Have you ever swung Link's sword to the rhythm of the Zelda overworld theme or feebly attempted to play Super Mario Bros. on the Deku Pipes? Did you cry when Mario Paint only included notes from the C major/A minor scale? If so, then you need a copy of Daigassou! Band Brothers for the Nintendo DS!

Before I discuss Band Bros., I feel I should outline my stance on music games to help readers put this review in perspective. While there are plenty of music games, few seem to recreate the magic of performing music. This mostly stems from developers' desire to include prerecorded, CD-quality music. The soundtracks are fantastic, no question, but as a result, many games are forced to take a negative-image approach to the music: the part you play is muted unless you're accurate. Others games mangle the music or give visual cues that, in general, you've messed up. Either way, it is difficult to hear and learn from one's mistake.

Of course, such precise aural feedback is impossible to implement in most games: after all, most music games tend to assign buttons willy-nilly. Keyboardmania and Drummania have well defined notes with one-to-one mappings, but Konami can't do this for say, Dance Dance Revolution. And what the heck does "Triangle" sound like as opposed to "Circle" for a game like Parappa the Rapper or Frequency? I can't fault these games for their representations of players' mistakes. Nonetheless, as a casual player uninterested in mastering the genre, I've always found most music game feedback systems disorienting.

Admittedly, I rarely play music games, so my complaints may merely be a function of my inexperience. But Band Bros. succeeds where many music games have failed in my eyes: players are genuinely performing the music—not just the button combinations placed on the screen.

In Band Bros. the player performs a single part from one of the game's many songs. As the song plays, subdivided measures of notes (button and D-pad combinations) scroll upward on the top screen. A cursor designating the exact location in the song moves horizontally along each measure while two lights accompany each beat. The game initially restricts players to easier parts on standard difficulty. These parts consist of three note groupings: the D-pad directions, the face buttons, and the touch screen. The touch screen must simply be tapped at the start of the measure to play a series of notes automatically. Since the game uses good old MIDI, notes are refreshingly played on-the-fly, but because there are only two "notes" per-se, these easier parts are plagued by the same vague feedback problem found in other music games.

At this difficulty, Band Bros. is not very compelling. To unlock more challenging and interesting parts, the player must survive three-song recording sessions, where three parts from the most difficult rating currently available are chosen randomly among all of the game's included songs. If the player makes too many mistakes, a bomb explodes and the recording session is a failure. If the DS instrumentalist survives, he can play back the recorded CD for fun and, more importantly, unlock parts of the next difficulty level. The recording session's bomb is very forgiving until everything is unlocked, so the sessions don’t provide a challenge until the most difficult parts are available. Even so, recording sessions are a fun way to familiarize oneself with the game's repertoire, and its random nature keeps things interesting.

And the game does get more difficult. In higher-rated normal parts each button corresponds to one note in the major scale: Down, Left, Up, Right, Y, B, A, X. The game automatically shifts the note played up a half step, octave, or both as needed. At this point, the game comes into its own as a charming music game where the gamer plays and hears his mistakes.

However, the DS does not evolve into an instrument until Professional mode, where the player must manage his own half steps and octaves by holding down the L and R buttons, respectively. Players will encounter slightly faster tempos, and the touch screen is abandoned. Only drum sets handle differently, with L and R behaving as separate instruments instead of as note modifiers. At this point, the difficulty skyrockets and the player becomes a true musician. The controls sometimes clash with the system's button layout: pushing L and R together with a face button is awkward, and players will fumble with their system on their initial attempts to juggle the shoulder buttons. But adjusting is not impossible: resting the DS on a table's edge helps, as does the dreaded P-word.

Practice is important for any musician hoping to make the grade. Band Bros. therefore includes a convenient and intuitive practice mode so that players may hone their chops on any unlocked part. The touch screen provides buttons to fast-forward, rewind, or pause the song. Players can also adjust the song's position more precisely by turning the disc on-screen. A slider control allows players to slow the song for difficult passages or double its tempo for comedic value.

The music library itself is respectable, though this import game's selection is decidedly Japanese. Some of the game's most memorable songs are among its ten J-pop tunes and seven TV themes (including Full Metal Alchemist). Unfortunately, most of these songs will likely be cut when the US version hits shelves, leaving the less amusing eight western folk song medleys and the obligatory three classical songs alongside an unknown assortment of western tunes. Of course, it's hard to hate a medley that juxtaposes Havanagillah and La Cucaracha.

The high point, at least for importers, is the assortment of top-notch Nintendo music. Contrasting Nintendo's stingy rationing with the Donkey Konga series, Band Bros. includes a meaty SEVEN Nintendo tracks, primarily consisting of fantastic medleys. No Nintendo fan will be without a smile playing songs and motifs ranging from classics such as Dr. Mario and Excitebike to recent hits such as Super Mario Sunshine, Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, and Fire Emblem (OK, so maybe Fire Emblem isn't recent in Japan.)

Of course, if there's a song you wish Nintendo had included, you can always recreate it in the game's editor using various resources. Once saved in one of the game's eight slots, a custom song may be played just like the included tunes, either alone or with buddies, and can be saved to a friend's card.

Band Bros. includes two ways to compose a song. The first is by singing or humming a melody yourself. The game will do its best to transcribe the melody, but since the player will likely be off-beat or out of tune, and the game provides canned backup parts, this mode is a parlor trick at best.

Players with some musical background will be interested in the other mode, adequately dubbed professional composition. This versatile editor, modeled after composers such as Anvil Studio, allows players to arrange up to eight separate parts (or in MIDI terms, tracks). The editor's interface is as intuitive as possible with the DS's limited screen space. The top screen displays a measure of music, while the touch screen harbors options such as note length, unlimited undo/redo, and a copy-cut-and-paste function. Up and down modify notes; A places notes; and B erases notes. Left and right move the cursor, while R and L shift the cursor by measure intervals. Players may rotate through the defined tracks via the select button. To expedite composition, players may define chord progressions at half-measure intervals, which the game uses to generate modifiable accompaniment in tracks 4-8.

The composer has some modest limitations: no part may span more than two octaves; songs have a cap of 120 measures; no part may play two notes at once (except for drums); and the only triplets available are eighth note triplets. No track may change instruments or volume, nor may the tempo vary. Even with these restrictions, two of which are breached by the included songs, the editor is a powerful tool as long as composers are willing to compromise. Instead of raving about what can be done, I proudly present my "Mario Ends" medley for you to enjoy, recorded directly from my Nintendo DS.

Players are free to compose whatever they want, but those who want maximum enjoyment out of their creations would be wise to arrange their music with multiplayer in mind. Up to eight players can jam together on one or more cards, though individuals using Download Play cannot play professional-grade parts. (Of course, those who do not own the game likely aren't ready for those parts, anyway.) Band Bros. is a blast to play with two, three or four players. Gamers get to enjoy each others' mistakes, while the computer keeps people on track by playing the unselected parts. At the end of the song, players receive individual rankings, which are averaged to form a band ranking.

With four players, there is little competition over parts, but since certain parts are inevitably more popular, courtesy is required keep the game enjoyable for all. A simple, but amusing personal messaging system helps combat 24-measure rests: musicians twiddling their thumbs can scribble out an inane message to kill time. However, when groups approach eight, uninteresting parts will likely threaten civility and ultimately, the fun factor. The Japanese version also suffers from unstable connections. Even with the four systems in close proximity, my buddies ran into connection error messages every twenty minutes or so. The bug didn't ruin the experience, but hopefully this kink will be addressed before its international release.

The performance mode and its Nintendo music is enough to recommend a purchase, but the game's strong multiplayer support and competent music editor makes Band Bros. a system seller. Jam with the Band still does not have a firm launch date in North America, and the domestic version will likely include a significantly different song list, so there is no reason not to import this fantastic and original game from our import partners at Lik-Sang. You will not be disappointed.

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