Ultimate Band
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Ultimate Band
Not Quite as Ultimate As You’d Think.
As everyone knows by now, rhythm games are essentially the gaming industries bread and butter. Rock Band and Guitar Hero have really brought a whole lot of people together with their games, and other developers have certainly caught on and tried to cash in. The latest effort is Disney Interactive and Fall Line Studio’s Ultimate Band for the Wii. Now while most veterans of the aforementioned series’ will likely scoff at the idea of a game that doesn’t use peripherals to simulate rocking out, the younger or more casual rhythm gamer among us will likely have a fairly good time.
Gameplay
Ultimate Band is essentially what you’d get if you crossed Wii Music’s controls with Rock Band’s set list. Obviously, the focus is a bit more narrow than either of the two titles, but there are some neat ideas here that make it a good, if not altogether great game.
Now, without peripherals, this obviously means that Ultimate Band is going to be attempting to utilize the Wii remote’s motion controls. The game gives you the option of playing either guitar, bass, drums or being the frontman. For the most part, this is a functional, and somewhat fun idea, depending on which instrument you choose. Drums play pretty much as you’d expect, as you just need to swing the nunchuk and remote in time with the targets on screen. Guitar uses the "air" guitar approach in that you use the Wii remote to strum, whilst holding the nunchuk as you would the neck of the guitar. On easy settings that’s pretty much it for guitar, but upping the difficulty is adds a little more variety to the proceedings, if not a challenge. On higher difficulties you’ll need to press the C and Z buttons while strumming in order to hit the correct notes. It’s not the deepest method, but it’s effective and will challenge the younger set enough to keep things interesting.
While guitar and drums are relatively fun to play, the game falters when asked to play either frontman or bass. The first problem is that without a mic, being the frontman is pretty much just a bunch of motion controlled gestures that amount to no fun at all. The gestures are lame, (punch the air, or clap when prompted), and often feel very out of place. Packing in a mic, or allowing people to use one from the other games that have them out there, would have gone a long way. As it stands, this is an unnecessary addition which, if not for the fact that you’re forced to play through at least a couple of songs using the singer, should be avoided as much as possible.
Bass is not nearly as bad, but the controls were implemented with a more accurate controller in mind. You see, in order to differentiate between guitar and bass, instead of just tapping buttons while you strum, you need to twist the nunchuk to the left of right in order to register notes being strummed. This is just sloppy, and really frustrating. Once you get used to things, it’s workable, and you can get into the groove, but for most, drums and guitar are really the best way to spend your time with the game.
In addition to the standard playing, you can add some flourishes and grand standing to help your score. These don’t require a whole lot of skill, but they add a little something extra to the proceedings, and believe me, it’s needed. Flourishes are handled by hitting a direction on the D-pad during a down-time moment for your chosen instrument. Grandstands require you to build up a meter at the top of the screen, and when set, you need to press A and then follow a bunch of ridiculous, but somehow still fun, onscreen motion prompts. These can range from shaking the nunchuk like a maraca, to making an X motion with both arms. These are simple additions, but definitely add to the games fun factor, so long as you are willing to let yourself just go with it.
The best feature in Ultimate Band is the story mode. Sure, it’s not the most fleshed out story ever, and it definitely caters to the family friendly side of things, it’s certainly a bit more interesting than the simple, play a few songs, get X number of stars and just move on. There are actual cut-scenes, which makes the story a bit more engaging than other rhythm games out there. Of course, the story isn’t all that important in a rhythm game, but it’s nice to see something a little less cut and dry than Rock Band or Guitar Hero’s method.
However, simply throwing in a few cut-scenes doesn’t give the game an automatic pass. Far from it, actually. There’s one major problem with this mode, in that you’re given 3 songs per set before unlocking the next level. Fair enough, but the game requires you to play through those 3 songs at least twice each before unlocking a new level. Now, the song list isn’t that bad, so this may not sound too terrible to some, but it just kills the pacing of the game entirely.
The game does also offer a Battle mode, and Jam mode in which you can fight it out with a friend for points, or just get together and jam. You can also customize your character with items unlocked during the story mode, and there’s actually a fair amount here for the kids. Essentially though, there isn’t much here that hasn’t been done in other rhythm games, and it’s certainly not as deep as other games, but it’s still a nice option to have.
Graphics & Sound
Ultimate Band is similar to the other games of the genre, looks-wise. The character models are nice looking and the framerate stays steady throughout. The arena’s and garages that you’ll play throughout are all nicely detailed, and the better you play, the more style and flair the game adds in. Fireworks, bringing a garage down in pieces, and performing some crazy moves all work to give the game a great style and look.
On the audio side, this is the most difficult part of the review. On the one hand, the songs are all cover versions and mostly bad ones at that. Hold up, though...there’s a reason for that. You see, Ultimate Bands audio changes depending on the gender of your singer. That means that instead of playing Paramore’s "Crushcrushcrush" with a simple female clone, you can actually wince your way through a guy trying to sing it. This is actually a really cool feature, and one that surprised me. There are around 40 songs in the game, but being that each song is sung by two different people, it’s definitely not a detriment to the game to have a shorter setlist than the other games out there.
The track list itself is also actually surprisingly good. Despite the lack of originals, the songs picked here are definitely interesting, although for a more kid friendly game, the tracks picked seem to be a bit of a mis-step. Not many kids have likely heard Kasabian’s "Club Foot", or anything by The Kooks. The tracks picked here appeal more to the teens and early 20-somethings out there, although they have included the Jonas Brothers and Avril Lavigne as well. Here’s a look at the setlist, so you can see exactly what I mean:
* "Girls Not Grey"
* "Complicated"
* "Hanging on the Telephone"
* "Song 2"
* "I Want You To Want Me"
* "All Right Now"
* "Anna Molly"
* "Club Foot"
* "Won’t Go Home Without You"
* "Dashboard"
* "Helena"
* "Get the Party Started"
* "Crushcrushcrush"
* "Just"
* "Stumble and Fall"
* "When Did Your Heart Go Missing?"
* "In Too Deep"
* "Unconditional"
* "Somebody Told Me"
* "Always Where I Need to Be"
* "Debaser"
* "Fell in Love With a Girl"
* "Break on Through"
* "Beverly Hills"
* "Move Along"
* "Rock Lobster"
* "First Date"
* "Whip It"
* "Take Over the Break is Over"
* "Hold On"
* "Our Time Now"
* "Just What I Needed"
* "All Day and All of the Night"
* "Steady As She Goes"
* "My Generation"
See what I mean. It just seems like Ultimate Band wants to be everything to everyone, and it fails to find that core audience that it’s searching for. There’s some great track picks here, but the setlist can’t seem to decide if it wants to be top 40, indie, or classic Rock, and that makes 40 songs seem a bit more difficult to swallow. The music all sounds great, although the singers can be a bit irritatingly bad at times. Overall, it’s an average game full of cover songs, with a unique twist that makes it a little more acceptable to have those songs be covers.
Value
The story mode will last most quite a while, provided you can overlook the fact that you’re going to have to play several songs more than once in a really short span of time. Gathering friends together is a good time, and there’s also an online leaderboard option to compare scores with the best in the world, or just with friends. Due to issues with the controls, however, I do recommend a rental before you buy, as while guitar and drums get by with keeping it simple, bass and frontman duties are more hassle than they’re worth, and will only be enjoyed by a very select few.
Conclusion
Ultimate Band does have some great features, that really make the game interesting. However, interesting doesn’t necessarily make it fun. Control issues and the lack of a mic for the frontman position kill some of the potential, and the squeaky-clean feel of the story will put off veterans of other series’ out there. That said, with no complicated peripherals to use, this is easily recommendable for the younger set, and will entertain anyone who just isn’t able to grasp the concepts behind those other rhythm games out there.
Pros
+ Guitar and drum play work well
+ Songs change depending on the gender of your singer
+ Interesting track list
+ Flourishes and Grandstands add a dorky fun factor
+ Story Mode family friend
+ Cut-scenes in Story mode make the game more engaging
Cons
- Cover songs aren’t the best versions out there, even if the songs do change based on your singers gender.
- Frontman controls suck. Plain and simple.
- Bass controls are inconsistent.
- Repeating tracks using as different instrument to progress is tedious.
- Controls meant for a more accurate controller
- No mic?
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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