JAM Live Music Arcade Review

JAM Live Music Arcade is a peculiar game and I'm not even sure I want to call it a game—it does contain a game-like arcade mode, but the heart of JAM is in its, conveniently called, "Jam" mode. "Jam" mode gives the player the ability to mix and mash together up to five different instruments, including vocals, and then switch between five different tracks per instrument. It's a simple system and easy to learn—especially thanks to the game's thorough tutorials; however, while it's fun at first, it doesn't take long for the game to lose its appeal.

Before I go too far into JAM's faults, I do want to say the game supports whatever guitar peripheral you own and does seem to recommend the use of a guitar controller over a standard controller; that said, I found using the standard controller was much easier and more fun than using any of the numerous plastic guitars I own.

What kills JAM's biggest appeal is the lack of an ability to "Jam" with friends over the magical interwebs or even the more so magical "in real life." There's no collaboration whatsoever and there's not even an ability to take a finished "Jam" and upload it for others to listen to and/or play. JAM quickly becomes a very lonely experience and while the track list is decent and varied, it soon becomes repetitive and I highly doubt the game will be supported with DLC.

All could be forgiven if "Arcade" mode was fun, but "Arcade" mode is not fun and gets extremely difficult way too fast with overly complicated demands of the player. I soon became overwhelmed with everything the game asked of me and after a dozen or so attempts, I gave up with no desire to return.

Like I said from the start, JAM is a peculiar game and hard to judge. I enjoyed the "Jam" mode more than I expected at first, but I lost all joy once I realized how shallow it all was. And when  I got to "Arcade" mode—which is only unlocked after a fairly extensive completion of various "Jams"—I got frustrated within minutes and would have thrown my controller if I was the type. JAM may be fun for some music enthusiasts, but I can't imagine more than a few enjoying the game and casual music fans will probably be able to get all the joy they'd ever get by playing the trial version and stopping with that.

JAM Live Music Arcade (800 MS Points | $9.99)