GENRE
	Simultation, Music
	DEVELOPER
	Cavia
	PUBLISHER
	X Seed
	LOCAL WIRELESS MULTI-PLAY
	Yes
	Wi-Fi/GLOBAL ONLINE MULTI-PLAY
	No
	MICROPHONE
	No
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Korg DS-10 Plus is not a rhythm game like Guitar Hero On Tour, or a creative, little novelty like Electroplankton. Instead, it's an instrument, a fully functional synthesizer that just happens to run on DS. Approaching Korg as though it were any other game would undoubtedly lead to much frustration because, like any instrument, it requires knowledge and practice to use effectively. However, a slew of shortcomings hurt this synthesizer, from its complexity to the limitations of the system itself.

The first thing to take note of when booting up Korg is the manual, something a lot of gamers might usually overlook. Korg’s manual comes in at over fifty pages and is chock full of information vital to getting the most out of the game card. The game’s interface is very complex and filled to the brim with technical terms that will leave most gamers scratching their noggins. Thankfully, the manual is quite thorough at mapping out what everything is, but it doesn’t do too much to explain the practical application for all of the various features, so experimentation is just as vital as reading the booklet.

Once the gamer finally gets into the part where music is made, he will likely feel quite intimidated once more. The interface is presented quite realistically, with a touchable keyboard and numerous pages of levers and knobs to fine tune every aspect of the sound. The manual will help make sense of some of this, but it still feels cluttered and confusing for gamers without prior synthesizer experience. Page after page of equalizers, tone controls, and effects switches definitely present plenty of options, but with so little direction from the game it might as well all be Greek.

Once past the controls and into the meat of the music-making tools, Korg reveals itself as a mixed bag. First of all, it does offer 18 save slots and the ability to share tracks via local wireless connection, both of which are nice, but constructing the song isn’t as boundless as all the knobs might suggest. The first problem is the number of individual parts available for constructing songs: only two synth lines are available, while four tracks are open for drums. This does offer a lot of rhythmic variety but drastically limits the tonal and melodic scope of compositions. Also, there are two ways to input notes and rhythms; either by placing the notes on a massive spread sheet featuring every note on a full scale keyboard and every subdivision of the song, or by recording musical ideas live on the keyboard. The former is very precise but takes a long time and limits gamers to composing songs in subdivisions of four -– that’s right, no waltzes! The keyboard method allows more freedom, but the whole thing feels quite clunky thanks to the relatively small size of the notes and the awkwardness of hitting the button to move up or down octaves.

Regardless of all the aforementioned problems, the biggest challenge facing any piece of art composed on Korg is the final sound quality. It could be that the developers didn’t devote enough to the audio fidelity or maybe the DS’s speakers just aren’t good enough, but either way, listening to the final product is disappointing. The worst thing about it all though, is that all of those different tonal options are barely noticeable, thus making a fair chunk of the program feel pointless.

Korg is definitely a flawed product. It isn’t very user friendly, the interface is cluttered, the sound quality is disappointing, and some options are too limited while others are too numerous. No doubt some musicians will enjoy the tools Korg offers, and some gamers who stick with it might be able to learn a lot, but overall it is a very hard product to recommend. Aspiring synth players should find a better learning tool and experienced players will be put off by the sound quality.

6.0/10