also own a copy of the game. (It may be hard to find several friends with game
copies, though, so this option may not be used often.) There is also a video
design portion of the game, but the song choices appear to be only Hannah
Montana tunes. If there was a way
to add player tunes to the videos, we didn’t see it.
The
music videos and tunes can be played either separately, or in conjunction with
the adventure. The tune portion is fun, but the video is less so, as the
character of Hannah Montana is very tiny in the videos and it’s hard to
see much detail.
The
graphic design is wholly different from the previous Hannah Montana game, with
the characters drawn in a more solid, 3D representation. The characters all
look great and are well-animated. The backgrounds are detailed and colorful,
too.
The
interface is designed fairly well and is easy enough to use during the
adventure for navigational purposes. The mini-games all have instructions,
which is good. However, the video
and music sections don’t have much instruction at all. This makes
designing difficult at first, as these are the most complex parts of the game.
However, after trial and error the basic methods can be discerned.
It’s
hard to give a definitive rating to this game, due to its split design of features.
The adventure aspect is lacking in any type of challenge or thinking, which
really hurts it. This is a shame, as it looks like it should be fun, it just
isn’t. The music aspect is very good, but what is the purpose,
ultimately? This game is designed for pre-teens, who just aren’t going to
be that involved in making their own tunes and sharing them around extensively.
Either they will lose interest because they can’t figure out the
instructions in the first five minutes, or they will lose interest when they
realize they really can’t do anything with the songs, besides listen to
them on the DS, unless they have friends who also own a copy. Most ten-year-old
girls aren’t going to be that interested in sharing their own musical
creations online, at least not the young girls I know. The mini-games aren’t
all that much fun, either, except for a couple.
This
game is probably best for die-hard Hannah Montana fans, or for kids who enjoy
creative music mixing.
|
Review Scoring Details for |
Gameplay: 6.5
This game at first
appears to be a fun adventure with a great music making tool. However, after
playing for awhile, it becomes apparent there isn’t any substance to the
adventure and the mini-games are somewhat boring. The music feature, while
good, isn’t really something that pre-teen girls will actually use much.
Graphics: 8
The graphics are really
attractive and capture the style of the show, even though the show itself isn’t
animated.
Sound: 8
The music feature is the
best part, and all the instruments sound wonderful! Even the in-house tunes
from the show sound good.
Difficulty: Medium
The adventure is easy,
even on the hard difficulty setting. However, the lack of instruction for the
music portion makes the game a little harder to learn.
Concept: 6
The designers tried to
be different, but it didn’t work that well.
Multiplayer: 6
Kids
can share their tunes and videos, but they don’t really “play”
together.
Overall: 6.5
This game is an average
kids game that could have been better with more in-depth gameplay
features, such as more puzzle solving in the adventure and better mini-games.
The music portion is good, but maybe not a good fit for the target audience.
