After the hit movie Hannah Montana, we now have the video game where you, yourself, can step into the secret dual life of Miley Stewart and Hannah Montana. Live the rock star life as you perform gigs as Hannah Montana or, for the first time, you can play as Miley Stewart and explore the world she left behind as an ordinary farm girl in Tennessee...

With great visuals this game really comes to life as you navigate around the different locations such as Ruby’s Farm, Derrick’s Petting zoo and the Fairground. In order to unlock different songs and items for the interior of the tour bus, tasks have to be completed in each location.

The main menu leads you to a tutorial, story mode and quick mode. The tutorial is where you can practice everything you will need when Hannah Montana is performing on stage. This includes dance moves, how to play the guitar, the keyboard, the drums and singing.

Unfortunately, all you really need to do for the above performances is shake the control at the correct places and hold still at the right time. I feel this part of the game may mislead true fans of Hannah Montana in that it looks like you can actually sing as you perform but this is not the case. This part of the game is used on controls alone.

The Story Mode is where you play the part of Miley Stewart. Here you can meet members of her family and help out with household chores to earn money to spend on Miley’s wardrobe. Also if you look around in the different locations you can find new and exciting items for the tour bus.

The ‘Z’ phone features in the story mode. Use your Wii remote to pick the call and take part in the conversation by pressing A on the remote. This is much more than a phone as when you go into the menu of the ‘Z’ phone it brings up extras, a ‘to do’ list, map, tour bus, closet, options, quit and resume.

I love the closet; this is where you can change outfits and accessories. Just make sure you save money to go to the shops to buy new clothes as there isn’t too much in the closet at the beginning of the game. Money is easily saved from tasks and games played.

The tour bus is like a candy store. It’s colourful and you can change furniture, posters, wallpaper and lots more to what suits you. Again, you just have to play along in the story mode to unlock different interiors.

A really good part in the tour bus is the dressing room. If you click on the pink box on the floor, it leads you to a menu where you can decorate different clothes with pictures and colours of your choosing. This can be placed where you so desire and it can change sizes from small, medium or large. It’s great being able to add your own creativity to the clothes that are worn in the game.

The quick mode enables you to choose performance, mini games or tour bus.

The performance allows you to choose from 11 different songs and 6 different stages, of course you have to unlock most of these to begin with by playing along in the story mode. It’s good to practice the performances though and if you have friends around they can sing along to the songs as it acts like a karaoke, with words appearing on the screen.

In mini games, you can play bottle tops, frog hop, horse races and meadow fields. The best of the above games is meadow fields, where you go horse riding and have to jump over fences, bails of hay and other such items. Each of these mini games, depending how well you do, earns you money for your piggy bank.

Finally in the quick mode there is the tour bus to choose. This is where you can look around the tour bus and make it your own. From changing the style of the bedside lamp to changing a sofa into a pool table if you so desire. The closet is also here so you can change outfits and also this is where you can decorate your own clothes in the dressing room.

All in all this is an entertaining game and user friendly. When I first picked it up to play I had doubts about it but sure enough three hours later I had created a new closet for Miley and decorated some clothes with my artistic flair. Not to mention the changes I had made to the tour bus, oh and I now know a few Hannah Montana songs. Who says I’m too old to get down with the kids!

8

Helena Rea