DS #4412: Band Hero (Europe)

[Blaze163]

IGN N.A TRACK LIST.

(please confirm if tracks below are not present in this version)

The All-American Rejects - "Believe"
Avril Lavigne - "Girlfriend"
Black Eyed Peas - "Let's Get It Started"
Blink-182 - "First Date"
Boys Like Girls - "The Great Escape"
Duran Duran - "Hungry Like The Wolf"
Eagles of Death Metal - "Wannabe In L.A."
Evanescence - "Call Me When You're Sober"
Fall Out Boy - "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs"
"Foo Fighters - "Monkey Wrench"
Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict A Riot
The Killers - "Spaceman"
Kings of Leon - "Manhattan"
KT Tunstall - "Suddenly I See"
Lacuna Coil - "Our Truth"
No Doubt - "Excuse Me Mr."
Pink - "So What"
The Presidents of the United States of America - "Lump"
The Pretenders - "Boots of Chinese Plastic"
Queen - "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
Queens of the Stone Age - "No One Knows"
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - "You Better Pray"
The Rolling Stones - "Under My Thumb (live)"
Spin Doctors - "Two Princes"
Sublime - "All You Need"
Sum 41 - "In Too Deep"
Ugly Kid Joe - "Everything About You"
Vampire Weekend - "A-Punk"
The Vines - "Get Free"
Weezer - "Troublemaker"

Yeah, the EU version has different songs. Some of those are missing. In fact most of the songs are different in the EU version by the look of things. The ones in bold are the ones I have seen on the Eu setlist so far, everything else is different by the look of things. I might have misses a few tho. This version has stuff like Alphabeat instead of Queen...ugh....this'll do for now, but by the look of things I'll be swapping this out for the US version as soon as the opportunity arises.

BTW, how bad is this trying to avoid offending anyone? KT Tunstall's 'Suddenly I See' has the word 'hell' beeped out. WTF? It's not beeped out in Lego Rock Band. Surely that's trying to be the more kiddy-friendly? Surely this is the very definition of political correctness gone mad?

EDIT: Well, here's my initial impressions, as always:

- There are issues with the graphics when playing the drums. They seem a little jumpy, notably when you play double notes. And overall the graphics seem blockier than GHOT.
- Why the hell can't you use the touch screen for the drums? They're right there, but just eye candy.
- sound quality seems slightly lower than the GHOT series. Play through the intro to 'Call me when youre sober' by Evanescense, you'll see what I mean.
- As I said above, trying WAY too hard to be 'kiddy friendly'. Bleeping out the word 'hell'? That's just stupid. I saw a five year old buying GTA Vice City the other day (no joke), I'm sure they can cope with the word 'hell'.
- Track list is greatly inferior to the US version, by the look of things. Again, trying to hard to be kiddy friendly.
- It doesn't seem to have any sort of structure. You get various achievements, but it doesn't look like you're working towards anything major. Strictly for the casuals, eh?
- Overall it just seems to be a little lacking in every area. It's still a 7/10, maybe an 8. But it's not as good as GHOT, or Lego Rock Band for that matter.

Now to play this, LRB and PSZ while I wait for Harvest Moon.

 

[TraumaHoundNDS]

I was looking at a pic of the drums attachment:

...anyone know if you can attach the guitar grip at the same time or do you have to swap out the peripherals if you want to change instruments in-game?

 

[Flannel]

I don't know how well the guitar grip would fit if you have the drum skin on, but you should be able to just leave the guitar in.

EDIT: If you have the grip in, it only allows you to pick Guitar and Bass. You have to remove it and restart to play Drums or Vocals.

 

[basher11]

edit: nope

 

[Blaze163]

A word of advice, people. Don't bother with this one. There are some major technical problems making it damn near unplayable. It keeps slowing down or being alarmingly jumpy. And it'll kick off for any reason. Star Power message on screen? SLOWDOWN. Stunt Icon illuminates? SLOWDOWN. Camera angle on the band changes? SLOWDOWN. It's just as bad in drumming and guitar. I don't dare sing because my other half is here and she'd literally die laughing, but if the singing is anything like the rest of the game I suspect it'll give me a stutter.

The sound quality is also more than a little feeble in some of the songs. They don't sound like master recordings even though they're all supposed to be. At first I thought my speakers were broken.

Also, what's the deal with the use of language? The word 'hell' is bleeped in at least two songs. But the word 'tool' from Pink's 'So What?' is apparantly fair game. I for one think the word tool is at least mildly offensive. It seems odd that hell is bleeped here but not in Lego Rock Band, yet tool is fine here but bleeped in LRB. Strange but true.

Overall I really don't recommend you waste either £30/whatever that is in dollars or 256MB on this. It's feeble. Damn near unplayable in places. A MASSIVE disappointment. Stick to Lego Rock Band, it is by far the superior game.

And to think I've been waiting for this for months.... * hangs head in shame *

BTW, anyone happen to see Harvest Moon about anywhere? I heard it's delayed, just trying to get the score.

And thank the lord for Phantasy Star Zero. At least one of the games today is worth keeping on my card.

 

[adundy]

I completely disagree with what blaze said above, this game is great. I experience no slow downs and the added minigames make the game better than the guitar hero ds series. Plus you get to actually sing. I highly recommend this game, because it is one of the strongest offerings this fall has for the ds.

 

[basher11]

well actually here are my thoughts:

1. when you wammy: it lags [very,very little]
2. strumming isn't as good as in the other GH DS games. the game doesn't recognize my strumming sometimes [could be my touch screen's fault]
3. stunt minigames: annoying, especially the one where you have to drag your person on the people's hands
4. you can't sing when your guitar grip is in your DS. [they wont let you choose it]
5. like #4, you have to remove the grip and load up the game AGAIN.

overall, its a fun game

 

[Blaze163]

I completely disagree with what blaze said above, this game is great. I experience no slow downs and the added minigames make the game better than the guitar hero ds series. Plus you get to actually sing. I highly recomend this game, because it is one of the strongest offering this fall has for the ds.

What are you playing this on? I'm using Cyclo DS Evo f/w 1.56b3. Maybe it's just me, I dunno. But for me it stutters. It doesn't sound like much but when it's constantly messing up the flow of the song and my combo, it's incredibly annoying. It's very noticable in several places. The note track stutters, slows down, jumps randomly. It makes the game irritating more than fun and the simple fact is there's no excuse for it since GHOT never suffers anything like this. Ergo I must conclude that this is a rush job to get it out the same time as the other versions. It's simply not up to spec and should be avoided.

 

[basher11]

I completely disagree with what blaze said above, this game is great. I experience no slow downs and the added minigames make the game better than the guitar hero ds series. Plus you get to actually sing. I highly recomend this game, because it is one of the strongest offering this fall has for the ds.

What are you playing this on? I'm using Cyclo DS Evo f/w 1.56b3. Maybe it's just me, I dunno. But for me it stutters. It doesn't sound like much but when it's constantly messing up the flow of the song and my combo, it's incredibly annoying. It's very noticable in several places. The note track stutters, slows down, jumps randomly. It makes the game irritating more than fun and the simple fact is there's no excuse for it since GHOT never suffers anything like this. Ergo I must conclude that this is a rush job to get it out the same time as the other versions. It's simply not up to spec and should be avoided.

you may be right, and i think they're gonna make a second version of this game in no time [like they did with GH DS]

 

[Brian117]

This game is alright actually. It kind of works for the DS. It's a great addition to the music genre on the DS.

The drumming is fun. Takes a while to get to used to because it goes

Green fret=Left DPAD
Red fret=Bottom DPAD
Yellow fret=B Button
Blue fret=A Button

-

It should of really been the same as Rockbands control scheme. Green being the Left DPAD and Red being the Top DPAD. That's why it takes a while to get used to.

Haven't tried guitar yet because I can't be bothered to grab my grip, but I'm sure it is 100% just like guitar hero. Which will be cool.

Also haven't tried the singing

, but I think it's great that you can sing. This is the very first DS game to utilize the microphone for something like that, which in my opinion, is very, very cool. Funny thing is to, you can just blow into the microphone and it will think you're singing. Easy points

.

But so far I give this a 9/10. Will probably be a 20/10 if I had friends to play with!

 

[Flannel]

For people wondering about the setlists:

The European setlist is as follows.

Call Me When You're Sober - Evanescence
Club Foot - Kasabian
Everything About You - Ugly Kid Joe
Excuse Me Mr. - No Doubt
Fascination - Alphabeat
Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz
First Date - Blink-182
Fly Away - Lenny Kravitz
Girlfriend - Avril Lavigne
Golden Touch - Razorlight
I Predict A Riot - Kaiser Chiefs
Let's Get It Started - Black Eyed Peas
Manhattan - Kings of Leon
Monkey Wrench - Foo Fighters
Munich - Editors
My Favourite Game - The Cardigans
No One Knows - Queens of the Stone Age
She Will Be Loved - Maroon 5
So What - Pink
Song 2 - Blur
Spaceman - The Killers
Suddenly I See - KT Turnstall
Take What You Take - Lily Allen
The Age Of The Understatement - The Last Shadow Puppets
Thnks fr th Mmrs - Fall Out Boy
Tripping - Robbie Williams
Under My Thumb (Live) - The Rolling Stones
Windows - N.E.R.D
Yellow - Coldplay

The US songs that didn't make it in were:

All You Need - Sublime
A-Punk - Vampire Weekend
Believe - The All-American Rejects
Boots of Chinese Plastic - The Pretenders
Crazy Little Thing Called Love - Queen
Get Free - The Vines
Hungry Like The Wolf - Duran Duran
Lump - The Presidents of the United States of America
Our Truth - Lacuna Coil
The Great Escape - Boys Like Girls
Troublemaker - Weezer
Two Princes - Spin Doctors
Wannabe in L.A. - Eagles of Death Metal
You Better Pray - The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

 

[iPikachu]

KT Tunstall - "Suddenly I See"

im going to get nightmares after playing this on both lego rock band and band hero.

aww no great escape.

 

[Blaze163]

KT Tunstall - "Suddenly I See"

im going to get nightmares after playing this on both lego rock band and band hero.

aww no great escape.

The funny thing is that 'hell' in that song is cut out of the version in this game, but not in LRB. But when Pink sings the word 'tool' in So What?' it's not cut here but it is in LRB. Strange.

 

[Brian117]

To go with "hell" getting blocked out, even the word "damn" gets blocked out.

Sad thing is, all the good songs have those kind of words, so if they took out the songs that had those words, the game would be uber boring.

It's fun nonetheless.

 

[berlinka]

HAHAHAHA
Exclusive for DS Lite it reads on the box
HAHAHAHAHA

It's so fucking ironic. Again DSi owners are being screwed.

Well, at least there's still Lego Rockband.

 

[BoxShot]

Psst so are we ds phat owners.

 

[Isabelyes]

I'm being extremely stupid here, but...
It seems to me that, by the look of that picture, you can play this without guitar grip.
But the drum skin is just a skin, right? Couldn't you play this using just the buttons?

 

[thedicemaster]

I'm being extremely stupid here, but...
It seems to me that, by the look of that picture, you can play this without guitar grip.
But the drum skin is just a skin, right? Couldn't you play this using just the buttons?

sure, but you'd miss out on half the game.

 

[XtremeCore]

The fact that it has vocal looks positive

 

[iPikachu]

yeah but its a little weird to sing in front of everyone :\