Welcome to DS on DS. This is where I'm going to be taking a look at the Nintendo DS and all of it's games. And when I say all, I mean it. I will be going from WarioWare Touched! to Petz Catz Clan. From Planet Puzzle League to Grey's Anatomy.  Every Friday, I will write a review on the game I have chosen for the week.

This week I am going to be taking a look at LEGO Rock Band.

When Guitar Hero first hit the Nintendo DS, it was fun to play, but only for short periods. That is all thanks to the hand cramping that everyone experienced with the required add-on controller that went in the GBA slot.  Then, on top of that, the DSi was released and everyone who got one could no longer play any of the Guitar Hero games.  Along comes LEGO Rock Band, and now it doesn't matter if you have a DS Lite or a DSi.  You also don't need a goofy peripheral to play.

If you haven't played/seen any of the versions of LEGO Rock Band, it's pretty much what you would expect it to be.  Much like with the other LEGO branded games, everything here is made of LEGOs.  The notes you play, the vehicles, even the famous rockers (like the band Queen) are little LEGO dudes. 

The game is played similar to Rock Band Unplugged on the PSP.  You use four buttons to play the four notes in the songs: Left, Up, X and A.  Also, instead of only playing one instrument, like the drums, you play all four.  To do this, you switch through the instruments by pressing the L and R buttons.  You don't have to worry about missing notes either, because you get special purple notes that give you a few beats to switch tracks.  When you get the purple note, the next few following notes become transparent, and those notes are okay to miss.  You want to switch between tracks anyway, because for each track that you have hit a purple note on adds to your multiplier.  If you have all four tracks, you get a 6X multiplier.  Add Overdrive into that, you can get up to 12x.  It's not as complicated as it sounds.  Everything works exactly as it should.  The only problem is just how unconventional it is for those who are used to playing these type of games with a guitar controller.  You can play with the touch screen too, but using the buttons is the way to go.
 
The other important part of any rhythm game is the soundtrack.  The console versions of this game have 45 tracks, where the DS only has 25.  The songs that are included have some of the best audio quality of any DS game that I have ever played.  They are all very close to MP3 quality.  The only issue is that some of the songs, most notably The Final Countdown, are shortened.  Most of the songs that are shortened only have the tail end cut down (usually on those songs where the ends just kind of repeat over and over until it fades out), and with those it isn't an issue, but The Final Countdown is only about 60% of the song!  Part of the intro is shortened, and the song ends one minute and forty seconds early.  The first time I played it, I thought I failed the song somehow because it just ends to suddenly.  That, thankfully, is the only song I noticed this with.
 
This was surprisingly better than I had expected it to be.  I originally had no interest in this game, and I had actually forgotten that it was coming out on the DS.  I'm glad I played it though.  This is a great one to ask someone for as a present for whatever upcoming holiday it may be that you celebrate.

FINAL SCORE: 7/10

If you want to read any of my past DS on DS reviews, you can find links to them all on the Official DS on DS Blog.