Band Mashups

[EchoDesiato]

Band Mashups Hands-on

Ever hear "Spoonman" done by a Mariachi band? Or a country western "Insane in the Brain"?

by Craig Harris

 

February 6, 2008 - Planet Moon Studios, a game development firm that's worked on games such as Infected for the PSP and Smarty Pants for the Wii, has been quietly milling away in its San Francisco-based studio for the past year and a half on one of the most unique and clever takes on the music and rhythm genre seen yet on the Wii. Band Mashups is nearing completion, and the team stopped by the IGN offices to give us a taste of what it created for the Wii and its motion sensing controller.

 

Band Mashups is a rhythm game that spotlights 30 licensed songs across all genres, and then covers those songs five different ways: rock, funk/hip-hop, country western, Latin and marching band. All told there will be more than 150 different tracks: five renditions of these 30 songs. As a bonus, three additional tracks have been recorded for the game's boss battle in full-blown orchestral form.

 

In the current track list, you'll be waving your Wii remote to the rhythm of such contemporary hits such as The Gorillaz "Feel Good Inc.,"Tag Team's "Whoomp! There It Is," and Tenacious D's "Master Exploder." Then you've got classics like "Blitzkrieg Bop" from The Ramones, "Brick House" from The Commodores, and the song that's in pretty much every music game since they've been invented, "That's The Way (I Like It)" from KC and the Sunshine Band.

 

Other song include Adios Mexico from The Texas Tornados, Dum Diddy from the Black Eyed Peas, Insane in the Brain from Cypress Hill, Jungle Boogie from Kool & the Gang, Mama Said Knock You Out from LL Cool J, One Thing Leads to Another from The Fix, Spoonman from Soundgarden, and Photograph from Def Leppard. And for fans of The Cohen Brothers' O Brother Where Art Thou, the game has a treat for you: the tracklist includes "Man of Constant Sorrow" from The Soggy Bottom Boys. Heck yeah.

 

 

Now how does it all play out with five different versions of each song? The game's theme is, pretty much, a Battle of the Bands where 11 different bands of the different genres are duking it out in one-on-one battles for supreme musical dominance: the better one band does against another, that version of the song will be heard more prominently. It's an audio tug-of-war, so to speak, and you'll be using the Wii remote to make it happen.

 

 

Band Mashups plays much like Guitar Hero, but in reverse: notes scroll up from the bottom. Each "note" is a motion from the Wii remote: left, right, down and "stab" with the Wii remote, all done to the beat of the song. Planet Moon has done an impressive job visually representing the motion of the players' Wii remote: at the top of the note scroll is a needle that's moving in relation to how little or how much you're motioning to the left or right. It's one of the coolest and one of the most impressive implementations of displaying accelerometer motion in a third party Wii game so far…and it's far better than games that just give you a "thumbs up!" after a left or right motion. In this game you know you're waggling because it's being displayed in real time.

 

As you successfully string motions together, you're performing different attacks on the other player (computer AI or second Wii remote) that will screw up his timing. Some are projectiles that need to be "Blocked" with a press of a button (also to the timing of the beat), and others will do things like electrify the edges of the scroll bar that force players to limit their waggle, shrink notes to make players hit them more accurately, or flip them to turn right into left and left into right.

 

The single player game progression features unique storylines for each of the different bands in Band Mashups as they fight their way up the chain to the game's nemesis: the evil Mr. Hong and his Violent Orchestra.

 

The game clearly takes a lot of its inspiration from Guitar Hero, and yet the game has a unique feel due to its humorous take on the music industry, its different music styles for familiar songs (I dare you to not crack a smile when you hear Mariachi "Insane in the Brain" for the first time), and its clever use of the Wii Remote for a battle-based rhythm videogame.

 

Band Mashups is currently scheduled for a spring release. Check out some of the first screens and video clips of the game in action by hitting our media links.

 

Source

 

This looks really really cool. After MMMM, GHIII, Rock Band and now this coming to the Wii, it seems the Wii is the perfect console for Music games. The Mariachi Insane in the Brain is freaking genious.

[blender]

a game featuring a "stab" motion can only be a good thing.

[Ten10]

A poor man's Ouendan I saw a video of it and it was completely uninspiring. Some female looking thing randomly shot a flame thrower at some band on the other side.

[Hero-of-Time]

Heres a preview from 1up.

 

My country band is sick of being dissed. The upright bassist launches a rocket in response to the opposing singer's spiked throwing tambourine, which had just whacked my harmonica player. He has a counter of his own, though, and spews flames which just miss the enemy keytar gunner off to the side. Band Mashups, from Planet Moon and THQ, takes the battle of the bands concept to its most literal interpretation as you fight with rhythm action to take over the city of New Cadenza from Mr. Hong and his Violent Orchestra.

After choosing one of 11 bands -- for example, "Scary"-achi, the undead mariachi band -- your quickly start your first battle. The game involves making physical actions with the Wii Remote, so instead of dancing on arrows or pressing the correct guitar tabs, you'll be hitting beats as they scroll up the screen by jerking the remote in the corresponding direction. The comparison might be made to conducting, initially, as you'll be making a lot of left, right, and down motions with your hand, but you'll soon encounter other moves. Squiggly lines require you to lightly or strongly shake the remote depending on their width, and sometimes you'll need to make stabbing motions as well.

 

Racking up consecutive beats not only shows your ability to keep time, but allows you to unleash attacks on your enemy. Each band has a light, heavy, and special move (like speeding up the enemy's beat chart or causing the notes to float around) that you can select mid-battle. Intense attacks take longer to charge, so the number of consecutive hits you'll need to use them depends on which unlockable upgrades you equip. Once you reach the required number of hits, the attack fires automatically and, assuming the opposing side doesn't block -- which is a B trigger skill you'll need to master -- they'll be so damaged that your band will gain control of the music. So if you're in a country vs. rock match and smack up the rock band, your country band will take over immediately and start twanging out Blitzkrieg Bop, or whichever of the 30 songs you're playing.

The music is one of the stand-out features of the game. A quick scan of the track list reveals "Whoomp! (There It Is)" and "Mama Said Knock You Out," along with "Spoonman," "Brick House," and "Photograph," but each track has been recorded in five styles: rock, funk-hop (which encompasses rap), country, Latin/mariachi, and marching band. And each rendition is designed to line up perfectly so that in the split second a band change happens, the vocals don't hitch.

 

For a multiplayer battle, you select a song and difficulty, a band based on an album cover image, and their musical mood. Then you customize your arsenal by deciding whether you think you can hold out consecutive beats long enough to charge the strongest attacks. Each song has designated solos where one band gets to carry the tune and send green skulls hurtling towards the other player, whose only task at that time is to avoid being hit. Then the solo possession flips for the counter-attack. Getting the timing right on shielding is tough because you have to press B slightly after the beat in order to give the skulls enough time to fly across the screen.

 

When you first see the game, it comes off as incredibly hectic, with bombs flying, beats scrolling, music changing styles, and animations of the bands at the top of the screen fighting it out. But surprisingly, as soon as you hop in the game, things make sense pretty quickly.

 

As is becoming common with many Wii titles, Band Mashups is set to ship to stores very soon, despite just being announced. Look for it in April.

 

[steggy]

Liking the look of this a lot. Partly because I love hearing different songs being covered in a different style for comedic value. Mostly since I heard Richard Cheese's version of Disturb's Sickness.

 

And the other side of the coin is that I think Planet Moon are pretty good dev's, and I think Shiny has gone downhill since they left. Add to that, that most of there games have made me laugh. Check out this

of the intro to armed & dangerous for an idea of there sense of humour.

[g0recki]

I think this will be loads of fun. I've always been interested in music games, but I'm not a rock fan, so Guitar Hero doesn't appeal, especially since they want £70 for a crappy plastic guitar. Larappa and Frequency/Amplitude look cool, but I've never had a PS of any kind. So I'm kinda hyped about this! I'm totally gonna main Funk/Hip Hop!

 

Only thing I would say on the IGN preview vid is couldn't they get the transitions between the two bands a bit smoother?

[dazzybee]

Okay this game is obviously now called Battle of the Bands, is out in this contry and is only £12.99 on play.com surely it is worth that. Ive heard it's average, but if the game is like the Rayman dancing game then I'm all for that!

 

Anyone know?