Jam With The Band / Band Brothers on Nintendo DS

Dark Hogosha · Trick Member Joined: 12 Feb 2002 Location: Dubuque, Iowa

Figured I'd start up a topic for it, considering it's, one, the only rhythm game out for the DS right now and, to, kinda fun and addicting. Anyone else in this place have it or thinkin' about getting it yet? (It's out in Japan right now, no release date specified for the US yet as far as I know, though it will come out here eventually.)
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"...to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success." - Emerson

operator · Posted: Tue Jan 04, 2005 8:20 pm Post subject:

I'm waiting for the US release and I'm really excited. It seems really basic, but I think it might be like FreQuency/Ampliture, where it gets more complicated as you go on, because I know you start out by just pressing one or two buttons but then later will be required to use almost every button the DS as a command input.

How's the music?
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Dark Hogosha · Trick Member Joined: 12 Feb 2002 Location: Dubuque, Iowa

The songlist is pretty fun. Lots of anime/J-pop songs and video game medleys. And Smoke on the Water.

However...

It's all MIDI. Imagine the Beatmania games for the Game Boy Color. Not that it's bad, considering BM GB1 was my favorite Beatmania game of all time (everything else is just too hard for me and also non-portable), but if you're looking to play an MP3-quality version of Porno Grafitti's Melissa...download one. This is all MIDI. But it's still really fun.

Difficulty-wise...yeah, it goes from mind-numbingly easy in the beginning (for us rhythm-game junkies, anyway) to getting pretty difficult already in just Normal mode. I have a feeling it's got about Amplitude's difficulty curve...later in the game, it's gonna get sick.

I'll post more about it when I play it more...only played for an hour and a half so far.
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"...to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success." - Emerson

Junior Asparagus · Administrator Joined: 23 Jan 2002 Location: Natick, MA

This is actually the first I've heard of this game. I'm gonna go look some stuff up about it now, but I'm interested in hearing your reaction after you've played a bit more, Hogosha.
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davidbrit2 · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 4:39 pm Post subject:

I've got the game, and I love it. The difficulty ranges from pathetically easy to near impossible. Almost every song has from 6 to 8 different instruments, and each instrument can be played on one of three difficulty levels.

Beginner: two notes - D-Pad or face button
Amateur: 8 notes - all 4 D-Pad directions, and all 4 face buttons
Pro: 8 notes with L and R chording for octave change and accidentals
(Pro mode is REALLY hard, in case you didn't guess.)

And regarding the sound, this has always annoyed me. MIDI != FM synthesis/wavetable synthesis. MIDI is a serial data protocol for electronic instruments to communicate with one another. It's kind of like saying "my web browser has broadband". If Band Bros. had MIDI support, I should be able to hook it to my Casio keyboard. Heh. Long story short, it sounds like FM synthesis, or possibly low-fi wavetable. It's not mind blowing sound, but it's certainly damn good as far as synths go.

The editor rocks, since you can compose your own songs from scratch, then play and trade them. Nintendo has some sheet music you can download: http://www.nintendo.co.jp/ds/abbj/download/index.html
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operator · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 7:06 pm Post subject:

Davidbrit2 certiantly puts up a good argument about the music

I'm really into post-punk, dance-punk, riot grrl music which uses synths A LOT, mainly of the MIDI kind. I'm really excited to play this now

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Dark Hogosha · Trick Member Joined: 12 Feb 2002 Location: Dubuque, Iowa

Played it a lot today, unlocked Pro mode (mode mentioned before by davidbrit2) but haven't gotten around to playing with that or the edit mode yet.

The thing that intrigues me most about it now that I have it is multiplayer. I REALLY wanna get together with some friends and play this. Imagine Amplitude multi-player but cooperative instead of competitive and you only get one instrument. I can't wait to take this to ACen in May, it'll be fun to see if I can get a bunch of DS players in the lobby or game room to jam along.

The replay level per song is pretty high in single player mode, as you can play through with each instrument. On a song with all eight instruments and two main difficulty levels (Normal with all the buttons/directions and Pro with all + chording), that's at least 16 times through if you wanna play everything for that song. I can think of DDR songs that I haven't played 16 times, and I've been playing for three and a half years.

As far as unlocks...as far as I know, the only three things to unlock are:
- Difficulty levels (beat the first three-song stage to unlock the two-star difficulties, second stage to unlock the three-star difficulties, so on...works that way in Pro Mode, too)
- Pro Mode (beat all five three-song stages in Normal mode)
- Pro Edit Mode (haven't done this, apparently you just beat all five three-song stages in Pro Mode)
I'm kinda hoping that they give you something for getting a decent grade (90 or above?) on all the songs/instruments in free-play 1P mode, but that's wishful thinking. I THINK the game comes with all the songs already unlocked. davidbrit, you probably know more than me in that regard if you've been messing with it longer than I have.

Oh, and the game comes with a little pair of stereo earphones. That, right there, is why Nintendo is so cool.

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"...to leave the world a little better; whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is the meaning of success." - Emerson

davidbrit2 · Posted: Wed Jan 05, 2005 8:38 pm Post subject:

As far as I know, there aren't any hidden songs to unlock. However, I still have to clear the Recording Ticket Level 5 or whatever that Special Event course is. It's REALLY FREAKING HARD, so that might take a while. Heh. It's possible that you can earn one or two hidden songs from this, but I haven't heard anything yet.

And for me, Pro Edit mode appeared when I unlocked Pro mode.
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full melt

Jedo · Trick Member Joined: 18 Nov 2004 Location: NYC

I'll either get this or Warioware next...
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davidbrit2 · Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2005 10:42 am Post subject:

Okay, I stand corrected. I finally cleared Recording Ticket Level 5 in Pro mode, and it unlocked Them of Barbara Bat. I think that's the song that you play in Demo, or something. The next challenge after that is Recording Ticket Gold, where you have to get 297 points in 3 really hard songs, and it's going to be a really long time before I can BS my way through that.

Oh, and in case you weren't aware, the editor has 2 sample songs you can load and then re-save. There's Symphony 9 (Ode to Joy), and something else I can't place. To get them, start the pro editor, load data, and hit either one of the sample data buttons in the bottom left. Then you can save them in an available slot to play them.
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Dancing Dan · Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 3:32 pm Post subject:

davidbrit2 · Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2005 6:51 pm Post subject:

Yup, the editor is really good. Your compositions can be every bit as advanced as the included songs. I haven't tried putting in tempo changes, but I think it's possible. The max BPM is 300, and I know you can have at least 70 measures. I haven't checked the maximum length though.
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Total Drama Island Forum

Mukan · Trick Member Joined: 31 Aug 2004 Location: Avondale AZ