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'Battle of the Bands' surprisingly fun

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By Aimee Green | Thursday, May 1, 2008 9:15 AM CDT | () comments

(Contributed photo)

I was prepared to hate ''Battle of the Bands,'' a music-rhythm game sort of similar to ''Guitar Hero.'' After all, I'd hated the musical disaster ''Boogie,'' and I wasn't sure about ''Battle's'' concept: two bands of different genres playing the same song and attacking each other.

But I was pleasantly surprised. While the gameplay certainly isn't deep, it's got an appealing charm. Plus, it turned out to be pretty hilarious to hear songs such as Tag Team's ''Whoomp There It Is'' being performed by a marching band or a mariachi group.

The game looks similar to ''Guitar Hero,'' but only the track the ''notes'' move on is the same. There are four kinds of notes that you activate by moving the Wii remote. A left-side note, with a left-pointing arrow, means swing the remote to the left on the beat. Right means right, of course, and down means waving the remote down. One note has an X behind it, and for that you must stab forward with the remote.

Then there are squiggly lines that indicate shaking the remote back and forth either lightly or heavily.

Each note you hit gives you points, and the winner is the band that has the most notes at the end of the song. If you hit a certain number of notes in a row, a weapon appears. Hitting the weapon attacks the other band (who is simultaneously trying to hit the same notes). If the attack lands, the attacker gets a huge point boost. But the other band also can block the attack by hitting the B button at the right time.

While all this is going on, the song is switching back and forth between the genres of the two bands, which can be rock, country, marching band, mariachi or hip hop. Occasionally, funk and orchestral make an appearance.

I was surprised by the amount of work that must have gone into re-creating each of the 30 songs for each genre. The mariachi songs even are completely translated into Spanish.

''Battle of the Band'' is an interesting idea that works surprisingly well. It doesn't take itself too seriously, and that humor shines through for an enjoyable, though shallow, experience.

Reach Aimee Green at (402) 473-7326 or Aimee.Green@lee.net.

BATTLE OF THE BANDS

Battle of the Bands

THQ, for Wii

Rated: Teen

Cost: $49.99

Score: 7/10

Scores based on an evaluation of gameplay (4 points), visuals (2), sound (2) and replayability/value (2).