Daigasso! Band Brothers is a simulation of a musical orchestra in which the single-player version tries to simulate the process of playing a tune, while the multiplayer version puts every player in charge of an instrument. Using some of the most interesting hardware capacities of the Nintendo DS, Daigasso! is a game built around an orchestra simulator. The player is faced with a certain number of training tutorials that, simulating the progress of a musician in the development of skills, allow her to play more and more complicated songs. The gameplay is exquisite for its simplicity: the player is faced with abstracted sheet music in which, instead of notes, there are keys that have to be pushed following the rhythm. In single-player mode, the player interprets a different number of instruments in each song, much like in any other rhythm game. The multiplayer version of Daigasso!, on the other hand, presents other interesting aspects. The DS is equipped with Wi-Fi capability, which theoretically allows a number of consoles to connect wirelessly in order to share information, chat, or play. More interestingly, with many DS games it is only necessary to have one physical copy of the game to start a multiplayer session. That is the case with Daigasso!—with just one copy of the game it is possible to create a small network of players. And the multiplayer version of the game is rather remarkable, for players can actually join in and play one of the songs, and each player individually interprets one instrument. It is, then, a collaborative simulation of a music band in which all participants have to take part in order to recreate the song and achieve individual points. In this sense, it is possible to say that all players are at the same time a unity, for they all play the same game united in the desire to achieve the same goals, and they are individual players because they will be evaluated for their actions.
The Ethics of Computer Games Miguel Sicart
O symulatorze orkiestry
