Planet Moon has had a history of developing humorous and quirky titles.  I don’t think a game has ever made me laugh harder than a few key moments in Armed and Dangerous.  Battle of the Bands certainly shares that off-kilter sensibility common in other Planet Moon games.  Unfortunately, once you’ve come to understand and appreciate how clever the concept is, you’ll also discover that there’s really not much of a game here.

Are you Ready to Rock?

Battle of the Bands is a competitive rhythm game where musicians representing a variety of genres go head-to-head simultaneously playing through one of 30 different songs.  The gimmick here (and it’s a good one) is that depending on the bands playing, the song can sound radically different.   It’s one thing to hear a straight-up rock band perform Def Leopard’s “Photograph,” but it’s quite another to experience the same song done by a marching band.

There are five music genres represented:  rock, hip-hop, country, latin, and marching band.  In single player mode, once you’ve chosen your band, you move from stage to stage playing a song against some other band.  Score more points during the performance and you move on to the next. Songs are performed using the Wii Remote to execute specific gestures on the appropriate beat.  It’s not terribly deep, but the controls generally pick up on the gestures correctly. The moves you need to make usually go with the music quite well.

Someone Cut My G-String

Since this is a competitive game, players can also launch attacks at one another by racking up combos on their side of the board.  Incoming attacks can be deflected with a precisely pressed “B” button. If you do manage to land a hit, the music switches in your favor.  However, if your opponent scores enough hits on you, the music switches back to them.  Once or twice during a song, you’ll enter a “Face Off” where each player takes turns launching or blocking a stream of attacks.  And then the battle rages on with the poor, poor song stuck in the middle of two very different music styles.

Some attacks are also designed to trip up your opponent, depriving them of combos and points.  There are tons of different ones depending on which band you’re playing as.  An attack could make the notes on the scroll really small, or speed them up, or obscure them with smoke.

It’s a clever concept that occasionally verges on brilliant depending on the song and genres picked.  It’s hard to describe just how awesome the country version of “Brickhouse” is, or how damn inventive the hip-hop version of “Man of Constant Sorrow” turned out.   Match those, or many of the other songs with a competing genre and you’ve got one hell of a strange gaming experience ahead of you.

Is that all there is?

Battle of the Bands simply has no legs.  Once you’ve learned the basics of the game, there’s nowhere else to go.  Unlike something like Guitar Hero (a slightly unfair comparison) or Dance Dance Revolution, it doesn’t take much skill to hit the correct gestures on the beat.  Attacks are automatically launched once you complete the combo.  The only piece of strategy in the game comes from correctly fending off attacks from your opponent.  Once you master the timing, it’s quite easy to outscore the computer 2 to 1.

That’s nearly it for Battle of the Bands.  It might be fun to occasionally pull it out at parties because the song stylings are genuinely clever and entertaining. The gameplay just doesn’t hold up to repeated exposure.  It’s a good deal better than the disastrous Boogie, but it’s still a pretty shallow game. Die hard rhythm game aficionados might consider picking this up to get their fix.  Everyone else ought to steer clear.

Review by: Greg Bemis