Hannah Montana Music Jam

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.
 

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.