Battle of the Bands

Once known as Band Mashups, THQ’s Battle of the Bands had a nice idea. Unfortunately the execution comes out a little on the rough side and that is ultimately the game’s failing. And if, for whatever reason, your sensibilities are offended when presented with popular songs played in different musical styles, it is likely best to avoid this title altogether.

Battle of the Bands is basically what the name implies – a battle of bands, playing the same tune different ways. If you have ever had a hankering to hear The Ramones’ version of Blitzkrieg Bop done with a country/bluegrass twang, now is your chance. You begin by picking a band that mirrors your musical interest from the assortment of rock, country, hip-hop, marching band, or Latin influences. Then you are dropped into a venue and you fight against another band for points and for the way the song is played.

The way the battle plays out is not hard to figure out. You have a beat bar similar to what games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band use. The Wii controller, though, instead of strumming the right notes, is used to snap out the matching notes by going left, right, down, lunging forward (the stab attack), or waving it back and forth in a horizontal manner. This sets up attack notes, which will head for your opponents beat board and create some minor havoc over there. Conversely, your opponent – either another player or the AI – will launch attacks at you. You can block these by timing the strikes at the right moment and hitting the B button to throw a shield. There are several different attacks, and you cycle through them by using the A button.

Timing is everything in this game. The band that controls the tempo controls the way the song is played, which may mean that if you are a rocker, you could hear the aforementioned song play in a manner that might drive you to distraction. Give credit to the game’s creators, though, for implementing the five different versions of the 30 songs included in this title. Winning a battle is a matter of having the most points scored at the end of a battle.

As you beat an opponent, you advance through the game’s story mode, though what passes for a story is rather thin. The game will also let you go head-to-head against another live opponent in a versus mode. If you really have no desire to play through the game to see all the bands and hear all the songs, you can open up the music player and hear the different versions of the songs.

Part of the problem with the game is that the controller seems to be pretty hit or miss, and can be 'miss' more often than not because of the narrow window of opportunity required to nail the action. Though there are several difficulty levels, the frame rate stutters can add a measure of difficulty to the whole setting. And the game is extremely repetitive. You do have to keep your eyes glued to the beat bar because the game happens quickly, thus you miss some of the animation that occurs.

Graphically the game is Ok, with cartoonish bands that fall into several different stereotypes. The animations are light and can be entertaining, but like the rest of the game, there is a lot of repetition that occurs.

While the game does succeed on some levels, it misses the musical staff on the most important, which is the fun scale. The first time you launch the game it may seem a bit unique, but this quickly disappears into the tedium. Surely something more could have been done here with the concept to create a game that moves forward at a brisk and yet entertaining pace. After about 30 minutes, though, the game is simply more of the same, albeit at an increasing difficulty level. Give developer Planet Moon Studios credit for a solid idea and hope that if there is a second iteration of the franchise, it can inject a little more entertainment value into the proceedings.

Gameplay: 5.4
The movement of the Wii controller is repetitive and there is not a lot of variety in the gameplay itself.  

Graphics: 6.5
Decent graphics here, but if you are playing, you may not get the chance to see much of them.

Sound: 7.0
A nice selection of songs and the versions – regardless of how you personally feel hearing the variety of musical influences – are well done.

Difficulty: Medium

Concept: 5.5
Repetitive gameplay steals from the ideas that fueled the game.

Multiplayer: 5.5
You can go head-to-head with another player, but the game bogs down pretty quickly and you really don’t want to do this for a prolonged time.  

Overall: 5.5
This is a decent game idea that fails on several fronts. The gameplay is reflexive but the window to hit the notes is small and the frame rate stutters compound the difficulty of nailing the action. Couple that with the rapid attack/defend mechanics and you have a game that may lose more than a few interests before the first couple of songs play out. This was a nice try, but it just misses.