First jam with Daigasso! Band Brothers DX

Daigasso! Band Brothers DX doesn’t stray far from the first game, if you jam with the buttons. When you play the MIDI version of Robinson in beginner mode you only need to press the A button when the cursor scrolls over smiley faces. It’s been awhile since I played the predecessor, but I recall beginner mode had D-pad and face button commands. Jump into to amateur mode and Daigasso! Band Brothers DX has a familiar flow of D-pad and face button notes. The only thing I didn’t see was the touch screen portions where the game would auto play a section of notes. I’m for less screen smudges.

Selecting the folk guitar completely changes the interface of Daigasso! Band Brothers DX. The bottom screen morphs into a virtual guitar. You play songs like Robinson by strumming up and down with the stylus. However, you don’t need to worry about what chords you’re playing in amateur mode. As long as you keep the rhythm intact you can hit all of the strings or just a few of them. I found it’s easier to pass the song by alternating short downwards and upwards stroke. I got a higher score this way, but my “performance” sounded atrocious.

The karaoke mode shouldn’t need much introduction. You read lyrics on the top screen and sing into the microphone. I wonder how often the karaoke mode will be used since the initial song list only has a handful of songs with vocals. A reasonable guess is the other J-pop songs on Nintendo’s download service will have attached lyrics. It would be more interesting if user created songs included lyrics. I can’t wait to see someone create a Chrono Trigger rap. The thought is equally as amusing as the image of Barbara the Bat showing players how to sing into the DS.

Photo credit Spencer/Sliconera.