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• Reviewed on: Nintendo DS
• The Good: Extremely easy to use, and to create enjoyable music. Ten creative and fun sound activities. Uses many features of the DS. Input your own voice or sound effects through the microphone.
• The Bad: Not a title that appeals to everyone. Special equipment required if you want to save your tunes.
• The Verdict: Yet another unique title for the DS. Music lovers need to check it out.
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REVIEW:

The creation of "interactive media artist" Toshio Iwai, Electroplankton isn't a game, but a set of 10 sound activities you can interact with on the Nintendo DS.

For that reason, a lot of people aren't going to "get it." Where are the unlockables? Where are the goals? There are none, beyond creating music.

Think of Electroplankton as something like an instrument, like a piano. Only you won't require long lessons to turn out beautiful sounds.

The sound activities are represented by smiling tiny sea creatures called Electroplankton. You manipulate them to create different sound and musical effects. They're very easy to work with, and even the most musically challenged can produce some sweet-sounding stuff with just a few taps or strokes of the stylus.

For example, in the first activity, "Tracy," you select an Electroplankton and draw a stroke across the screen. The plankton will follow the path you drew. Depending on the pattern, and where and how quickly you drew it, the plankton will sound different notes as it moves. Then you select the next plankton, and do the same thing. And so on. After a few strokes, you've got harmony.

Trust me, all musical talent was beaten out of me by my grade six music teacher (she and that damn recorder), and even I can make nice-sounding stuff through Electroplankton. My favourite activity is "Luminaria," in which you direct four Electroplankton around a grid of arrows. Each arrow represents a different note, so the plankton make different sounds as they travel across the grid. I am verrry close to reproducing a new version of the Twilight Zone theme through Luminaria.

Long-time Nintendophiles will love "Beatnes," because it utilizes music and sound effects from games like Super Mario Bros.

Electroplankton has also got to be one of the least confusing titles I've ever had my hands on. Everything is cleanly, colourfully, and musically presented. For example, just scrolling through the choice of activities presents a series of pleasing sounds.

The 10 activities use different aspects of the DS very impressively, too. For example, "Nanocarp" detects clapping through the microphone and has the plankton form different patterns depending on how loud or quickly you clapped. "Volvoice" captures a sample of your voice through the microphone. You can then distort your voice by switching the shape of the plankton. "Rec-Rec" is similar, but it can hold up to four voice samples, which it then sets to a beat. It doesn't have to be a voice, either. It can be any sound effect that will register with the microphone. With a little imagination you can get some unique sounds going.

Electroplankton's one major shortcoming stems from the fact that the DS doesn't have a removable memory card, like the PSP. You'll probably want to save a few of your compositions, but you can't. At least, not right out of the box. A visit to your local electronics store will allow you to purchase the appropriate cables so you can get your music on your PC or MP3 player, though, and sites like Gamefaqs.com's Electroplankton message board have people who have worked out ways to save their music and swap it on the Internet. A more formalized, built-in method of swapping and storing, perhaps through the DS' wireless capabilities, would have been very cool.

If you're not in the mood to compose your own music, you can select "Audience Mode" and Electroplankton will go through its own random routines. The kind of music it offers sounds like everything from one of those relaxation CDs, to background music for Mario's latest adventure.

Electroplankton is just the latest in a series of unique titles for the DS. I love the fact that I can use Electroplankton and my DS to listen to music on the subway trip home, and compose it too. Although I suppose I should plug in my headphones as a courtesy to the other passengers.

I'll think about it.