Jolt UK writes: "With the amount of column inches that both Guitar Hero and Rock Band have been taking up, it had been somewhat surprising that nobody was stepping up to the challenge of emulating their success without the need for expensive 'instruments' simply by taking advantage of the Wii's unconventional controller. Edging in at the last minute, Planet Moon Studios – developers of the largely overlooked Giants: Citizen Kabuto – has chosen to unleash its own attempt at rocking the Wiimote, at the same time as European Xbox 360 owners are able to get hold of Rock Band.
Battle of the Bands isn't simply a straight rip-off of the established formula, although you'd be hard pushed to realise this just by looking at it. The main play screen is set up almost identically to the likes of Guitar Hero (which, of course, borrows heavily from Dancing Stage and its ilk), with a conveyor belt displaying which interactions have to be performed in time to the music when they reach the beat bar. To make itself even harder to discern from its peers, it also has an animated band in the background performing away in a manner that's all but impossible to observe while actually playing the thing."
Green Pixels: Plunking down $50 for a brand-new game can be a gamble -- it's a lot of money to pay for something that you could end up hating. However, most games don't stay full-price for long, which is why we scoured the inventories of four major retailers (Amazon, GameStop, Target, Walmart) to find a slew of great titles that are now priced at just $20. For the cost of one freshly released game, you can buy two older titles and still have $10 left to spend on snacks. (And we all know the importance of snacks.)
Welcome to the fourth edition of The Twelve Games of Christmas; Electronic Theatre's feature series highlighting the greatest performers of 2008, one month at a time! Today, we take a look at April 2008, the games that you liked, loved or missed altogether – and can probably pick-up for a much more reasonable price in those January sales!
TotalGaming:
"While there are plenty of opponents to beat and thirty songs to unlock, there's little here to keep any but the most undemanding gamers amused for long. Apart from the grim aesthetics, the game's unengaging interface also detracts from the enjoyment; anyone who's played Donkey Konga with a joypad instead of the drums will know that it's just not the same without a peripheral to interact with. By the same token, waving a wiimote in time to some on-screen prompts isn't as much fun as playing, say, Rock Band with a plastic guitar.
It's certainly possible that, given a living room full of friends and a ready supply of beer, Battle of the Bands' versus mode could provide a few hours' entertainment, but the title remains a weak addition to a console already overcrowded with party games."
