Band Hero
| Band Hero | |
|---|---|
 North American boxart | |
| Developer(s) | Neversoft (Xbox 360/PS3) Vicarious Visions (Wii/DS) Budcat Creations (PS2) |
| Publisher(s) | RedOctane |
| Series | Guitar Hero |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS |
| Release | November 3, 2009 |
| Genre(s) | Music |
Band Hero is an expansion game to the Guitar Hero series of music video games, due to be released by Activision on November 3, 2009 for the PlayStation 2 and 3, Wii, Xbox 360 and Nintendo DS consoles. The game is structurally similar to Guitar Hero 5, and will support full band play (lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals) including the drop-in/drop-out and in-song instrument and difficulty change menus, and additional multiplayer modes as Guitar Hero 5.
Gameplay
According to Jeff Gerstmann of Giant Bomb, the game, from its first trailer, appears to be functionally similar to the features of Guitar Hero 5, including bands composed of any combination of four instruments, drop-in/drop-out play, in-song menus to change difficulty and instrument, and additional multiplayer modes compared to Guitar Hero 5's "Rockfest".[2] Taylor Swift, Adam Levine (of Maroon 5), and the band No Doubt have been confirmed to be playable avatars in the game.[3][4][5][6] Artists performed motion capture for their in-game avatars.
A new drum kit controller will be introduced with the game. While it features the same five-pad design as the Guitar Hero World Tour drum controller, many changes were made to address weight and size concerns that made assembly difficult. The cymbal pads are more circular than the previous triangular shapes, and the stand's crossbar has been lowered to its base as to allow for the bass kick pedal to be supported by it. Some adjustment to drum head sensitivity has been made based on complaints from the World Tour set, and the game will include a sensitivity adjustment feature. The new controller will, for a limited time, remain exclusive for the Wii version of the game and will be packaged in the Band Hero game and instrument bundles. The Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the controller will arrive later; Band Hero bundles for these platforms will include the World Tour drum controller.[7]
Band Hero for the Nintendo DS will feature the ability to play the same instruments as the console-based versions. Though the game is compatible with the DS, DS Lite, and DSi, only players on the DS Lite will receive the "full band" experience due to the nature of the hardware extensions for the unit. Guitar and bass parts will be played with the same "Guitar Grip" previously created for the Guitar Hero On Tour series, though this unit will not work on the Nintendo DSi due to lack of a GBA slot. The gameplay for guitar and bass is considered to be the fourth iteration of the Guitar Hero On Tour design by developers Vicarious Visions, and have further improvements to meet with different strumming styles.[8] A new "drum skin" that fits over the bottom half of the DS unit will provide four "pads" for drumming that map to the unit's directional pad and face buttons; this design was selected over use of the touch screen due to the inability of the touch screen to recognize near-simultaneous taps, a factor that would have interfered with the drumming experience.[8] The drum skin is limited to the Nintendo DS Lite due to the skin's form factor. The decision to design towards the DS Lite rather than the newer DSi was due to the much larger volume of DS Lite units that have been sold relative to the DSi.[9] The DS microphone will be used for vocal parts. The DS will have 30 of the songs from console versions. The game also supports up to four player multiplayer in a similar manner as Guitar Hero 5 using the DS's local wireless connections, allowing any combination of instruments.[10] However, there is no support for the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection nor plans for additional downloadable content for the DS game.[8]
A three-song demo was made available on Xbox Live on October 15, 2009, and included "Paralyzer" by Finger Eleven, "Picture to Burn" by Taylor Swift and "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves.[11]
Soundtrack
Console soundtrack
Band Hero for consoles will feature more than 65 songs from "mainstream acts".[12][13] The game will also allow Guitar Hero World Tour’s downloadable content to be used within Band Hero, and is expected to also use similar content for Guitar Hero 5.[2] In addition, some on-disc songs from Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Smash Hits will be importable into Band Hero and Guitar Hero 5 for an undetermined fee, with music licensing limiting those that can be transferred.[14] Furthermore, 69 of the 85 on-disc songs from Guitar Hero 5 can be imported into Band Hero; similarly, 61 of the 65 songs from Band Hero can be exported for use in Guitar Hero 5.[15]
Nintendo DS soundtrack
The Nintendo DS version of Band Hero will feature thirty songs of the same genre as the console-based soundtrack.[16][13]
References
- ^ "Band Hero European Release Date". Gamespot. 2009-09-18. Retrieved 2009-09-18.
- ^ a b Gerstmann, Jeff (2009-07-21). "Band Hero To Bring Pop Music To Your Plastic This November". Giant Bomb. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
- ^ Snider, Mike (2009-08-04). "Taylor Swift: Band Heroine". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Taylor Swift: What a character!". People Magazine. 2009-08-04. Retrieved 2009-08-04.
- ^ Pastorek, Whitney (2009-08-18). "An EW Exclusive: Maroon 5's Adam Levine goes digital in 'Band Hero'". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-08-18.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Halperin, Shirley (2009-08-27). "Kurt Cobain Joins "Guitar Hero 5″: How Nirvana Came to the Game". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2009-08-27.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ Lowe, Scott (2009-09-29). "Band Hero Drum Set Hands-On". IGN. Retrieved 2009-09-30.
- ^ a b c Tolito, Stephan (2009-07-23). "Band Hero DS Braces For The Skeptics, Offers A Lot". Kotaku. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
- ^ "Activison: Nintendo DSi hasn't Sold Enough". Spong. 2009-07-24. Retrieved 2009-07-25.
- ^ Faylor, Chris (2009-07-23). "Band Hero Brings Portable Drum Action to DS Lite". Shacknews. Retrieved 2009-07-23.
- ^ Faylor, Chris (2009-10-15). "Band Hero Demo Arrives on Xbox 360, Has You 'Walking on Sunshine'". Shacknews. Retrieved 2009-10-15.
- ^ "Sneak Peek: 'Band Hero' Tunes Up". MSNBC. 2009-07-21. Retrieved 2009-07-22.
- ^ a b Reilly, Dan (2009-10-16). "'Band Hero' Tracklist Revealed -- Exclusive". Spinner. Retrieved 2009-10-16.
- ^ Brudvig, Erik (2009-08-07). "Guitar Hero 5 Hands-on". IGN. Retrieved 2009-08-07.
- ^ Faylor, Chris (2009-10-19). "Band Hero Gets Full Tracklist, Song Export Details". Shacknews. Retrieved 2009-10-19.
- ^ "'Band Hero' (ALL) Preliminary Tracklist Revealed". Worth Playing. 2009-09-28. Retrieved 2009-09-28.
External links
| Main series | |
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| Expansions | |
| Spinoffs | |
| Related articles | |
