Drums

Genre: Music Creation Application

Players: 1

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Review:

Drums, released on Nintendo Switch in 2020, is an Application that lets players play a simulated drum set on their Nintendo Switch using either the touchscreen or buttons assigned to each of the individual drums.

Specifically, this software simulates one and only one sort of drum set, a 7-piece set that includes (and forgive me if I get this wrong, I’m no expert on drums) a bass drum, a floor tom, a snare drum, a pair of tom-toms, a hi-hat, and a ride cymbal. Want to add or remove drums, or want different types of drums? Too bad.

In fact, overall the options here are dreadfully slim. You cannot change the layout, cannot zoom the screen in or out or change the camera angle, cannot change the look of the drums or the recording studio-esque room the game takes place in, nor can you change the button assignments for the buttons (the button assignments all seem sensible to me, but someone else may feel otherwise). You also have no background music, no options to record or playback, no in-game sheet music.

The scant few options that are here are as follows: The game has a series of nine “tutorials” that really just teach some basic rhythms by having you play specific drums in order. However, these tutorials don’t do anything to teach players the timing of these beats, so their use as, well, tutorials is pretty suspect. When playing freestyle, players can also opt to have a metronome playing to keep time, and they can alter that metronome’s speed… but that’s it.

As for the visuals and sound, there’s not much to write about here. The drums sound decent enough to my ears, but nothing truly spectacular and certainly nothing that justifies the whopping 1GB of space this game will take up on your Nintendo Switch. Likewise, the visuals for the room and drum kit look okay, and even have a slight movement when you hit a drum, but it’s nothing truly outstanding and it’s even lacking in color somewhat.

Just so there’s no mistake, let’s be clear on this – Drums on Nintendo Switch is a toy, not anything like a professional piece of music production software, not even close to resembling professional music software. It’s an oddity and a novelty, but it’s far too lacking in options to be anything more than that. I don’t think it’s worth its $10 asking price, and even its regular $2 sale price seems a bit steep for what’s on offer here. I suppose this does at least do just a tiny bit more than the bare minimum in offering the pretense or tutorials, but make no mistake – unless you thrill at just the idea of a simulated drum set on your Nintendo Switch and don’t care about the details, this probably isn’t for you.

tl;dr – Drums is a family-friendly Music Creation Application that lets players play a simulated drum set on Nintendo Switch using either pre-assigned buttons or the touchscreen. While it does manage this bare minimum, it is sorely lacking in options in just about every other area. Unless you fancy a gimmicky toy drum set taking up 1GB of space on your Nintendo Switch, this one isn’t worth it for you.

Grade: D+

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