It's just about acceptable flailing your arms in the air while using the Nintendo Wii in the privacy of your own home. But we're not too sure about Taito's latest game that invites us to do the same on trains, buses and in the street on our mobile phones.
The latest quirky title from the Japanese gaming veteran is a Java-based music-making game. It's designed to run on NTT DoCoMo's 904i series phones, so it's obviously never going to make it outside Japan, but it has every chance of doing well there.
Nerds apply here
Chokkan (Intuition) Band, as it's known, is currently available as a free download and is aimed at the air guitarist inside every nerd. Players are supposed to imagine that the phone is actually a guitar, a drum or other instrument and make gestures that simulate playing the real thing with one hand while holding the handset in the other.
Make the appropriate shapes for strumming a guitar and the phone's camera will detect this and reward the would-be musician with what it thinks a genuine instrument would sound like.
Apparently, the technique can produce something approximating real music that can be recorded in the phone's memory for some very sad solo entertainment after each session.
