The famous saying “one ring to rule them all” does not apply when it comes to music-based video games, that being never more evident than this Holiday season. Activision is making sure there is something out there for every type of music loving gamer (Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, etc.) and the newest addition to the ‘Hero” franchise is the family-friendly, pop-inspired Band Hero. Although the hardcore Guitar Hero fans may not be lining up to jam out with Hilary Duff, with the game’s pop-rock set-list there is enough new content to make the game seem much-needed and relevant. The development team at Neversoft is making a shift with Band Hero, focusing on the pop-cultured craze of today’s society (as well as the last two generations). Included in the game are a number of celebrity avatars that are completely controllable by the player (Taylor Swift being the best). The Guitar Hero franchise has always been about Rock-and-Roll or Heavy Metal until now; Band Hero is taking everything you thought you knew about the series and turning it on it’s head, in a very good way. There is enough new content and fun to be had available in this game to make it worth a purchase, if only for the new pop-inspired tracks.
After spending a good bit of time with Band Hero this past week it’s obvious that the developers built a game that their daughters and sisters would enjoy playing, and because of that the fun-factor just shines through. The entire 70+ song track list includes artists like Taylor Swift, Maroon 5, Aly & AJ, The Village People, Don McClean, Hilary Duff, Snow Patrol, and many more. One of the head producers was quoted as describing Band Hero as the “guilty pleasure” of the music genre lineup, after our review time with it we would have to agree. This is the first game that while playing our spouse came in to find out what the name of one of the songs was, later saying it was “one of her favorites.” Even though this is not a game we would recommend busting out at your next bachelor party or during halftime of the Super Bowl it is great to see Neversoft thinking outside of the box they have been comfortable with for so many years. Even the game’s color-coded packaging screams “family friendly” – featuring an array of reds, blues, and greens.
It’s great to see the full career mode make an appearance in Band Hero, giving players the ability to create a custom foursome and take-off across twelve different locations. Our band’s name was aptly named “Candy Explosion” and was the first of many “laugh moments” that came up during the career mode. As with other GH titles the player must use his/her musical expertise to take their band to the next level, all the while playing some amazing pop-music from the 80s, 90s, and the current decade. Every couple levels you will have the chance to unlock one of those previously mentioned “celebrity” avatars by completing one of their songs. More than once while playing Band Hero we caught ourselves having way too much fun, tapping our feet and spinning around to the latest Taylor Swift song or shedding tears to “Every Thorn has It’s Rose” is not something we are proud of. Even so we were so surprised to see how much fun Band Hero was, and how enjoyable it was to sit down and re-enact some of our favorite “guilty pleasures” from the past three decades. For those musically talented people reading this review Band Hero also features the full suite of create-a-song/playlist tools that made their appearance in previous games.
Graphically the developers took this game in a completely new direction, similar to a cel-shaded art style (it looks great). The visual look and song choices in Band Hero are not the only new additions though; one of our personal favorites is called the “Sing-Along” mode and basically allows for straight-up karaoke gameplay. In this mode there is no worry of failure or point-multipliers, the lyrics and background performance are the main focus and any microphone can be used to help get a larger group of people involved. To be honest it was so much more fun than we ever imagined to strap on our guitar, put an Xbox 360 headset on and step into the virtual shoes of Taylor Swift – albeit it did have to be when no one was at the office to catch us playing. Another developer was quoted as saying that even the “Guitar Hero Metallica players can have a blast with Band Hero,” after spending a good amount of time playing we can most-certainly agree. This title takes away nearly all of the serious aspects of previous music games and lets players sit back and enjoy some of the more pop-friendly music tracks hitting the radio, with all the fantastic gameplay mechanics from those prior games thrown in for kicks.
Band Hero includes a lengthy career mode, Rockfest mode, Elimination, Sing-Along, Perfectionist, Do-or-Die, and a ton of other gameplay modes that push the social gaming envelope. Many (if not all) of them are focused on making sure a group of people has fun (or at least the main player has fun). Considering how many music-based video games there are making the rounds right now the most important thing Band Hero had to succeed at was variety. Our time with BH took place only weeks after we reviewed Beatles: Rock Band and Guitar Hero 5 so we were quite sure boredom would come quickly. To our surprise we couldn’t put the instruments (and microphone) down, easily plowing through all 70+ tracks and even going back for seconds on a couple of our favorites. Of course because of the type of music available in Band Hero we cannot share with you any of those favorite songs, otherwise we would lose all credibility as a man. To be honest we never even expected to like this game - however Band Hero ended-up being our favorite music-based game of this year, in terms of simple fun-factor. If you have been waiting for a music game that is a bit different than the others and includes the best playlist of pop-songs, put on a disguise and go pick-up Band Hero.
