From the makers of Nintendo's English training software Eigo ga Nigate na Otona no DS Training: Eigo Zuke, comes a virtual guitar application for the Nintendo DS(tm). Plato's Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 allows you to control a guitar, with 120 built-in chords, three plucking variations of each.

The chords are navigated with the d-pad, while you use the stylus to strum via the touch screen. You can chose from 20 songs to strum along with or just play freely on your own. 18 song are available in printed form, bundled with the software.

Exclusive: Ubisoft to Publish Jam Sessions, an Improved Version of Japanese Cult Hit Guitar Game, in North America This June

If Level Up were a weekly magazine like our parent company, we'd have to call the current edition Exclusiveweek. Today, we alone are bringing you the news that in June, Ubisoft will release Jam Sessions, a game that turns your Nintendo DS portable into a handheld mini-guitar--you use the stylus, your finger or a guitar pick to strum the touch screen, selecting the desired notes (they've been digitally remastered from an actual acoustic guitar) using the D-pad and a shoulder button.

If that sounds a bit like Guitar Hero in your pocket, it's not; it's both cooler than that and potentially way more niche. Guitar Hero sets the tempo at which you play the notes, over already-provided backing instruments. Jam Sessions does none of that. In its Performance Mode, it only displays the notes and the lyrics, with no timing whatsoever. So if you wanted to play, as we did, a Really Famous Protest Song Written by the Lead Singer of a Pop Foursome From Liverpool (we hate to be coy, but Ubisoft is still working on the deals for the music that songs that will be playable in the finished version), you could play it as a slow dirge, a jaunty pop ditty or a blazing punk anthem--it's all up to you.

The Level Up staff, while musically savvy, is rather instrumentally challenged, so you can imagine that we found Jam Sessions tough going. But we never felt discouraged; each setback only encouraged us to redouble our efforts to if not approach mastery, to at least avoid complete incompetence. The game's design helps out tremendously in that it's impossible to hit a false note, so it's all about the rhythm with which you string the notes together. We'll definitely give this another go when it ships.

The game has two other modes: Free Play and Tutorial. In Free Play Mode, no lyrics or notes are provided--you just rock out as you please. Tutorial Mode promises to teach you how to play a guitar from scratch. The game was previously released in Japan under the name Hiite Utaeru DS Guitar M-06 to critical acclaim and consumer delight, but it didn't include a save mode. Jam Session does, so you can record your Unplugged masterpiece to entertain your friends. You can further customize your playing style with adjustable reverb, chorus, low/high pass, tremolo and other settings. And on the visual front, you'll be able to change the look of the virtual guitar string and unlock backgrounds for a job well done in performance mode. Here endeth our hands-on preview; come back for our Q&A with Seth Delackner, the game's director and lead programmer.

Repeat after me, this is NOT a game, this is NOT a game!

Glad to hear it's making an apperance in english soon.

just curious, for those who dont know how to use guitar, can they reli enjoy this software(haha, not a game like maraudez said).