Hannah Montana: DVD Game (DVD)

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Seeing Stars Memory Game is a concept that's been around for decades. A screen graphic takes you past a row of lockers, and you have to click start before a locker opens and you see nine faces in a grid pasted inside the locker. You need to memorize where those faces are, then they disappear. A picture appears and asks, "Where is Jackson?" etc., and you have to guess. If you're wrong, it shows who was in the space you chose and announces "You've lost one life." Ouch. Three strikes and you're out of the game. That's it: a more difficult version of the kind of game kids played to remember objects and such in preschool.

Personality Quiz is probably a reflection of the fact that somebody at Disney is either in love with the concept or they can't think beyond it. Here, as with all those games in other Disney movies, you answer questions that will then determine which character you're most like. This one is strictly for the younger fans.

Band Audition could have been a fun one IF the graphics had been a little more ambitious. One screen shows Miley and Billy Ray by a bunch of equipment. You select START and the next screen says "You're up" and shifts to a drawn set of drums, and you have arrow keys on four of them with no arrows on the bass or cymbal. The POV is that you're onstage, and there are drawn shadows in the background. Another one for the young fans, because you're asked to click on the drums as the arrows appear. It's more a game of speed and recognition than it is memory. Memory would have been better. I remember an old game called Thinking Things that had an ape with a drum set, and you could either replicate what he played by LISTENING or else create your own melody and he'd play it back. That seemed far more interesting and complicated than this simple game, and the graphics were better.

Pop Star is a straight sing-along, with no scoring, just for fun. Song choices are "Nobody's Perfect," "The Best of Both Worlds," "If We Were a Movie," "Rock Star," "Who Said," "Life's What You Make It," and "I Got Nerve." Once again, the graphics could be better. I can appreciate that a big microphone in the center of the stage and a drawn crowd in the background is to simulate the onstage experience, but why footage of a real Miley/Hannah audience? What would it have hurt?

Those are the single-player options.

Keep the Beat is a word association game that's the best of the party games. Unfortunately, it's set up for only four players. After selecting slow, medium, or fast, you get a subject thrown at you (like school sports, things you take to the beach, hair colors, etc.). You have to click ready, and then it tells which player starts first. But it doesn't remind you of the rest of the order, so you're on your own to establish the order. Make sure you do that first. My wife and I decided that we could just use this idea and play the "Hannah/Miley" concert video for more players.

True Friends pairs you up and you have to guess how your friend would answer a question, which is a variation of so many TV game shows (like "The Newlywed Game").

Then there's a Party Play click-on that takes you to three games that are playable with two teams of two players or more. These are a little more thoughtfully designed, set up like a beach fruit-juice bar. With each game you choose 5, 10, or 15 rounds, then 20, 30, or 45 seconds, and prompts tell participants when to close their eyes except for the clue giver, who has time to absorb the clue before pressing play. Then a drink on the screen gets "sipped" until the orange juice disappears, signifying time is up.

Say Whaat? is like a number of party games out there which require participants to describe something without saying the actual name/word. Example: CONCERT (without saying fans, stage, singer, or, of course, the C word).

Art Class is like Pictionary, insomuch as you're asked to draw things for your team to guess.

Hellooo Drama! is basically Charades.

But it's nifty that you can select "mix it up," and it will scramble the three games. Again, for a pajama party this seems like a fun activity. For a birthday party? Maybe for older girls, but seven year olds are still a little distracted for the concentration it would take to do these. What's nice about the party games is that adults can play too--no knowledge of (or affection for) the TV show is required! I couldn't tell how many questions are programmed into these games, but obviously repeat play will be determined by how varied the questions are.

Video:
As with most things Disney, the video quality is good, with bright colors and a sharpness that's relative to the fact that this is a DVD. There's nothing astounding to report about the production values and nothing to expose. It's just a good basic presentation in 1.33:1 aspect ratio.

Audio:
The audio is a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround, and again falls into that range of not being stellar and not being wanting. It's just a good solid mix that's perhaps transferred to disc at a little higher volume than most parents would appreciate. You'll have to play it at a lower level than usual.

Extras:
It's ALL bonus features.

Bottom Line:
The "Hannah Montana" game is a tough call, but I'm going to go with my daughter's impression. After trying to navigate the buttons on the Dance Off and needing to keep pressing buttons to continue, she said she liked it but had had enough. Unless parents are willing to press buttons and read aloud to keep things going, these games might be too much hassle for young fans. And older ones may only go for the party games. Given those limitations, I'd probably rate this a 6 out of 10. But in fairness, if these appeared as bonus features on a video, I'd say they were a pretty good mix, and spring for a 7.

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