Battle of the Bands
Genre: Rhythm
ESRB Rating: T for Teen
Developer: THQ
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Price: $49.99
Released date: April 21, 2008

When Rock Band became a huge hit, I think it was only a matter of time before another game company would throw their hat into the Rock-Star genre. So it comes to no surprise to me when I found out that THQ had created their version of Rock Band, exclusively for the Nintendo Wii.

The game is called Battle of the Bands and it takes place in a world where rock trios face off in band-to-band combat. Players can choose from a variety of bands to become (the selection differs from marching band to gang of undead mariachi players). The objective of the game, much like Dance Dance Revolution, is to hit as many correct notes as possible to rack up point combinations.

Rather than play the same old tune like Rock Band, THQ has chosen to make the game battle oriented. Think Street Fighter meets Rock Band. Players who get to play a certain number of set note combinations in succession are given the opportunity to unleash a devastating attack on the opponent, be it a lightning attack or increasing the speed of the notes appearing on the screen.

Now, I am one of those game fans who always play the game first and if I need to, read the instructions booklet afterwards. In my opinion, if I cannot simply pick up the game and learn to play it over time through osmosis, it is just not worth playing. Plus, an instructions booklet can tell me how to perform an action, but unless I can physically perform it, it is pretty much useless. I think Battle of the Bands had this in mind because the game comes with a tutorial for anyone who wants to brush up on how to play the game or just want to know how to time their blocks correctly.

I think for any rock-eccentric game, a tutorial is needed. It certainly helped me perfect all my moves and gave me a better idea of how to go about the game. It was one of the only ways I was able to play this game without utterly falling on my face. Well that, and play on easy mode as well. I am not a terribly coordinated fellow in my lifetime so I think this may affect my game-playing skills.

On easy mode though, I am fantastic and once you get into it, the game is pretty fun. It really just boils down to a “point and swing” Wii controller type of game and with this type of easy interface, it should entertain and/or amuse gamers from all ages.

My only beef with the game is the lack of voice-overs. Each band looks so outrageous that I would really have liked to hear if they sounded as eccentric as they looked. Alas, the dialogue between them appears only on the screen, which bothered me a bit. The dialogue was also not as crisp as I would have liked. Sometimes it comes off as funny and other times, a bit corny. The dialogue might have come off better if recorded but on screen, it does not work as well, though I think THQ didn’t worry about it too much. Its main feature is their music selection.

Battle offers 30 songs from artists, past and present. LL Cool, The Gorillaz, and The Ramones are just some of the bands that lend their chart toppers to this game. As an added bonus, the band that has the upper hand during the battle gets a chance to hear the song performed in their music style. The chance to hear “Insane In The Brain” played by a marching band alone is worth a rental. Battle also offers the chance for players to listen to all these songs on a music player in the bonus section. Players can play the song as it was originally recorded or what it would sound like as a country song (you can also switch up how it sounds right in the middle of the song, which amused me to no end).

I think overall, THQ did a good job on Battle of the Bands. It is clearly made to capitalize on the success of Rock Band but comes out on top as an original concept. It is a perfect fit on the Wii system, easy to learn thanks to the tutorial, and dares you not to have fun playing it.