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Ultimate Band for Wii: Music Games in a More Casual Style
Posted by Owen Good at 9:50 AM on June 16, 2008
Included in the flood of leaks that sprung earlier today was a flash video showing gameplay in Ultimate Band, a no-peripheral music game due out from Disney for the Wii by the end of the year. (The video did not address proposed versions for the PS2 or DS.)
Watching through it a couple of times, this is going to be far more casual than the gameplay in Rock Band or Guitar Hero. The instrument actions seem not to have any connection to the soundtrack, which plays throughout, with vocals. The songs in the video were familiar but all were covered ("My Generation" by The Who, "Fell In Love With a Girl" by the White Stripes, and "Our Time Now" by Plain White T's, all sung by what sounded like the same female vocalist), and the performers were cartoon avatars rather than motion-capped actiors.
First blush, with Ultimate Band, this is not a musical performance simulator. It seems more of a party game. You're moving the Wiimote and Nunchuk in was that intuitively resemble instrument play, but you're not hitting every note that comes over the speakers.
For example, the lead guitar "notes" passed through a side scrolling fret but had no effect on the music at all. An extended fretboard solo involved passing the Nunchuk back and forth rapidly, as if up and down a guitar neck while, I assume, holding the proper key on the Wiimote.
The bass guitar works the same except the notes are even slower to pass. It looked boring, to be honest. The frontman mode involves not singing but animating the lead singer through a variety of points-scoring postures and motions, including the "flourish" and "grandstanding", where players respond to on-screen cues to move the two controllers, and these in turn jack up a "crowd" meter that seems to have a multiplier effect on your points.
Of the four performers, the drummer looks like the fastest paced, and plays closest in time with the music. The difficulty in the others' music performance is minigame quality at best, and a focus seems to be on being able to enjoy the animations and socialize with other players rather than any approximation of a true-to-life-performance.
Comments (AU Comments · US Comments)
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twistsayturn
Posted 10:37 AM 16/6/08
I knew to avoid this when I saw the term "emo" used in the press release announcing the game.
twistsayturn
wild homes 5: no disassemble!
Posted 10:19 AM 16/6/08
NOW That's What I Call A Shitty Rhythym Game Volume One.
wild homes 5: no disassemble!
ggodo
Posted 10:11 AM 16/6/08
@alfredofroylan: Yea, I enjoyed those. Now the best Disney game is Kingdom Hearts, simply because Disney didn't make it.
ggodo
Spoony Bard
Posted 10:10 AM 16/6/08
This is just as bad as when reality television took over the airwaves.
Please, make it STOP :(
Spoony Bard
squigglychicken
Posted 10:08 AM 16/6/08
i also saw the video. apparently the guitar control is used with the nunchuck to select the string, and then flicking the wiimote to strum. prepare for MAJOR HAMD CRAMPING
squigglychicken
Beatboxtaun
Posted 10:08 AM 16/6/08
I get nervous with Wii games. They abuse the whole movement detection technology. They release too many games that have cool covers and end up sucking because some of these would be fine off of a standard controller. I always read my reviews, first. Plus, it would have to be waaaay better than Battle of the Bands.
Beatboxtaun
get2theDeLorean
Posted 10:07 AM 16/6/08
I think I'm going to start hiding my wii when I have company over. This is getting embarrassing.
get2theDeLorean
Kaizuden
Posted 10:05 AM 16/6/08
And so, IT BEGINS.
Kaizuden
alfredofroylan
Posted 10:03 AM 16/6/08
Remember the old days when Capcom made all Di$ney's games? .. good times
alfredofroylan
EnigmaNemesis
Posted 10:01 AM 16/6/08
ew!
EnigmaNemesis
InsidiousTuna
Posted 10:00 AM 16/6/08
Cool?
InsidiousTuna
Coquiton
Posted 9:58 AM 16/6/08
Yeah, I saw that video, Owen.
It looks horrible.
Like you said, the notes you play don't really match the notes the music in playing. I don't see how you can make a game like this and not match the play with the music, otherwise you end up with the music distracting you.
Plus, everything looked so...boring to play.
Coquiton
Arsenicberyllium
Posted 9:58 AM 16/6/08
Wow. I don't mean to sound cruel, but that looks really, really gay.* I mean, your actions don't have an effect on the music, the lead singer doesn't sing, but instead moves his arms?
And there are no master tracks, but instead one singer singing every song?
That's the worst thing I've heard of in my life.
*I mean gay in the generally negative connotation. Not the "homosexual" way. I have nothing but respect for homosexuals. So yeah, not insulting gay people.
Arsenicberyllium
pikachumariachi
Posted 9:57 AM 16/6/08
No! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I kept years begging for a good rythim game to have The White Stripes in it's album and the first one with the is this?!?! I hate the world
pikachumariachi
Grumps
Posted 9:56 AM 16/6/08
Somebody should just make a bunch of wii games the old way they used to do that vhs gun game system. A video plays, you do what you want and get points, all the while never affecting anything on the screen.
Grumps
ddollar
Posted 9:54 AM 16/6/08
the wii game selection is really pathetic i really hate the wii expect for maybe 5 games
ddollar
wild homes 5: no disassemble!
Posted 10:58 AM 16/6/08
@kidnicky: People were fine with the red, the green, and the yellow, but the blue button in Simon threw them for a fucking loop. Thus, the game in the video.
wild homes 5: no disassemble!
kidnicky
Posted 10:49 AM 16/6/08
Guitar Hero is just a better version of Simon. Why the hell did it need to be casualised? Were some people having trouble with its non-intuitive control scheme or its incredibly deep,complex gameplay?
kidnicky
okenny :)
Posted 10:49 AM 16/6/08
@okenny :): *as
okenny :)
okenny :)
Posted 10:48 AM 16/6/08
@okenny :): A rhythm game with absolutely no rhythm is a failure s a game.
okenny :)
okenny :)
Posted 10:47 AM 16/6/08
What I saw in the video was frustrating to watch.
okenny :)
thesycophant
Posted 11:53 AM 16/6/08
I can't imagine that in the end, the music would not correspond at all to the user input, because that would likely be more difficult to play. And even still, sure it's casual, but it doesn't damage the Guitar Hero or Rock Band franchises any more than any other music game contributing toward the pending oversaturation of the market does.
thesycophant
Harrison20
Posted 11:53 AM 16/6/08
You talk about a video, but then don't link to the video. Good job.
Harrison20
pwn-master3001
Posted 12:32 PM 16/6/08
STOP IT WITH THE WHOLE MUSIC VIDEO GAME THING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Rock Band and Guitar Hero
THATS IT!!!!!!
i can c it now.... some poor kid on christmas will ask 4 Rock Band, mom goes into Wal-Mart and ask 4 "some band game". the helper being a total retard will say " Well we hav this Ultimate Band thats reallly hot right now and its Ultimate!!!!!!" mom will buy it and the kid will hav the worst christmas evar
RISE AND FIGHT THE POWER!!! STOP THE WHOLE "i want to mak a million dollar selling music game cause i hav no life" THING.
pwn-master3001
Nimajneb7
Posted 12:21 PM 16/6/08
Aren't Guitar Hero and Rock Band already casual rhythm games? This is pretty much the same thing with no the specialty controller.
Nimajneb7
Fireblast
Posted 1:55 PM 16/6/08
As a friend of mine would say "inward!"
Fireblast
aNiMeMaN14
Posted 2:41 PM 16/6/08
Sounds absolutely horrible.
aNiMeMaN14
tehFluffz
Posted 3:31 PM 16/6/08
Watching through it a couple of times, this is going to be far more casual than the gameplay in Rock Band or Guitar Hero. The instrument actions seem not to have any connection to the soundtrack, which plays throughout, with vocals.
That's not casual.. that's just a half-assed rip off.
tehFluffz
Polite Society
Posted 7:27 PM 16/6/08
@tehFluffz: Agreed. Rock Band is 'casual'. It's something that people who aren't gamers and don't enjoy typical games can pick up and enjoy.
This just sounds like punishment.
Polite Society
Polite Society
Posted 7:34 PM 16/6/08
It's probably an acceptable rock band substitute for maybe a younger audience... maybe.
Casual is such an abused term. It is not supposed to be synonymous with crap, or poor game play.
In fact, i would argue that casual games should only be the polished games, with intuitive gameplay that doesn't require patience or obsessive compulsive disorder to learn how to play and enjoy.
This ventures into the hazy line between kids games and shovelware. There seems to be little distinction between the two, considering that most publishers will not spend the money on producing decent games the pre-teen crowd. Admittedly, most kids I know from that age group are more interested in playing games with icons from cartoons and movies, rather than a game with a clever design, being too young to appreciate it.
Polite Society
johnny_ultimate
Posted 9:17 PM 16/6/08
As good as Rock Band and GH are (and they are very good indeed) its unfortunate that they have spawned such a regrettable subgenre of music games, with these clones being announced left right and centre. For the few quality games out there, shops will soon be flooded with a wave of inferior imitators.
johnny_ultimate
Darthvinder
Posted 12:11 AM 17/6/08
But will it be as bad as the dancing portion of GTA:SA? That shit was terrible. At least it was just a minigame, whew.
This will suck.
Darthvinder
Boudabras
Posted 2:51 AM 17/6/08
This game sounds like an epic fail attempt to cash in on the music gaming scene
Boudabras
BrandtRock
Posted 12:05 AM 17/6/08
@johnny_ultimate: no kidding. Seriously, I like GH and RB, but this is getting out of hand...but personally, I prefer to play my real guitar, it's more fun! I can only hope that these games inspire people to pick up instruments, the world needs more musicians for some face-melting rock!
BrandtRock
Talleh
Posted 5:32 AM 17/6/08
Wasn't this already done with that Marching Band game? And a dancing game? How many more do they need to pump out that all fail before the realize everybody HAS either rock band or guitar hero, and don't want another with terrible covers and bad songs.
Talleh
Replica23
Posted 6:06 AM 17/6/08
How do you get more casual?
Replica23
EndwaterAngry
Posted 6:03 AM 17/6/08
@BrandtRock: Face Melting Guitar riffs and ball busting bass lines baby!
EndwaterAngry
Xcite79
Posted 8:00 AM 17/6/08
@Replica23:
I wondering exactly the same thing. As far as I'm concerned, its a marketing ploy to try to get attention away from rival music based games.
Xcite79
JayTapp
Posted 9:11 PM 17/6/08
More casual than rockband?
My girl friend bug me to come to my place and play drum each week. Last time she touched a console was probably mario on the NES.
How can you get more casual? This is just boring.
Bah it is on the wii so what do you expect.
JayTapp