Aly & AJ Adventure (Nintendo DS) - Review by Andrew

Introduction

Whether you've heard of Aly and AJ before or not, the fact is that these two sisters have managed to shift a significant number of CDs in their short careers. If you have heard of them, there's a good chance that you're a pre-teen girl and/or watch the Disney Channel, where much of their music is aired. Given their rise to stardom it was only a matter of time before a game was released in their honor. After all Britney Spears had a GBA title some years ago and the rise of the DS' popularity amongst girls makes it almost a certainty that this will sell. The question is 'what's it like?'

Gameplay

Aly and AJ places you in the position of a new roadie who has been employed to help the girls on their world tour which, mysteriously, only takes in four cities. Your job involves you 'sorting out' their schedules, 'loose ends' and a whole host of other things, given that you appear to be the only other person actually working on the tour. It starts out with an overhead view of the city in question, which acts as your hub, with only one or two tasks available initially. The tasks can be anything from fixing their album covers (which is a simple slide puzzle) to sorting out the originals from the CDRs in Beating the Pirates. The various rhythm games such as practicing a song are far more interesting, they are all about quick reactions and on completion you are given a mark ranging from 'A to C'. Anything else is a fail and you lose one of your lives. Fortunately you can always regain a life by collecting gold stars, which are awarded if you manage to gain an elusive 'AAA' award. Once you manage to sort out all the problems, and there are generally about 12 to 15 in each city, it's off to the main event. This is a large-scale concert in a stadium of some description where the girls suddenly realize they are without a drummer. This is where you step in and save the day in a mini-game, very close to the likes of Elite Beat Agents, and then it's on to the next city. There are 15 of these mini-games and playing them means that they are then available from the main menu like the various music tracks you've managed to unlock. There's even a Multiplayer mode where you can battle it out with another gamer in one of the mini-games with the highest ranked winning. Unfortunately you will require two copies of the game, which is a little annoying given just how simple these games are.

Controls

It's all mini-games, meaning, all touch screen.

Graphics

While you do get the odd static image of Aly and AJ, most of the visuals are in a bold cartoon style. Obviously this works much better for the majority of the mini-games, which rely on the clarity of the graphics. The animation is minimal and anything that does move is more like an early shockwave effort as opposed to anything more 'professionally' produced.

Sound

As you'd expect, from a music-based title, the music is everywhere and on the whole it's pretty good quality. Recognizable tunes from the girls aren't everywhere though and most of the game features simple background music on a very short loop. You'll only be able to enjoy samples of their hits when you play one of the performance related mini-games or by selecting the media player from the main menu. The downside to all this however is that the DS' speakers aren't nearly sophisticated enough to do this type of music any real justice.

Dual screen

Absolutely everything here is operated with the stylus, which does actually make things easier than employing both control systems.

Final comments

There's little in the way of any story here and the outcome is a collection of average mini-games that can be selected from a static interface. While this would normally score far less, the fact is (according to my niece) that there are more than enough references here to please your average Aly and AJ fan. It does have its problems: it's far too short but even so, it's a little repetitive and it's absolutely not recommended for anyone who's not a fan of the duo but, if you are, give it a go.

Pro: Some Nice Samples, Fans of the Pair Will Enjoy It.
Con: Too Short, A Little Repetitive
Final score: 5.1

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