Licensed games are a bit like fast food. Through no fault of the developer, licensed games are usually tossed out as quickly as possible, usually resulting in a low quality product. But, every once in a while, you'll take a bite and, inexplicably, enjoy it.

Disney's Camp Rock: The Final Jam is far from a 3-star Michelin dining experience, and it's not exactly fast food quality either. It's an enjoyable experience and if it weren't for a few not-so-kind mechanical issues would be on its way to a top-notch game.

It's becoming a bit cliché to say it, but Camp Rock looks great... for a DS game. The 3D treatment is great. It's colorful, there's lots going on and it's easy to tell what's going on. You can customize your camper using clothes unlocked as you play. It's a neat feature.

The biggest draw is, at least for fans, seeing your custom character playing alongside the Jonas Brothers and Demi Lovato. Camp Rock features a slate of seven songs, all from the Camp Rock movies. It's a short list, especially for a rhythm game, so expect to hear lots of repeats.

As you would expect, Disney's Camp Rock: The Final Jam follows the plot of the movie. However, instead of playing as established characters, you're a first-time camper dropped into Camp Rock's rivalry with the superstar camp across the lake.

Gameplay is a mix of rhythm games, mini-games and old style adventure. All three styles mesh well enough and provide a varied experience, though none stand out as exceptional. In the adventure segments, your camper runs a variety of fetch quests for other campers. One needs a new guitar; another is looking for decorations for a new stage outfit. As is usually the case, everyone needs something and you're the only person with the motivation to do anything about it.

With the exception of the canoeing game, where you have to use the stylus like an oar, mini-games are, at best, simple time wasters. They're there and mostly a source of coins, which you can spend in the camp shop for new camper's clothes or quest-related objects.

As with other Disney games, Camp Rock is tied into the D-Gamer Community. The game features a number of small tasks similar to Achievements or Trophies, which unlock points and D-Gamer Avatar items as you play. If you remember my review of Toy Story 3, the feature had me hooked from the start. Camp Rock held me only long enough to complete tasks I need to in order to make it through the game, but I never found myself going back and trying to unlock everything the same way I did with Toy Story 3.

Disney's Camp Rock: The Final Jam sticks to a tried-and-true structure and, for the most part, it works - at least when it comes to the game's younger audience. Tasks are simple enough to follow, but aren't trivialized to the point they seem like mindless filler. However, errands require a bit of traveling, so there's a tiny bit of padding. But, this is expected, and at least there are hidden objects to ferret for while completing bigger jobs.

Rhythm sections offer three difficulty levels. There's no way to choose which you want to use; they're selected based on where you are in the game. Usually, the first time you hear a song you'll play on Easy, then Normal, then Hard. All follow the same general structure, though mechanical issues cause some complications.

Rhythm gameplay is a major play component. Oddly enough, it's also the game's shakiest feature. It's not that it doesn't work, but there's little room for mistakes. If you look at other rhythm games, there's a slight bit of delay between when you're supposed to hit the button and when you actually hit it. Disney's Camp Rock: The Final Jam offers, as far as I could tell, little room between the two actions.

The worst offender is the guitar. The actual mechanic is neat - strum with the stylus and play chords by pressing directions on the D-pad. However, with the exception of the tutorial, I was never able to get the game to read my strums. Or rather, it would read the strums, make the noise, but not give me credit for it. I won't call the mechanic broken; it's just incredibly strict about what it will accept as a correct hit. After a few failures on the first song, I ended up giving up the instrument entirely.

Drumming is slightly better, though not by much. Tapping the drums in time with the falling orbs is easy enough. Yet, what you're tapping out doesn't always match what's going on in the song. At one point, I heard a constant beat on the cymbal, but ended up hitting a non-existent (or, at the very least non-audible) snare part. Dancing suffers from the same issue; hitting moves is easy, though it doesn't always match the tempo/ timing you want to follow based on the music.

Bass is the only play mechanic that feels right. It's sort of a hybrid of the drums and guitar. You hit marks as they fall from the top of the screen, but also press corresponding directions on the D-pad. Even the rhythm feels right, making it the best of the bunch and the one I stuck with the most.

If it wasn't for the problems arising from a set of busted mechanics, Camp Rock: The Final Jam would top the "Great Game for Kids" category. As it stands, it's an okay game that will appeal to fans of the movie and no one else.