XBLA Review: Jam Live Music Arcade

“EVERYTHING You Need To Feel Like A DJ.”

An XboxHornet review by Xavier “Mercedes” Marchena.

Zivix, the peeps behind JAM Live Music Arcade have balls the size of elephants. You need that kind of testicular fortitude to put forth a game like this. Years after the Guitar Hero franchise drowned their own market with a ton of music games, JAM uppercuts out of the water like a graceful and beautiful dolphin and hits gamers right in their bored faces. Only once before have I ever felt like I was actually creating music in a video game. MTV’s Music Generator did alright for it’s time, but JAM makes you feel like a DJ. All that’s missing are a bunch of drunk people on your living room dance floor.

This was a hard title for me to properly review though. It’s best if you have a Guitar Hero or Rockband guitar (which I don’t have) simply because of the way you control the game. With a regular control, the game itself is doable and you’ll still have great fun creating music, but the arcade mode is going to kick your ass and you probably won’t enjoy yourself at all; if you’re like me anyways. I would eventually get it to do what I want it to do and that was fine with me, but when you’re timed and scored; you may end up yelling at something.

You may get rheumatoid arthritis if you attempt this song with an xbox controller.

I won’t let my lack of proper tools mar my review for this game. I understand the potential for music creation with this. The arcade mode seems like a whole lot of fun and dammit I wish I had my own controller. But I tell you what, there’s something to be said for a game that makes you feel like a bonifide music artist. Feels awesome. Now I can finally live out my dream of becoming a club DJ in my own living room. Aw yea.

Game Score: 9/10.

Download a free demo of the game here.