NCS
Game Synopsis
«©NCSX» Guitars
generally have a pear-shaped body, a long neck, and
head stock. Thanks to clever programming and a
simple control mechanism, software developer Plato
redesigns the acoustic guitar and puts it inside the
squatness of the Nintendo DS.
Meet the strangest axe ever in the annals of guitar technology.
With 16 chords to use at any time from a
library of 120, users may strum out a song
relatively easily if you're familiar with basic
guitar playing. We were able to play the Main Riff I
for "Fast Car" by Tracy Chapman and "Torn" from
Natalie Imbruglia this morning by following guitar
tabs found on the web. In addition to its function
as a guitar, the software also includes a library of
20 songs and a listening-then-repeating exercise.
|
NCS Game Notes
»
Some basic guitar handling skills are recommended
before using the software since it's not a trainer
nor a tutorial. Additionally, Hiite Utaeru DS
won't teach you the sweep-picking skills required to
play the breathtaking "Canon Rock" as masterfully as
JerryC or funtwo. What the software does provide is
a way to practice playing chords on a guitar and
progress between them. Once you've learned how to do
it on the NDS, go and practice some more on your
Ibanez JEM777.
» The software is invaluable if you're on the road
and a jingle pops into your head but a guitar is
nowhere to be found. Since you don't have a guitar
on hand, you can simply pop out the NDS and listen
to how it would sound by playing the jingle on the
DS.
» When playing, 16 chords are available - there's
eight shown on the top screen and another eight when
you press either the L or R trigger. The chords are
as follows starting on the upper left and rolling
clockwise:
Em
Am
Dm
F
G7
G
Cm7
C
To change the chord sets, hit the L or R trigger and
the eight boxes change to:
E
A
D
Fm
Gm7
Gm
Cm7
Cm
» On the touch screen, a thick crop of vertical
lines represent the guitar string. It's pasted
against a black background so that the focus is the
line itself. To play, strum the line with your touch
pen or finger and you'll hear a twang. Change chords
with the D-pad by moving it in the direction of the
chords shown on the top screen and the tone of the
twang changes every time you move the D-pad to
another chord. Once you've acquainted yourself with
the different chords and how they sound, you can
take that newfound expertise to your own guitar
playing practice and experimentation.
» There's an option to tune your guitar and go
through all of the musical chords to listen to how
they sound after you've tuned them up.
» Press START at any time to go to the main menu or
tap on the HOUSE icon on the touch screen.
» The
following options icons are available on the main
menu:
MUSIC PLAYER: Listen to 20 songs which last
about two minutes each. When listening, you'll
notice that the guitar playing is pronounced. You
can fast forward or rewind to any point of the music
by tapping on the music progress bat. When a song is
highlighted, the chords used are shown on the top
screen but when the song plays, only the title of
the song is shown. Once you've listened to a song,
you can choose to replay it by following the chords
on the top screen while the bottom screen shows the
chords on a virtual D-pad along with the thick
guitar string.
SCREEN COLOR: Change the background color of
the top screen to any one of 10 colors.
CHORD TEST: Listen to five chords played in
sequence and then repeat those five chords by
strumming them on the touch screen. Players may test
themselves on Major chords as well as Minor chords.
Five blocks on the bottom of the screen keep track
of your accuracy. If you botch a progression, the
first box will fill in with red color. Botch five
cues and you're toast.
CHORD ARRANGEMENT: Two chords sets are shown
on the touch screen with 8 chords contained in each
set. Play the chords by simply tapping on each one.
You can drag and drop the chords into different
positions as you see fit to create your own custom
chord patterns.
CUSTOMIZE SETTINGS: This section is broken up
into five areas which are selectable from the top
row of icons on the touch screen. They are:
▪ Picking Style - DOWN UP for left handed players
and DOWN UP for right handed players.
▪ Volume Settings for three quadrants of the guitar
string.
▪ Power Chords - drag and drop a blue area for three
quadrants of the guitar screen to designate the
strum area for power chords.
▪ String Color - Two colors are available at the
outset - black & white and red & white. An
additional eight colors may be unlocked.
▪ Control Selection - Set either the D-pad or the
face buttons as the chord selection mechanism. If
you're right handed, toggle the D-pad as the method
of choice.
REVERB: Turn the reverb setting on or off by
choosing the level on a virtual dial which goes from
zero to high. To listen to the setting, simply tap
anywhere on the white circle.
The
six options listed above are all represented by the
icons on the main menu. There are four additional
text based options located on the bottom of the menu
screen as follows:
LiveMode - Toggle navigation buttons on the
upper-right and upper-left on/off
Headphone - Toggle soft or loud volume output
on connected headphones
Tuning - Adjust guitar chords (detune) from
-50 to +50 for new voicings
Free Play - Play chords and strum along as
much as your heart desires
|
