Ultimate Band
A superstar performance is every bit as important as hitting all the right notes in Disney’s fun-oriented music game for Nintendo Wii and DS.
The songs are mostly sound-alike but the excitement is real in Ultimate Band. Because Disney’s game is targeted at younger music fans it won’t matter so much that the original recording artists aren't belting out the anthems. And anyway this allows for girls as well as boys to sing their favourite songs – kids can choose a male or female vocalist to front their massively customised band.
As with all the other mime-along music games for consoles, a virtual band bops around on screen while you hit buttons in time to a conveyor belt of prompts. However the boon with Ultimate Band is that guitars, drums and vocal performances are controlled using the Wii remote / nunchuck set up. Although initially not as ‘cool’ as strumming a fake guitar, the Wii motion-sensing controllers have the advantage that they can pretend to be anything – drum sticks, clapping hands, or mic stand etc. If you’re already comfortable playing games on the Wii, all you need to think about is the music, which means more people at home could give this a try.
Up to four kids can rock out to over 30 songs on guitar, bass, drums and vocal duty. The guy out front doesn’t actually sing, however, just poses for the crowd in time to the songs. If you have the DS version of the game you can create and upload your own songs to perform in the game, although unfortunately without lyrics. If you’re feeling extra competitive there’s an online ranking set-up handled by Disney where leaderboards display the best efforts for individual tunes. Disney says it’s possible, though not guaranteed, that new tracks will be available for download in future.
Only one band, the Plain White T’s, feature as their real-world selves in Ultimate Band and have contributed an exclusive video of “Natural Disaster” plus a specially re-recorded version of “Our Time Is Now”. The track selection is kid friendly given that the age rating is 3+, so any questionable lyrics have been edited across the board. The Plain White T’s are also available as unlockable characters.
We think there’s potential for Ultimate Band to really capture the imagination of young Wii gamers. While the other most popular music games are pursuing archived treasures of rock legends, we imagine kids could have more fun constructing their own funky set up and enjoying the songs for what they are.
Ultimate Band is available from 10 April for Nintendo Wii and DS.
