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Band Hero Review

By Jason - December 24, 2009 - 23:02 UTC

Band Hero is an interesting one for me.  I love rhythm games, but I…well, hate is a strong word;  I dislike pop music, I’m more of a rock fan.  So where exactly does Band Hero fall in regards to the others?  Actually, the title itself is confusing.  I mean, if Band Hero is about bands, what was Guitar Hero:  World Tour?  Anyway, I’ll let you sort it out….I still think it should be Pop Hero…bah. I’m splitting hairs.

Now, I hear that there’s a lot of features in Band Hero that have been brought across from Guitar Hero 5, which I haven’t played.  These two games are apparently quite similar, but as I’ve not played one, don’t expect a comparison.  You’ll be able to go get that elsewhere.

Band Hero touts a wide selection of music, steering away from the ‘rock’ (and I use the term loosely) of the Guitar Hero series, and nuzzling in closer with the cozy mainstream bed of pop and all of its alternates.  In the same move, it’s also gone for the family friendly approach that games in the similar genre like LEGO Rock Band have taken, censoring references to alcohol and guns out of many songs, leaving them blank for you to sing along anything too.  I would’ve liked this to be an option rather than taking them out for everyone, as I’m an actual adult and I am allowed to say “whiskey”.

There’s a fairly impressive 65 tracks included with the game, with the option of more to be purchased from the GH Store.  During these tracks you’ll be challenged in a few different ways, the first of which is a bunch of different challenges to earn extra stars.  These change with every song, and vary between instruments as well, so you’ll find yourself trying to nail a specific solo, hit a string of notes or whatever, and rank from one star to three for a reward, also unlocking some extra gear or other reward.  On top of this, some songs have ’secret notes’.  They’re just normal notes, but if you hit them all you get an achievement; if you hit all of the secret note achievements, you get the big mumma, 490 gamerscore in one hit, sweet sweet victory.

One thing I really was happy about is the tutorial system.  The tutorials will not only teach you how to play, but also give you tips on how to stand or hold the instrument; real practical advice.  It’s a good sign when I see games offering advice outside the scope of “these are the controls”.

There’s a lot of unlocks too, from the gear, to main characters like Taylor Swift, or Gwen Stefani of No Doubt (and solo) fame, to name a few.  On top of that, there’s a Sing-Along mode which is more or less the actual singing part of the game, minus the scoring, making it much like a karaoke machine, which is always fun at parties.

Overview:

Band Hero is a lot of fun.  I played through the whole game with my fiancee and we had a blast the entire time.  Admittedly, it doesn’t bring a whole lot new to the series, but for fans of this type of music it’s definitely worth picking up.  Just don’t expect it to be ground-breaking in gameplay.  There’s enough here to keep fans interested for quite some time though.

Score: 8.0 – Great