Reviewed: May 25, 2008
Reviewed by: Mark Smith

Publisher
THQ

Developer
Planet Moon Studios

Released: April 21, 2008
Genre: Music
Players: 1-2

5
6
8
6
6.2

Supported Features:

Screenshots (Click Image for Gallery)
There is no denying that Guitar Hero has paved the way for music video games, and Rock Band has followed their lead creating an entirely new and thriving genre. One of the more clever concepts introduced in Guitar Hero III was the Battle Mode whereby two guitarists could duel each other by playing well while launching various “attacks” at their opponent to disrupt their gameplay. It didn’t take long before somebody took that singular concept and spun it into a game of its own.

Battle of the Bands comes to the Wii, of all places, with some seriously good ideas, a fresh look, and some awesome music, yet due to some incredibly bland gameplay dynamics the fun factor never gets this game truly off the ground. It’s a shame too because what better concept than to take 30 licensed tracks and record them 5 different ways. Now, all of you who have been waiting for Country Guitar Hero or Rap Hero or Cantina Band Hero or…dare I say it…Marching Band Hero, can find all of these eclectic genres on one disc and one game.

The battle mode in Guitar Hero was merely a device to make the other player trip up, but in Battle of the Bands you are actually vying for control of the song itself. Whether you are playing against a human player in two-player Versus mode or going up against a diverse set of rival bands in the Adventure mode, each of the 11 bands available in the game represent one of five genres including Rock, Country, Hip-Hop (Rap), Ranchero (Latin), and even an instrument-only Marching Band.

As you play the select track you will launch a wide assortment of attacks toward your opponent in hopes of messing them up long enough to take control of the song. Whoever is in control determines the genre-style of the song being played. This leads to some incredibly interesting and hilarious moments when you seamlessly turn “Whoomp! (There It Is)” from rap to a country square dance hoedown. Even more interesting is that all of the Latin band versions of these songs have been translated to Spanish, so if you ever wanted to know what Def Leppard’s “Photograph” sound like in Spanish, look no further.

What amazed me the most is just how seamlessly these songs transition from one genre to the next. During the actual game you can only hear the song bounce between two styles but if you go to the Music Player you can pick any song and listen to it in any genre and switch among them in real-time. I’ve probably spent more time in this mode than the actual game just exploring all the styles of music and how they mesh.

Playing the game is easy in theory. You make specific movements with the Wii remote to match the scrolling on-screen prompts. These can be side-to-side or downward swipes or even stabbing at the screen. There are even small and large zigzagging motions used to match patterns. Hitting successive notes will reward you with attacks that are automatically launched at your opponent as they are earned.

While the patterns and motions of the Wii remote are loosely tied to the beat of the music there are no audible cues when you mess up, so you never really feel that you are playing an instrument. If anything, you feel like you are conducting an orchestra – say, wasn’t there supposed to be a game like that for the Wii? The four movements of the remote are easily mastered by all age groups, leaving you the only challenge of perfecting the art of combat.

As you progress through the game you will unlock more unique and powerful attacks – there are 70 in all. You can pre-select three of these attacks prior to the song, and each has a prerequisite number of notes that must be hit (in succession) to earn that attack. You can cycle which attack you are attempting to earn with the A button, and the B trigger will momentarily activate a bubble shield to protect you from incoming attacks if you can master the timing.

And that’s pretty much it. You try to hit as many notes as possible, earning and launching attacks at the rival bands while wrestling for control over the song and earning as many points as possible. The game tracks numerous stats but it is only the score that will determine the victor for each battle.

The Adventure mode has you choosing your band and tries to tell a “story” as you travel to various parts of the world and play in several venues in each location. The cartoonish graphics are fun, but the childish dialogue and banter between the bands gets old real fast, and you’ll find yourself tapping the A button to skip straight to the gameplay.

The two-player Versus mode makes for a great party game assuming you have parties with only one other person, or everyone is okay with taking turns. Seriously, it’s a pretty fun diversion but the fun will likely wear off long before a rental period expires.

While the game makes use of some decent CG for the opening animations and stage venues the character interactions that try to tell the story are pretty lame. Were talking cel-shaded style still frame character art and portraits that sit there motionless while we read the most mundane dialogue ever put to pixels. Listening to (or rather reading) the satanic chick rocker exchange verbal barbs with the leader from the Country Band or the cheerleader from the Marching Band is fun for about 20 seconds.

Once you get to the actual gameplay things don’t stray too far from what you might see in Guitar Hero. Note icons stream along the vertical music bar and attack animations arc their way to the enemy side with fun animations and explosive results. The smoke screen is one of my favorite and most effective ways of taking control of a song. There are also specific duels where you launch a series of green skulls at each other and try to block with your shield.

The menus and map screens in the Adventure mode are fun and will certainly appeal to the kids. There are some fun band animations that you really can’t appreciate while playing the game, and I loved the final attack animations from the winner of the round when the song is over. It’s a fun game to watch as it is to play.

There are 30 songs recorded in five genres effectively giving you 150 original tracks if you want to play the math angle. Considering that all songs don’t work across all five genres you likely won’t play as all the bands. Personally, I didn’t think any of the music worked when played by the Marching Band, so I will never play that band in Adventure mode, but I’m sure there are plenty of “band geeks” out there who will totally relate to the trumpets and drums.

Even more interesting was that many of these songs worked better in genres that you might not think they would. Black Betty and Miss Murder were two that really surprised me. Here is the complete song list:

  • AFI - "Miss Murder"
  • Audioslave - "Original Fire"
  • Black Eyed Peas - "Dum Diddly"
  • B-Real - "Fistful of Dollars"
  • Cypress Hill - "Insane in the Brain"
  • Def Leppard - "Photograph"
  • Electric Six - "Danger! High Voltage"
  • Gorillaz - "Feel Good Inc."
  • KC and the Sunshine Band - "That's the Way (I Like It)"
  • Keane - "Is It Any Wonder?"
  • Kool & the Gang - "Jungle Boogie"
  • Korn - "Coming Undone"
  • Latin Soul Syndicate - "Shake It"
  • LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out"
  • Ram Jam- "Black Betty"
  • Rick James- "Give It To Me Baby"
  • Soundgarden - "Spoonman"
  • Tag Team - "Whoomp! (There It Is)"
  • Tenacious D - "Master Exploder"
  • Texas Tornados - "Adios Mexico"
  • Texas Tornados - "Hey Baby Que Paso"
  • Texas Tornados - "Una Mas Cerveza"
  • The Commodores - "Brick House"
  • The Fixx - "One Thing Leads to Another"
  • The Georgia Satellites - "Keep Your Hands To Yourself"
  • The Ramones - "Blitzkrieg Bop"
  • The Soggy Bottom Boys - "Man of Constant Sorrow"
  • TV on the Radio - "Wolf Like Me"
  • Wet Willie - "Dixie Rock"
  • Ziroq - "Tierra del Sur"
You’ll just have to use your imagination on what these songs sound like in each of the five genres until you pick up your own copy of the game.

Battle of the Bands is easy to learn and not much harder to master. You can walk through the Adventure mode on Medium difficulty and likely never lose. The multiplayer Versus mode might add a few hours to your enjoyment, but most gamers over the age of 15 will probably move on to more challenging and serious games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Battle of the Bands is a fun game and definitely worth playing, at least as a rental.

Battle of the Bands has a fantastic concept that is lost in some overly simplistic gameplay that just fails to grab the gamer and keep them interested for any length of time. You never feel like you are actually “playing” an instrument, partly due to the Wii remote waving, but mostly due to limited interaction with the music.

I love the track selection that focused more on musical style than actual songs. It was interesting and even a bit educational experiencing these distinct flavors of music mixed in real-time, but when you spend more time in the Music Player than the actual game, something is wrong. Given the choice, I’d rather own the soundtrack to Battle of the Bands more than the game, but I have to admit, I did have fun, for as long as the fun lasted.