socialrosiechen: Instant Jam is a Guitar Hero clone on Facebook that uses your own music library (and it's awesome!)

Thursday, August 19, 2010

Instant Jam is a Guitar Hero clone on Facebook that uses your own music library (and it's awesome!)

First, watch the video. That should be more than enough to win you over. I start singing around the two minute mark; you have been warned. Skip to around 4:40 for an actual walkthrough of the game's features.

Instant Jam comes from the clever guys at InstantAction. They have a technology that lets you play full PC games via a Java applet, a bit like OnLive -- but having said that I'm pretty sure Instant Jam is just a normal in-the-browser Java game.

The game looks like FarmVille and utilizes the same social hooks and interface that we've all learned to love: there are gifts, wall posts, challenges, your friends at the bottom of the interface. But that's where the similarities end: Instant Jam is an actual game. You can play almost any song in your music library for frak's sake!

That's the primary feature of Instant Jam: if you have a song in your music library, you can play along to it. Inexorably, not every song has been 'mapped' by the game's creators, but 'thousands of songs' are promised for the launch -- and when the 'Recording Studio' goes live, I'm sure that will soon become millions of songs. Incidentally, if you don't own a song, you can buy it on iTunes or Amazon -- or play along without the music. Genius!

Next, as I'm sure you noticed in the video: Instant Jam supports USB controllers. You can use your Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitars -- or Wiimote, PS2 controller or Xbox game pad. Keyboard play is OK, but obviously you won't look anywhere near as cool. (Sorry about my hairy leg in the video by the way, I'm aware that it makes me look anything but cool...)

As for the actual quality of the gameplay, I have no complaints. Just the fact that it automatically detects a USB controller is enough to make me squee with nerdy delight! The songs had accurate beats and felt as 'natural' as any Guitar Hero or Rock Band track. My whammy bar didn't work, but I don't know if that's a problem with the game or with my guitar. I was worried that the game, being browser-based, wouldn't feel responsive -- but it was fine. I have a feeling Instant Jam might not work so well on older computers, though -- if your computer struggles to run FarmVille, I doubt it will run this.

Instant Jam, then, is like Frets on Fire, but with deep Facebook ties. Whether that's a good thing or not, I'll let you decide. If anything, it lets me challenge my friends without having to pay the Guitar Hero Xbox Live subscription -- and I can send them gifts! Instant Jam is going to be big.