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Battle of the Bands is a rhythm action game trying to capitalise on the widespread success of Guitar Hero and Rock Band – that is plain to see. But the main difference – the niche if you will – is that, unlike the other two power houses of the genre, Battle of the Bands retails without any instruments. This isn’t a strange mix-up at THQ. You can’t even buy an instrument for the game, with the only control method possible being the Wiimote.
In Battle of the Bands you’re more of a conductor, waving your stick around like a blind man on drugs to the beat of the music – which, now you mention it, is 100% covered. There are no master copies of songs in the game, which already whittles away at the precious score. With no background story whatsoever, you play as a band across a series of genres trying to gain band supremacy by attaching weapons onto your instruments and having face-offs to see which band is the more skilled. When weapons get strapped on anything but arms the result is terrible so what makes sticking them on instruments any different? We’ll tell you what – nothing. The basic principles are to tilt down if a note comes in the centre, wave left or right if a note comes on the side or waggle if there is a wiggly line present. You’ve got the special techniques that you can use to block attacks, and thrusting for certain powers. Just imagine playing Guitar Hero without a guitar. There are also power-ups that you can use to attack your opponent. Most of them hold little variation from one another. They might earn you more points, but the only difference may be that an ice cube is shot at your opponent rather than a fireball. There are certain attacks that have special effects like speeding your opponent’s notes up or reversing the way you need to move the Wiimote, but you don’t need to use them that often.  As said before, the music is made up entirely of covers. There are no official tracks, and most don’t even sound like they’re supposed to, even when they’re in the right genre. The game does offer some interest when playing tracks in a different genre than the source. It’s a slight contradiction, but it doesn’t always sound right. The variety when the genre switches is surprising. One minute you’ll be listening to ‘Insane in the Brain’ and then the words stay the same, but it suddenly becomes a heavy metal song! For floor-fillers and rock anthems, Battle of the Bands is weak. There are a few tracks which were fairly popular, like Keane’s ‘Is It Any Wonder’ and The Gorillaz ‘Feel Good Inc.’ As always, the graphics haven’t been taken into consideration with this being a Wii title AND a rhythm action game, so there’s not much to say. The edges of very jagged and the character models are rubbish when in motion. The adventure mode is Battle of the Bands’ single player mode, and it is boring as hell. With your chosen band, you travel to different venues where you play a song against another band and subsequently win. That’s it. There’s no storyline behind it, and with every event you get more and more bored, with your arm aching more and more to the point where you just can’t be bothered playing anymore. There’s also a versus mode, but this is just as dull as the single player mode, and works in the same way. Sharing the boredom is your only consolation. BotB makes an attempt at becoming an easily accessible rhythm action game for those who can’t afford the hefty price tags of others in the genre. In some ways it succeeds in that respect, but I wouldn’t recommend this to anyone. Battle of the Bands fails because it misses out on key fundamental in the most successful in the genre – it has to be fun. Score: 3/10
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