Pop Music Gets Its Own Hero

Matt Miller — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 21:21:00 GMT

Band Hero could have easily (and more clearly) been titled Guitar Hero: Pop. Perhaps Activision felt that another Guitar Hero release in such close proximity to so many others would feel exploitative, or maybe someone decided that the new pop flavor demanded its own branding. Any which way, this is a re-skinning of Guitar Hero 5 filled with Top 40 hits instead of hard rock. Given that, the game does an excellent job of highlighting these popular super-hits.

I’m always hesitant to get into judgment calls about the music choices in a music game – my personal tastes aside, this is a diverse mix of fun pop songs culled from several decades. You know already whether you want to sing along with Taylor Swift, bang the drums to a Maroon 5 tune, or strum along with KT Tunstall. But as familiar and catchy as these songs are, they frequently feature repetitive and simplistic note charts. Endless chorus repeats, single-phrase bass lines, and sing-along friendly vocal parts rarely correlate with complex and interesting gameplay. Then again, it’s hard to fault Neversoft for being faithful to the source material.

Guitar Hero 5’s bonus objectives make a return, giving experienced players something extra to achieve in a given song. The jump-in-jump-out party play option is even more valuable to this installment, so I was glad to see it included. Plus, a sing-along karaoke mode is a great way to leverage what many will like about the game. Band Hero’s robust 65 song setlist is also bolstered by the ability to export and import tunes to and from the other recent Guitar Hero games.

It’s hard to take Band Hero out of the context of its recent music game brethren. Band Hero is the least innovative of the bunch, but that certainly doesn’t make it bad. For players who found previous releases too hard-edged for their tastes, Band Hero is exactly what they’ve been waiting for.

Get Ready To Rock With A Wider Audience

Jeff Cork — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:06:00 GMT

It’s certainly been a busy year for Guitar Hero. With the releases of Guitar Hero: Metallica, Guitar Hero Smash Hits, Guitar Hero: Van Halen, Guitar Hero Mobile, Guitar Hero Arcade, Guitar Hero on Tour: Modern Hits, and Guitar Hero 5 all in 2009, it’s easy to forget about Band Hero. Sure, its focus on more pop-oriented tracks by artists such as Taylor Swift and Jackson 5 is bound to put off some of the more hardcore shredders out there. But players who are more interested in keeping a party moving than worrying about upsetting the Scorehero crowd have a lot to look forward to with Band Hero. It’s filled with fun, recognizable tunes that just about everyone will know by heart.

We got a locked build of the game in the office and played through as much of it as we could. Even though much of its content was blocked off, it gave a good sense of what we can expect to see from the complete game. The 11 venues in the build took us from our humble beginnings at a mall-based talent show to an encore that takes place in some kind of outer space freakout – with plenty of stops between in places like France, Spain, and Japan.

The career mode is based on Guitar Hero 5’s with all of the features that entails. The title screen serves as a gateway to Party Mode, playing through complete songs automatically until a player presses start and jumps into the action. A new Sing-Along mode strips the points from the game, encouraging people to grab the nearest mic and belt their hearts out – without worrying about failing.

Aside from the new songs and updated interface (think neon, not rawk patches), the biggest formula tweak in Band Hero is with its stage choreography. Previous games have improved on lip-synching and matching animations with the music, but Band Hero takes that a step further. When the opening sounds of Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting” start, the lead singer’s head slowly creeps into view like a ninja. As they sing, their movement is punctuated with karate chops and other silly moves. And while series stalwart Axel Steel isn’t likely to be confused with the late Michael Jackson, he does have some fresh moves at his disposal. (Maybe that’s a side effect of Steel’s trendy new makeover.)

Ultimately, a lot of Band Hero is more of the same, which is good news. If you like the setlist and you liked Guitar Hero 5, it’s not too much of a stretch to say you’ll probably like Band Hero. If the thought of backing up Maroon 5’s Adam Levine or jamming along with No Doubt makes you want to hop off the closest bridge, you’ll be best served staying far, far from it. If you hate having fun, that is.

Here’s what we played, from the complete setlist of 65 songs:

3 Doors Down    “When I’m Gone”
The Bravery    “Believe”
Cheap Trick    “I Want You to Want Me (Live)”
Carl Douglas    “Kung Fu Fighting”
Evanescence    “Bring me to Life”
Everclear    “Santa Monica”
Finger Eleven    “Paralyzer”
Hinder    “Lips of an Angel”
Jackson 5    “ABC”
Janet Jackson    “Black Cat”
Maroon 5    “She Will be Loved”
Don McLean    “American Pie”
Mighty Mighty Bosstones    “The Impression that I Get”
N.E.R.D.    “Rock Star”
No Doubt    “Just a Girl”
Roy Orbison    “Oh, Pretty Woman”
Styx    “Mr. Roboto”
Taylor Swift    “Love Story”
Tonic    “If You Could Only See”
Yellowcard    “Ocean Avenue”

Band Hero - Xbox 360

Pop Music Gets Its Own Hero

Get Ready To Rock With A Wider Audience