Band Hero: only because Guitar Hero Pop and country sounded weird.

Author's Rating:

Pros: some great songs.

Cons: purple and green, spice girls.

The Bottom Line: 

guess whiskey a word children aren't suppose to hear.

Author's Review
 I had a 5 dollar off coupon for a new guitar hero game and since Guitar Hero Smash Hits was all sold out at my gamestop I decided on Band Hero. Now the odd and confusing thing about Band Hero is that Guitar Hero has allowed for full band play since GH World Tour. So what is different about Band Hero, gameplay wise absolutely nothing, music track though is a big difference. I actually have to say music wise I am more familiar with the set list on Band Hero then I am at GH5, with more soft rock, pop, and country compare to GH5 more hard rock. It’s more of a musical preference has both GH5 and Band Hero play exactly the same.

Story

There is bit more of a story mode in the fact that we know have animated scenes has you take a pop band to super stardom. The animated scenes have been done in similar ways in Guitar Hero 3 but this one doesn’t have the demonic Lou trying to rain on your bands parade. Still the same clear a gig go to a new gig with harder song and more people in the crowd.

Graphics.

The graphics are pretty much the same has GH5 we have more life like character eye cons that fit well on a HD tv set. The difference though are minor are there, first off Band Hero is meant to be more attractive to female eyes. Purple and Green is a main color scheme of the game, and the diamond record level is now “sparkly” so young girls are a main focus. Don’t worry guys outside of a few Hilary Duff and Spice Girls songs there isn’t anything that’s going to affect your testosterone levels from listening to it.

I should also note that the rest of the GH 3 cast left out of GH5 like Midori now also return so that’s a plus. Still the create a character option is there plus, the MS avatar, plus some unlockable musicians (and some have also filed suit similar to the Kurt Kobain one) so there are plenty of characters to choose from.

Songs.

Like all GH games Band Hero has a diverse selection of 65 songs. Yes there are some girly songs on this Hillary Duff, Spice Girls, and Taylor Swift, with the exception of the spice girls (which I can’t stand) there not bad songs just not songs I would regularly listen to. However there are a lot of other great songs that are worth listening to. I heard it through the grape vine, Kung Fu Fighting, Mister Roboto, Rio,. To sum up the differences between the two games GH5 has Bon Jov while Band Hero has Duran Duran. GH5 has Smashing Pumpkins, while Band Hero has the Jackson 5 (some comedy ensues when you hear a 10 years voice come out of a 50 year old rocker). GH5 has David Bowie while Band Hero has David Bowie (ok he’s in both) .

There is one complaint Acitvision went for a lower ESRB lower so a cut was made out of the grand finale song American Pie, the word Whisky was cut. Now I don’t know when Whisky was consider a bad word for children to hear (I know it was said in front of me a bunch of times when I was a kid) but I guess it’s bad for PC parents to hear so it was cut. Not a big deal if it was sung once but that word is used many times in the refrain and there are 6 versus. So you will be hearing bye bye miss American pie, dorve my Chevy to the leavy, but the leavy was dry, good old boys were drinking (music stops for a second) and rye, What the heck Activsion put the word back in the song.

Gameplay

The GH 5 gameplay through and through, it’s a bit easier because these songs aren’t so heavy on the guitar has the hard rock but there still a few that can challenge you on expert here and there. The game play works like this. Color notes appear down the track, you press the right fret button and strum when the note hit’s the bottoms of the screen, hit it at the right time and gain ponts and your life meter will slowly go up, miss to many and you get booed off stage. Adding to the mix are star notes, these fill your star notes and when you fill up the gage you can activate the star power to double your score and fill your life meter really fast (good on the tougher songs). The same multiplayer mode still applies going with band multipliers going up to 11 if your band hit’s the flaming notes right.

Like GH 5 you progress through the game regardless of what instrument your playing with (unlike Rock Band or GH world tour where each instrument had it’s own career mode) however some challenges can only be done with one instrument. For example it could be keeping a times 4 multiplier for a certain length of time, whamming (hitting the wammy bar on the guitar on long notes), or getting long streaks. Each challenge has 3 rewards paced at gold, platinum, and diamond. Bonus stars that can be used to unlock new venues come from these challenges has well has extra characters and gears so it pays to do these challenges and adds an extra layer of fun to the game.

Outside the main career the same quick play and rock fest party mode can be found. Quickplay works the same way you can play one song, or create and customize your own set list with songs from this or GH World Tour (provided you have bought GH world tour and paid for the DLC required).

Xbox live and achievements.

Xbox live is the same has GH5 which isn’t a bad thing if you want a band play just hit the orange button and wait for someone online to jump in before heading out into the career mode (note this game didn’t sell like GH5 so there can be a long wait sometimes). Plenty of party and multiplayer mode challenges to do online.

The achievements are a bit of a different story, rather then being the typical achievements for accomplishing something, activsion decided to turn it into a mini game of sorts. About 20 songs have hidden notes in them hit the note and unlock a 5 point achievement. Part of the artist name will appear on the achievement for help finding the song. Hit all the secret notes and you unlock one that is wroth 490 points. That’s right over half the games achievements can be unlocked playing this little game. And it’s easy to win has the notes appear even on beginner mode.

Final Recommendation.

I liked Band Hero a lot more and play it more then GH5, but it’s all about what type of music you like. Those who seek a harder edge will probably be happier with GH5.