On the other hand…

The Nintendo DS has loads of titles in its library. Much like the Nintendo Wii, many of them are what is widely known as “filler”. Titles that are produced solely for the intend of making money. Of course, the intention of every game producer is to make at least enough money to pay the bills. But with titles like Petz: Dogz, Petz: Catz, Petz: Horzez etc., it quickly becomes clear that many titles are produced only with one thing in mind: Making a quick buck.

That doesn’t mean the DS doesn’t have some great titles, it most certainly does. But some of the real gems come in the strangest forms, and some are never really recognized for being exactly that: A little shining gem.

Maestro! Jump in Music (henceforth “Maestro!”) could be described as just another music games. The world sure needs one more of those, right? I mean, apart from numerous Guitar Heroes, Rock Band, DJ Hero, Singstar, Dance Dance Revolution etc., we certainly need more (that was sarcasm, in case you didn’t notice).

Now, I actually like music and I like music games. But by god, have they not released enough of the same and same old formula? Indeed they have, so does Maestro! bring anything new to the table?

For starters, Maestro!, as the name implies, incorporate the wonderful world of classical music. Sure, that has been done before, but not too often. Where Maestro! start to become really interesting is when we look at the actual gameplay.

The story is simple: The bird Presto lives next door to the spider Staccato. Not exactly friends, but they seem to get along. In comes the beautiful bird Bella, who both Presto and Staccato takes a fancy to. Presto wins and steals her heart (kinda unfair advantage he had, being a bird too, but hey). But Staccato is having none of that! And so he sees to it that the world goes mute. Now it’s up to Presto to save the sound and notes of the world.

How is this done then? Presto walks along strings set at different levels. In sync with the music comes notes that must be played by moving the stylus up or down over the string, much like you would play a guitar. Pulling down over a string can send Presto up a level, while the opposite will send him down. At first it seemed illogical, but in reality it is much logical, since that’s how you would do it in real life.

As Presto moves along, he collects objects, making chiclets follow him. You need at least enough to get a B+ grade to advance levels. Get many notes right and you’ll do fine, but miss a lot and you have to try again.

Luckily, the game is forgiving and you can try out a level before actually playing it. This can be worthwhile if you don’t already know the tune you are going to play.

That is, however, not all there is to the game. Soon you will have to learn new techniques for playing music. Each technique is carefully introduced with a tutorial you have to complete. There will be other birds entering the screen and you must click on them with the stylus at the correct moment. As they are moving, that’s not always easy, and of course you have to keep strumming the lines for notes.

Sometimes there will be several notes on top of each other, meaning you will have to strum them like a harp. There are times when you have to click an object and have to keep the stylus on the object as it moves, and then there are the “black holes” you have to rotate the stylus on. My favorite are the “mandolin” strings on which you have to strum up and down quickly.

The actualy gameplay is hard to describe, so here is the trailer for the game that demonstrates it quite well:

The game has 24 levels spread over 6 worlds. Each world ends with a music showdown with Staccato as your opponent. Seeing as these are the games’ “boss levels”, I would have believed them to be harder than the actual levels, but in reality, the boss levels are the easiest levels.

The normal levels can be played at different difficulty levels. On level “easy” it’s not too hard to advance in the game, although some of the later levels certainly taxes your stylus dexterity.

Now, all this would amount to absolutely nothing, if the music wasn’t well done. No matter how well done the game mechanic is, a music game with crap music would suck. So how does Maestro! sound?

I am happy to report that it sounds absolutely fabulous. I was totally gobsmacked at how amazing the music was done. Sure, it’s all “remixes” of popular and well known tunes, but by god, the music is awesome. Being composed by the obvious talented group Yubaba Smith & Fortune, the entire soundscape of the game oozes charm, joy and happiness. From the wonderful title theme that had me tapping my foot and whistling along in seconds, to the actual in-game tunes which are all respectfully (and quite faithfully) recreated versions of beloved tunes. The complete tracklist is as follows:

Green Grove: a colourful and flowery universe, full of exotic animals and lush vegetation. Rhythmic bass and afro beats inspire the music selection here.

* Ludwig Van Beethoven – Symphony No. 5
* Antonin Dvorak – Symphony No.9, From the New World
* Madness – Our House
* Traditional Japanese song – Sakura Sakura

Purple Sonata: what better music for a 17th Century palace with statues and marbling-a-go-go, than a classical sound, as baroque as you like, that has stood the test of time?

* Jean Sebastien Bach – Little Fugue in G Minor
* Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – A Little Night Music
* Perren, Mizell et al.– ABC
* Traditional French song – Vent Frais, Vent du Matin

Yellow Allegro: sojourn under the Italian sun in Venice where only the cursed seagulls throw a shadow over the scene. The music is typical of the setting: odes to joy, and love in the form of mandolin solos.

* Eduardo Di Capua – O Sole Mio
* The Animals – The House of the Rising Sun
* Antonio Vivaldi – The Four Seasons
* Traditional English song – Greensleeves

Indigo Flow: a change of scenery and a free-dive to thousands of metres below the water’s surface! Rare air bubbles ring out and myriad species of fish resonate with sound at every touch.

* Erik Satie – Gymnopedie No.1
* Pyotr Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker
* Screamin’ Jay Hawkins – I Put a Spell on You
* Traditional Russian song – Otchi Chornye

Black out Beats: a spatial inspiration for this voyage beyond the solar system against a backdrop of starry skies and melting planets. The sounds tend towards the psychedelic: strange attractors winning out over gravity.

* Johannes Brahms – Hungarian Dances
* Edvard Grieg – Peer Gynt
* Leonard Bernstein – The Magnificent 7
* Traditional song adapted for Bizet’s Carmen – El Arreglito

Red Hot tempo: the Wild West, steam trains and gunslinging cowboys–even Charles Bronson’s reflexes would be put to the test in this Leone-inspired nightmare.

* M. Gore, D. Pitchford – Fame
* Ennio Morricone – The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
* Isaac Albeniz – Asturias
* American Traditional song – When the Saints Go Marching In

Some of the tracks might seem like an odd choice, but me, I’m all for exposing people to different kinds of music. And it cannot be stressed enough that the msuic in Maestro! is very, very well done.

There have been other music games with good music and decent game mechanics, but what about the presentation? Surely the humble DS can match games like Guitar Hero and the alike? No, of course you don’t get flash HD 3D graphics. But what you get is some of the most characteristic and charming graphics I have seen out of Nintendo’s own walls. This is simply how a game should be presented. From the very colourful graphics which have lots of neat touches and charm, to the way everything transitions from menu to menu. The selection screen is an old record player on which you move the arm to select option. And yes, you can click on the actual record and scratch and play in reverse and do pretty much whatever you want. It’s fun and it only adds more smiles to the players face. It certainly did here.

Presto himself is a great character. Just look at him! He looks so happy and joyful that I can’t help but smiling when I see him. Even the bad guy of the game looks fun. There have been painstakingly much work put into doing this game’s graphics and music.

But while many producers seems to think so, a game isn’t much cop without some decent gameplay. As I addressed earlier in this review, there are loads of games without any gameplay being released. They might look and sound flashy, but their life is shortlived, due to the lack of good old-fashioned gameplay.

Maestro! has the flash, but unlike many others it also have the gameplay. It’s fresh. It’s different. It’s challenging. But most importantly, it’s works and it’s damn fun. While I am sure it would not have worked so well with crap music and presentation that is not really problem here.

Maestro! delivers a breath of fresh air to an otherwise kind of tired genre – the music games. And it does in a way that none of the big consoles can.

Even the creators logo is charming! Pastagames is also doing a iPod Touch or iPhone version, so if any of you out there doesn’t have a Nintendo DS but one of Apple’s touchscreen gadgets, you are going to get the game as well. Any other device with a touch screen and the necessary CPU power could get it too, if it’s a success. Perhaps Android phones? Whatever it would take to ensure Pastagames make enough money to continue releasing wonderful games like this.

Ladies and gentlemen, if you have any interest in a charming, funny, good looking and wonderfully sound game, you need to look no further. This little gem has it all. It hasn’t received much attention (why not?!), but I can wholeheartedly give it much credit and can only recommend you purchase the game. It has most european languages (english, spanish, italian, french, german, danish, norwegian, dutch, portuguese and swedish) and it is worth it’s price.

You get a wonderful game and you support what seems to be a talented bunch of people who clearly invested a lot of time and effort in giving us this game.

Thank you , Pastagames.

Score: 9 out of 10

-Jacob

I’m selling my old PS2. Yeah, it’s been a long journey. I got it in 2002. It’s a PAL PS2, the old large model with power supply built in, room for ethernet and HD.

It’s modded so it plays backups and imported games, any region.Along with it you get  got over 250 games (click here for a complete list), that comes in a neat CaseLogic folder. The PS2 + cables + 2 controllers + Memory card comes in a cool PS2 EastPak bag. It also comes with a Guitar Hero controller, along with all Guitar Hero games, of course. A decent scartcable is supplied and I might even throw in a composite cable, if you plan on using it with a tv with composite input.

The games includes some real gems like Shadow of the Colossus, ICO, Gran Turismo, Tekken, Virtua Fighter, Sly Cooper, Jak & Daxter, Ratchett & Clank, Black, Grandia III etc. A complete list will be added to this post later on tonight. All games are copies. No originals.

It’s the perfect gift for the young ones. The PS2 has decent graphics and an enormous library of cheap (or if you prefer, almost free, save for the price of the media) games. You might not ever need more though, seeing as this collection has hundreds of hours of entertainment.

The console works fine – I’ve been playing a lot of Guitar Hero as late as a few days ago – and appears almost new. I always handle my gear with care, so it’s got minimal amount of scratches etc. I will also add a picture to this post later.

Since this is a quite good package, I’ve decided that I won’t sell it for less than 2000 dkr. All lower bids are simply ignored. Unless you are Virginia Madsen or someother of similar attractiveness and plan on paying in alternate currency. In that case, I’m open for discussion!

Post me a bid in the comments if you are interested.

-Jacob