Ultimate Band – a music game without peripherals. That idea is a bit strange to those consumed by the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series. But it is by no means unprecedented and not just because of Wii Music. Back in the ‘90s, Sony scored big with Parappa the Rapper, a title that revolved around catchy rap songs but did not contain any vocal gameplay. REZ, the illusive and critically acclaimed music game from Sega, did not use a special controller to pull us into the experience. Technic Beat, an undervalued classic, was another peripheral-free music title that produced a unique style of gameplay without needing a guitar or drum controller. And who could forget Frequency and Amplitude, the games that launched Harmonix’s career and allowed them to create the Guitar Hero and Rock Band series?

There are many other examples that prove music games don’t need more than a standard controller. The one thing they have in common, however, is that they all were developed before Guitar Hero made it cool to buy expensive peripherals. Even The Naked Band Brothers game, which is played with the Wii remote and Nunchuk, shipped with a USB microphone to add a vocal element. Ultimate Band could have done the same thing and followed the latest trend. But the developer stood its ground and stuck with the plan to produce a game that required nothing more than what came with the Wii console.

Air Band

We all know how to rap with a controller. But how do you, say, play the guitar with a Wii remote? Ultimate Band answers this puzzling question with joint usage of the remote and Nunchuk. You don’t have to hold the controllers in a weird manner in order to simulate the instrument you’re pretending to play (as Wii Music encourages you to do). But you will have to hold down specific buttons to move the note catcher (the area where the notes should be hit as they scroll across the screen), which is supposed to simulate the act of hitting different strings or playing different chords.

If this sounds like Rock University Presents: The Naked Brothers Band – The Game, then you get the idea of where this is headed. But unlike that game, Ultimate Band is more diverse and more rhythmic. It isn’t just a song in the background with notes to aimlessly hit – there is a real sense of music applied.

On that note, the developer hired male and female vocalists to record all of the songs, allowing players to produce any kind of band they choose. Take on the role of the guitarist, bassist, drummer or frontman as you travel around in search of bigger and better venues. The end goal is not unlike that of American Idol – as an everyday garage band, you hope to enter and win the RockDome competition.

Mania. Drum Mania

The drum gameplay is what you’ll expect but with a very easy difficulty. There are three settings – easy, medium and hard – allowing kids to rock hard without having to be hardcore gamers. But in this case, the setting changes only influence how many notes are thrown onto the screen during each song.

Easy mode is 50 times easier than anything Rock Band or Guitar Hero dishes out. The hard setting, while a tad more intense, is still nowhere near Rock Band or Guitar Hero’s default difficulty. This is alright for young kids with no drumming experience (or those who just want simple rhythmic gameplay) but will not provide any long-term entertainment value to those who own EA or Activision’s music titles.

Make Me Rock, Don’t Make Me Sing

It ain’t easy being a frontman. After all that singing and stage jumping, what do you have to show for it? Fame? Fortune? A spot on MTV Cribs? But just in case you ever get your jaw wired shut like some famous political commentator, know that there will still be a place for you on stage…in Ultimate Band.

That’s right, in case you haven’t heard, Ultimate Band does not use a Karaoke Revolution-style singing mechanic. Thus, you aren’t a singing frontman – you’re a partying frontman. The kind who jigs on stage like it’s 1999.

To create gameplay around this idea, the developers looked to the Wii’s motion capabilities, starting with a simple punch. While holding the remote and Nunchuk, punch toward the screen (as if you were punching toward the audience). When the inward-pointing arrows and accompanying hand gesture icon appears on screen, shake the controllers toward each other to virtually clap within the game. This motion is usually performed a few times to get the crowd pumped for the song.

Before you know it, the game will encourage you to wave your hands back and forth, soothing the crowd into the dream-like state music (occasionally) creates. You’ll also spin the controllers and hold the remote in various positions (point the front of the remote toward, down or away from yourself). Pointing aside, each of these mechanics are handled with an on-screen icon that must be hit as it scrolls across the performance-triggering area. In simple terms, it’s Guitar Hero with motions – a summation that could be used to describe the entire game.

Gameplay: 7
As a kid’s game, Ultimate Band is much more successful than Wii Music or The Naked Brothers Band. It wasn’t designed to compete with the big boys of music gaming, so don’t expect it to enthrall those who have at least one music controller in their collection. But if you’ve got kids who are new to music gaming, Ultimate Band is worth exploring. The guitar and bass portions are weak, but that can be blamed on the limitations of the Wii.

Graphics: 7.9
Not breathtaking but fairly artistic. The venues look great, and the character creation/customization features will be very easy for kids to use.

Sound: 7.5
Acceptable covers, decent voice-overs, and a story that is actually pretty good without bogging the game down with too many sequences.

Difficulty: Easy
The under 10 crowd might be challenged, so long as they haven't tackled Guitar Hero or Rock Band first.

Concept: 6.5
If this game had been released when the idea was originally conceived (which technically wasn't possible since the Wii hadn't been released yet), it would have been perceived as something new and different. Unfortunately, game development isn't a fast process. Wii Music and The Naked Band Brothers beat this one to store shelves, as did Rock Band 1 and 2. So while the developers had the best intentions, most players won't think of Ultimate Band as being a "new" concept.

Multiplayer: 7
Four-player co-op and practice modes or two-player head-to-head.

Overall: 7
As an overall package, kids won’t be blown away but they will be entertained by the catchy music (even though every song is a cover), they’ll appreciate the gameplay variety (the frontman mechanics are weird but different), and enjoy the stylized visuals, which are quite inventive for Wii, a console that is usually slapped with dated graphics.