hile the Wii version of Disney Interactive Studios’ new Ultimate Band game might feature scrolling notes and players miming out musical performances, comparisons between it and other music games aren’t necessarily fair. “Aside from the peripheral, we’ve always considered those to be more of a sim versus a game,” says Fall Line Studios senior producer Tim Huntsman. “Our focus has always been on, ‘Let’s make a game. Let’s focus on the fun and the physicality of what it’s like to try to play air guitar.’”
In Ultimate Band, players won’t be strumming along to fake guitars or pounding virtual skins—they’ll be playing along to licensed tracks with their Wii remotes and nunchuks (or the stylus on the DS version). And don’t let the Disney name throw you off—players won’t be jamming along to “Bibbity-Bobbity-Boo” or “When You Wish Upon a Star.” We got an exclusive peek at what players can expect when the game ships this holiday season. Ultimate Band’s tracklist includes covers of Devo’s new-wave classic “Whip It” and The Raconteurs’ “Steady as She Goes.” See, family-oriented gaming doesn’t necessarily have to leave its musical tastes at the door.
The number of tracks is still currently under wraps, due to the arcane workings of music licensing, but Huntsman is shooting for as many songs as possible. “We’re gamers, like everybody else, and we obviously think that more is more in this case, so we’re trying to get as many as we can—but that final number is up in the air.”
If players are using standard controllers, how does it work? Funny you should ask. The guitar parts feature four possible note combinations. As the symbols scroll past, players “strum” the remote up and down while pressing various button combinations on the nunchuk—C, Z, C and Z simultaneously and nothing. “The idea with the guitar is—I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Joe Cocker, the singer,” explains Huntsman. “If you’ve ever watched him sing, he’s playing two-finger air guitar while he’s doing his little freakouts for lack of a better word. And it was kind of that idea.”
Bass players have something extra to look forward to. “Bass is not the dumb version of the guitar,” says Huntsman, and Ultimate Band treats the low-end instrument differently to punctuate that philosophy. Bass players have three possible button combinations to tussle with (C, Z and C plus Z), but they actually have six possible notes on their on-screen charts. As Huntsman explained to us, those additional six notes are accessed by moving the nunchuck to simulate sliding your hands up and down the neck of the instrument.