hile we were in town for GDC, Ubisoft invited us to its San Francisco office to check out its new Nintendo DS music title, Jam Sessions, that recently debuted in Japan as DS Guitar M-06. As we walked upstairs to the demo, Ubisoft's Michael Beadle told us he was careful not to use the word game when talking about Jam Sessions. After spending time with it, his reluctance to use that word made a lot of sense. Jam Sessions isn't a game. Yes, you play a guitar in Jam Session, but you won't be frantically matching falling notes, a la Guitar Hero.

What do you do in Jam Sessions? We gathered around Plato's Seth Delackner, the title's director and programmer, for a tour. Basically, you use the DS's stylus (or your finger, or even an actual guitar pick) to strum a bar on the bottom screen. When you do this, your DS plays a chord. By selecting different directions on the d-pad, you'll play different chords.

Delackner had the audio out on his DS connected to a small guitar amp, and the effect was funny at first, but pretty freaking cool when he started strumming. It sounded like he was strumming an actual guitar. When he varied the lengths of the strokes, the sounds changed accordingly. Delackner made a few tweaks, and the sound changed from an acoustic guitar to something a little more rocking. A simple interface lets users adjust distortion and delay.

While Jam Sessions will contain more than 20 licensed songs, don't expect a crazy concert experience. Jam Sessions has a very free-form style, and those songs are quite skeletal. When you pick one, a list of chords pops up at the top of the screen, along with the accompanying lyrics. If you mess up, there's no penalty. The chord list doesn't scroll past you relentlessly; it's just there to let you know how the song goes. The fact that lyrics pop up is important - it's up to the user to flesh out the songs. You don-t have to sing if you don't want to, though. Those songs are entirely optional. You can feel free to arrange your own melodies or play along with your favorite songs.

We were tethered to the DS with a short cord and had to sit on the floor in a small circle, because we were capturing video. As Delackner played, the atmosphere was like a camp sing-along. Fortunately for everyone else, I didn't sing along. As he pointed out, though, there's something about a guitar that inspires the urge to sing. People who aren't musically inclined may not get an opportunity to make music, which is something Jam Sessions provides.

For all his passion about music and guitars, it was surprising to learn that Delackner doesn't play one himself. He told us that he tried, but it hurt his hands after spending all day typing at work. This project gave him a chance to get as close to playing music on a guitar as possible without actually touching frets.

Hard-core guitarists may be disappointed to learn that you probably won't be doing any Eddie Van Halen-style shredding. While playing, you're limited to strumming motions - it's not designed for rapidly plucking out individual notes. Still, the title contains a lot of flexibility, including a wealth of chord selections and tuning options. It's a pretty nifty little gadget. It's definitely not a game, but it's something that people who like music - even if they aren't gamers - can appreciate.