Battle of the Bands

Rating: T

Score: 6.0

It’s time for you and your band to get ready to play! Playing your best while attacking opponents is the name of the game! This game is only available for the Nintendo Wii.

This game, at first glance, sounds like a great game. Two different styles of bands, varying from: Rock, Country, Marching Band, Hip-Hop, and Latin, playing (mostly) well-known songs, changing the tempo depending on who’s winning. For example, if a rock band and a country band were playing a song, and the country band was winning, the song’s style would be country, and if the rock band started winning, a more fast-paced rock style would be made of the song. This is a great idea, buried in bad gameplay.

Unlike Guitar Hero, you don’t hit any buttons, or even a Guitar Hero guitar. Instead, you swing the Wii Remote left, right and down to hit notes. That’s right, only three notes! Most people can get comfortable with easy difficulty quickly, and skip right to hard difficulty almost instantly! The songs in this game are good, ranging from “Insane in the Brain,” to “Blitzkrieg Bop,” to “Photograph.” Though you can play different styles of these songs, some just aren’t very good. Another problem is that there are only 30 songs, with isn’t horrible, but it’s not $50 worth.

There’s a Story Mode in this game, but it’s a lame disappointment. It’s simply playing the game normally, connected by pointless cut-scenes showing a picture you and your opponent’s bands talking.

No matter how you slice it, this isn’t your money’s worth. The unique gameplay get quickly boring, and only 30 songs is a problem. Think of it as Guitar Hero 3’s Battle Mode, minus most of the fun.