Battle of the Bands from Planet Moon Studio’s is an elaborate experiment to answer the question, “Would Guitar Heroes be fun without the guitar?” The answer: Not really. True to the company being who they are – the talent behind the genuinely funny Giants: Citizen Kabuto and Armed and Dangerous – there are some elements that are truly ingenious and noteworthy features, but they are ultimately fluff that cannot save an inherently monotonous core.
As one of several caricature bands, you must travel around the globe and defeat the others to become the world’s best. Each band is characterized by the style of music they represent, with each band’s design correlating with one of several genres, including rock, country, hip-hop, a marching band (personal favorite), and so on. The matches are over-the-top tune-offs that consist of a Guitar Hero-esque board and notes, with the dominating band being the influence on the track being played. This is the most unique and compelling aspect of the game and, luckily, there is also a side feature that allows you to play any one of the game’s numerous songs and switch between the genres – very cool.
There is one problem with the music however, and that it suffers from the Inspired by … syndrome. There are 30 tracks, which is about average, but they are there by way of cover bands of the C- sort. Thankfully, the genre switching helps to disguise this as the two bands quickly dominate the original version. To ensure that your style prevails in dominating the track you must (dun dun) do battle.
Despite guitars, Neo Geo controllers, and fitness boards, the remote remains the standby of the Wii’s arsenal of controllers, and it’s the star of the show in Battle of the Bands. As notes approach a set point on the screen the remote has to be shook (i.e. waggled) or thrust forward, depending on the indicator, to score points. A correct note also goes towards setting up weapons to be fired at an opponent; so, if a grenade is chosen and has a five next to it, that means that five notes must be correctly played for it to become armed and tossed towards your opponent’s board. The opponent can block an attack, as can you, though you will find that not only is the computer not the most adept combatant but that protecting your board is pretty tricky, thanks to a hectic set and touchy forcefield.
Band by band, venue by venue, the computer will fall to your waggling and poking. On the screen rockets will be fired, fires lit, instruments trashed, and songs rocked. This is all well and good in the beginning, but as time progresses and you realize that there really isn’t all that much else to do, the magic fades. The game gives you a lot to do at once – thrusting, wagging, launching, and blocking – but it’s akin to being surrounded and told the place is packed when there’s no one else in the room; all the rigmarole can’t hide the fact that the game is homely. The music ends up outshining the mechanics, but the music itself wears thin after a few hours. It then doesn’t take long for the repetitive nature to set in and for things to go downhill, with the result being you left feeling like you got lost in a novelty for an afternoon.
