There once was a time when rhythm based games were the sole domain of a select group of savants able to enter trance-like states in which they were able to meld their minds with a seemingly endless stream of coloured bars tearing up or down the screen. But a right place, right time release of Guitar Hero and the 'long-time-coming' recognition of DDR in the West changed all that and now those multi hued beats have moved out of Japanese and 'boutique' Western arcades and into many a home all across the world. Rhythm games have gone mainstream. So just as the popularity of platformers in earlier periods of gaming birthed a deluge of titles featuring that brand of gameplay, the mass appeal of musical titles has begun to draw developers and publishers towards a genre that up until recently was not a profitable prospect. Battle of the Bands is the latest title to try its hand at beat matching.
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."
