Leveling Down

Band Hero still has the elements that made Guitar Hero 5 enjoyable, but with a more female friendly soundtrack.

I think I’m pretty much done with Band Hero on the 360, so I’m ready to share my review. For those that don’t know, Band Hero was released by Activision last November and is basically Guitar Hero but with a more family friendly and female friendly tracklist. The game is headlined by Taylor Swift as a playable character, and is pretty much a carbon copy of Guitar Hero 5’s engine and features except for its Achievement design and tracklist. I never got around to reviewing Guitar Hero 5, so please consider this review as one that is most likely applicable to both games – they really just come down to whether you like the tracklist of either game.
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Interested in DJ Hero? cmfl3x thinks it’s an itch worth scratching

This one’s gonna be a tough one. On the one hand, DJ Hero has innovative gameplay, a great tracklist, a well built peripheral, and a lot of small, but cool features, that really help make it a solid package. On the other hand, it’s done horribly in sales, is hampered by an insane difficulty curve, and is published by Activision, the evil empire of gaming right now. So do I review the game based on my personal experience, or do I need to take into account all the other factors? I’m not totally sure, but we’ll find out together after the jump…

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DJ Hero brings new innovations in musical gameplay, but are they any good?

DJ Hero was a game that was released this past holiday season and apparently it “bombed” in sales (based on initial sales estimates that Activision had). At first I didn’t quite understand why, since the reviews had been pretty good for it. Once Amazon put it on sale for $70, I figured I would take the plunge in the name of the blog and let you guys know how it played. Unfortunately, cmfl3x also got it as a present, so I guess I didn’t need to take the plunge after all. He’s played a lot more into it than me, but we’ve agreed that I will give my initial impressions of the game as I am not enjoying it as much as I had hoped. He, being the more music game-inclined player between the two of us, will give a full review sometime afterwards.
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This sure beats the Etch-a-Sketch I got when I was six…but not by much

Although it is likely this information is only interesting to me, I’m so excited about all the video game related stuff I’ve gotten that I just have to write about it. As you can see, I got a lot of stuff, some as gifts, some borrowed, and some as gifts from me…to me. Here’s the rundown of what I got and my expectations for each, in order of my current level of excitement.

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In Part 4 of the Awards/Shopping Guide, Leveling Down will be tackling some of the more controversial categories: Best Story, Best Value, and Most Overrated. Admittedly, these categories are VERY subjective and are only our opinions, and on some counts even espion4ge and I don’t see *exactly* eye to eye. Nonetheless, controversy is a lot of fun, so might as well give it a shot!

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With Band Hero and LEGO Rock Band recently released, I picked up Band Hero to play with my family this holiday season and am even looking at LEGO Rock Band since both have several “family friendly” recognizable songs. But then I was trying to understand how the importing works for all these music games and it was somewhat of a headache since there’s over a dozen of them out now. Well, as I went through figuring them out, I decided to write up a guide at the same time, so those of you that are curious about how exporting works for all the Rock Band and Guitar Hero games can now learn from what I just learned. However, please keep in mind that I’m talking about these games specifically from a 360/PS3 perspective – Wii owners may find even more limitations in place since I don’t know much about the Wii versions. I believe the Wii Rock Band universe does not support any sort of exporting but the Wii Guitar Hero universe follows the same limitations as the 360 & PS3 versions.

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Will this three pieced singer be gracing my TV screen next month?

Every bone in my alternative, grunge-loving, rock and roll body (aka my childhood) finds the upcoming casual-friendly Lego Rock Band and Band Hero games kind of gross. Taylor Swift? Janet Jackson? BRYAN ADAMS? These are the artists being rolled out for Lego Rock Band (Harmonix) and Band Hero (Activision) in the two companies’ latest attempt to cash in on the music game craze. Yet, the older, more mature, and lamer side of me is intrigued by both these games.

Harmonix’s game I’m sure will be made with the high standards all the Rock Band games have had (although I’m not sure how Lego David Bowie and Lego Iggy Pop are going to look different), and there are a lot of catchy tunes on there, including the aforementioned Bryan Adams “Summer of 69′”, Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin”, and the one song I would like to play: Europe’s “The Final Countdown”. Band Hero counters with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ “The Impression that I Get”, Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting”, and the CTY classic “American Pie”, by Don McLean.

These games and their tracklists present me with two dilemmas:

1) I would feel like a corporate sellout playing these songs. At the same time, pop songs are so catchy and they seem like they would be genuinely fun to play, especially with friends or my wife.

2) I really shouldn’t be spending any more money on music games. There are tracks on both discs that I would love to try out, but I can’t shell out $120 on more music games, especially when I’m still planning on picking up Guitar Hero 5 eventually! This is getting out of hand.

In the end, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I don’t even need reviews, I’m pretty sure both games will be much of the same. If I had tweenage kids it probably would be a no-brainer, and I think a lot of families will have fun with these games, but as a solo act…I might have to pass………or not. Bah!

The Beatles’ dreamscapes are a real visual treat

The day The Beatles: Rock Band reached my door, I finished the first half of the game before my wife even got home, took her to dinner, and then finished the rest of the game (netting me the “Day Tripper” achievement in about 6 hours of real time, 3 hours of game time). That fact proves both that I am a dork and that for all intents and purposes Beatles is a pretty short game. But some of its features manage to make up a great deal of the slack left by its short playlist (44 songs in all).

First and foremost, I should state that I’m a huge Beatles fan. Even the game’s intro (which is a beautifully rendered CG imagining of the foursome) got me incredibly pumped to play the game - I wanted to jump straight into quickplay and jam to all those songs. Instead, I chose to do the responsible thing and get into story mode, which basically takes you chronologically through the Beatles history, regardless of difficulty. It’s not a big deal though, since Beatles songs are inherently pretty easy (though I have much more respect for Ringo Starr after playing his drum parts), and you can change difficulty at anytime without restarting. The story mode is kind of like a history lesson in the Beatles; for those who are more musically inclined, you can really see the evolution of the Beatles music without any direct comments on the matter. It’s as much an homage to the group as it is a game, and some of the graphical decisions Harmonix made for the backgrounds are amazing (especially after the Beatles get in the studio and get away from all the screaming girls). It’s actually pretty cool, but as I said before, it only takes about three hours.

Playing Beatles songs is actually a lot of fun, even if people don’t know the songs (which is common in this day and age, sadly), since the tunes are generally pretty simple and people can sing along. I had people over the other night and planned to only play one song to show my gamer friend, but then everyone else wanted to play so we ended up going through the “greatest hits” on the album. I even tried to explain the virtues of “I am the Walrus”, although I think it fell upon deaf ears. Since the difficulty level is generally easier people seem to enjoy themselves more since they can up the difficulty.

Really, The Beatles: Rock Band succeeds because it is so accessible. You can either get into the game because the difficulty is easier, or because you like the Beatles, or even just because you want to see all the crazy stuff that goes on in the background. Yes, there aren’t enough songs and some glaring omissions (Let it Be, Across the Universe, Help!, etc.) which will probably (hopefully) end up being DLC, and the gameplay isn’t that difficult (though the achievements are no sure bet). Harmonies are a lot of fun to sing, but only for people who are really into music. At the same time, I think Beatles Rock Band is kind of like the Wii Sports of music games, it appeals to a wide audience and is as fun to watch as it is to play. Well, maybe not AS fun, but it’s good enough. I personally really appreciate the game because it reminds me why I fell in love with the Beatles all those long years ago, and it’s given me a chance to walk around singing Beatles songs in my head eight days a week. I can’t see how any band specific games will ever hold up to the Beatles experience – just like the Beatles in the 60s, The Beatles: Rock Band ends up being larger than life in the world of music games. Good luck, Van Halen.

Yesterday (9/9/09) was not only the debut of Beatles: Rock Band, it was also the 10 year anniversary of the release of the Sega Dreamcast, which debuted back on 9/9/99. Many people wax nostalgic over the Dreamcast, and wish it hadn’t failed as it did, including some of my closest friends. Unfortunately, the Dreamcast’s hey-day was during a time that I took a break from gaming, namely, college. I really only spent time in college playing Frequency and Amplitude so unfortunately I can’t comment on how great the Dreamcast was.

All the buzz I’ve seen about the Dreamcast this past week made me think about which past console I miss the most. After some deliberation, I finally settled on the Super Nintendo. I think I’ve recounted elsewhere that I was so excited to get the console that I blew its power supply (American SNES used in HK), but after that the SNES brought me nothing but happiness. Final Fantasy IV, VI, Chrono Trigger, NHL 94, Super Mario World, Earthbound, Super Metroid, F-Zero, the original Super Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past….what a lineup.

The SNES was the console that took games to another level of depth, coinciding with my hitting adolescence and thus being able to appreciate that depth. At the same time, a lot of those games had that addictive gameplay that would keep my friends and me up until the sun rose racing in Kart, beating the crap out of each other in Street Fighter, and one-timing in NHL 94. One of my eternal regrets is getting rid of my Super Nintendo and not storing it in a box somewhere, which is why I gladly pay Nintendo money on the Virtual Console for the re-releases. Nothing will top all the memories I made with my friends way back when on that box.

So to end this post: Dreamcast lovers, my heart bleeds for you, but Super Nintendo, you’re my numba one!

Being recently married and a person who is obsessed with music games, I made a conscious decision this year to only buy one of the two major music games (Guitar Hero 5 and Beatles: Rock Band) at full retail price. I even backed off on that when Best Buy announced their BOGO half off promotion last week. I decided to preorder Beatles: Rock Band since I love the Beatles and trust Harmonix over Neversoft, but now that reviews are coming out for GH5 I’m beginning to regret my choice.

All the reviews that are coming out for Guitar Hero 5 make me wish I had the game RIGHT NOW. It seems like the game is now much more user friendly, you can start playing songs from the main menu, drop in/drop out, change difficulty on the fly, and play with any combination of instruments that you want. Anyway, it sounds like a lot of innovation, and I’m a bit sad to be missing out on it. What’s really great is all the songs are unlocked out of the box: no codes or anything.

I guess I’ll have to wait another week for Beatles and hope it is just as good. What I prefer about Guitar Hero is the level of difficulty, which I doubt will be present in the Beatles, so I’ll just have to hope the song list and quality makes up for the difference. I guess this only a temporary lament, since I’ll probably pick up GH5 when there’s a price drop, but I’m big on instant gratification so I’ll have to learn to wait. BAH!