Band Hero

From the creators of Guitar Hero, Band Hero tries to reach a different target audience and hence was given a new name. Guitar Hero games eventually featured a full band, so the name doesn't convey what the game is supposed to be. Maybe it should be called Pop Hero, but there again, the track list doesn't fully back that up either.

Personally, I would have chosen a pure guitar-pop soundtrack because proper rock songs should be reserved for Guitar Hero. So including familiar Guitar Hero artists like The Rolling Stones, Cheap Trick, Fall Out Boy seems like a mistake to me. Having artists like Nelly Furtado, Duffy, Lilly Allen, Taylor Swift, and Spice Girls were a good choice.

Obviously if you like Rock music and want a challenge, you would pick up Guitar Hero. Band Hero is aimed at a younger audience who are on average, less skilled, and maybe desire more fun as a group and have a focus on singing. Therefore, the track list should have been from the modern day rather than having 30 tracks which were released pre-2000.

In terms of presentation, the overall look is based on Guitar Hero 5, but has been given a pop theme to the characters, and features brighter colour palette. Overall, Band Hero is a decent game and a good place to start if you are new to the series. Chances are that you've played the Guitar Hero series, so probably just see it as a cash-in.

Though the soundtrack obviously errs on the side of pop, it's at least a smorgasbord of pop, from easy listening/jazz/soul like Joss Stone and Nelly Furtado, to pop punk like Dashboard Confessional and AAR, to some of the biggest ballads of that era like Lips Of An Angel and Pictures Of You. It's not quite as boring on every instrument bar vocals like you'd expect but it is one of the weaker setlists chart-wise. But honestly, it's still much closer to any sane person's fantasy setlist than GH5, and the engine in Band Hero lacks some of the weird trappings of GH5 which, alongside the brighter aesthetic, technically makes it the better game. A campaign which challenges you on every instrument for full completion doesn't hurt, either.