A single hero in a band?

The existence of Band Hero is a perplexing one. For one, what exactly is a Band Hero? Being as a band in this sense implies multiple people performing together to generate music, would it not be Band Heroes? I am just confused and I feel many people entering stores this holiday season may also be confused and accidentally pick up Band Hero instead of Rock Band as its title seems directly pointed towards confusing and misleading potential consumers of that title.

The title itself implies that it is a music game in the Hero franchise of games that has a four player multiplayer focus, which it is. However, Band Hero diverges from the rock based music of the Guitar Hero games and ventures into the much neglected area of pop music. Unfortunately, the title of the game does not specifically make this clear.

Something for everyone

All this confusion might leave a bad taste in people's mouths before they even open up the package, which is a shame because Band Hero is filled with a nice selection of pop music spanning over five decades that has more potential as a party game than either Guitar Hero or Rock Band do by themselves. Classic cuts from The Jackson 5 and Don McLean are present alongside more modern day artists like Taylor Swift and it offers something for just about everyone, including hardcore fans of the Guitar Hero series.

On familiar ground

Speaking of those fans, they will feel quite at home with Band Hero as it is basically just a re-skinned version of Guitar Hero 5. Everything from that game is present from the restructured career mode to the ability to create an unnaturally large set list. In the career mode, players will still work through tiers of songs, this time starting out in a mall tour that seems modelled off of American Idol, gain stars to unlock additional venues and songs to play.

Multiplayer is exactly the same as in Guitar Hero 5, featuring a variety of co-operative and competitive game modes to play through. One major problem with the multiplayer seems to be that the online community is quite limited: at multiple points during the review process I attempted to connect for competitive and cooperative play and I was unable to find any other players. This may change after the holiday season but at this point, if you were looking for an online music game then you may want to look elsewhere.

The game looks and sounds fantastic but that should come as no surprise because Neversoft made Guitar Hero 5 look and sound fantastic and this is basically the same game, just with a pop music façade. The game does have quite a big problem though, particularly the fact that the game only features 65 songs, 20 songs less than Guitar Hero 5, yet Activision is selling the game at regular retail price. With so much being borrowed from Guitar Hero 5, yet offering less than that title, Band Hero might feel like a rip-off to many.

A mixed bag

However you look at it, Band Hero is a mixed bag and a decision on its purchase will most likely come down to the music included on the disc. I for one love it and I know for a fact that a lot of the songs will be big hits at family parties in the future. But not everyone is going to share those tastes. If you do not already have Guitar Hero 5 and prefer the popular music included in Band Hero over the rock music of Guitar Hero 5 then your choice will be simple. If, on the other hand, you already own Guitar Hero 5, Band Hero becomes a less interesting proposition, except for the fact that you can pay a minimal fee and transfer over 60 of the 65 songs to your Guitar Hero 5 collection - basically making Band Hero into a rather large, disc-based track pack.

As I said earlier, the existence of Band Hero is somewhat perplexing. Naming issues aside, the game services a demographic largely ignored by the likes of sister franchise Guitar Hero and competitor Rock Band. But it is also so similar to the latest edition of Guitar Hero that it doesn't seem to really carve out a spot for itself. All in all, it is a safe first entry into what I am sure Activision is hoping will be their next big music game gravy train.