GDC '09: Hands on with American Popstar: Road to Celebrity on DSi

Anyone who watches reality television knows that the best stuff comes from the real drama between contestants and their judge overlords. Truth be told, snappy remarks are what draw the viewers in more than an operatic voice or smooth country crooner.

And they'll bring in gamers too, Gameloft hopes. American Popstar: Road to Celebrity puts you at the center of all of the one-liners, high fashion, and popularity in this DSiWare adaptation of the formerly US-only mobile game.

Beginning the game as a nobody, your goal in American Popstar is to work your way through the ranks to establish yourself as the new hot thing on the music scene.

It doesn't take long before you're on stage, competing in the finale of the biggest reality competition on television. You lose. From here, your career begins in earnest as you work your butt off to make your popstar dreams come true.

You accomplish this by competing in touchscreen mini-games and interacting with a cast of characters both looking to boost you up to stardom and hoping to dim your bright star.

Everything occurs on the touchscreen. Speech-bubbled dialogue makes up the bulk of play, the cheeky writing moving things forward with an hilarious self-referential tone.

One music-making mini-game we played involved tapping icons as they streamed upwards on the touchscreen. Naturally, success was based on how well we tapped each icon as it passed over indicators randomly spaced across the top of the screen. Dancing also gets its own touch-driven mini-game.

The focus in this DSi version rests solely in the new features that leverage the hardware of the handheld. Taking snapshots with the clamshell camera has been worked in, your picture being used for various activities in-game.

Multiplayer was being considered to take advantage of the local wireless capabilities of the device, although it appears that has been dropped in favour of an quick release.

We're hoping to spend more time with the game, certainly to enjoy more of the writing, but more specifically to get a sense of how comprehensively the game takes advantage of the DSi hardware.

Potential uses of the microphone abound and utilisation of the top display could give the interface some breathing room. It's only available only via the Nintendo DSi Shop, so look for American Popstar for download in April.