They know some gamers will groan. But theyâre confident: you just need to try it. âItâ is not Guitar Hero 5 DS, which you might have expected this fall. Thereâs no such thing. Enter Band Hero DS.
This November, Activisionâs Vicarious Visions studio will release its fourth music game for the Nintendo DS. Band Hero DS follows a trio of shrunken Guitar Hero games that were playable on Nintendoâs handheld with a bundled guitar grip that plugged into the Nintendo DSâ Game Boy Advance slot. The add-on simulated the feel of a guitar fret.
The portable Guitar Heroes were hits with kids but have suffered mockery by many reader of sites like this one, who have surmised that the games on the DS are only good for hand cramps and embarrassment.
âNo matter what your game is, youâre always going to have a subset of people who wonât want to play it for philosophical reasons,â David Nathanielsz, the gameâs executive producer at Vicarious Visions told Kotaku in a phone interview earlier this week. âThatâs unfortunate for us because there is a large group of people who see pictures of Guitar Hero DS or Band Hero DS and say, âThat looks dumbâ or whatever. âI never want to play it.'â
But play it and you just might be converted âI donât think weâll get everyone,â he said. âBut if we can get the message out there for people to try itâŠâ
What if people could get over their apprehensions? What would they find?
Vicarious Visionsâ new game, Band Hero DS lets four people use their systems to play in a virtual band together. Its drum and guitar peripherals work only with the middle version of the DS, the DS Lite. Players can attach the guitar grip to play lead guitar or bass, wrap a sleeve of rubberized silicone around the system â the âdrum gripâ â and tap on mini drum pads to play drums or sing into the DS mic for vocals. And gamers can configure their band with any combination of those instruments, allowing for an all-vocals band or one with two drummers.
https://lastchance.cc/the-band-hero-ds-drum-peripheral-revealed-5321007%3C/a%3E%3C/p%3E
Being on a fourth iteration of a design helps. The developers of the portable Heroes repeatedly tweak their systems for detecting the strumming â and now also the drumming â efforts of their players. Some players, Nathanielsz said, lift their stylus after each strum. Some never lose contact with the screen. The game has to recognize that variety. Vicarious Visions has cleared elements from the touch screen and tweaked the programming again to improve strumming responsiveness.
For drumming, the game will recognize taps on its drum pads, not, as some may have anticipated, on the DS touch screen. A touch screen interface was considered, Nathanielsz said, but the DSâ inability to recognize more than one tap on its touch screen at a time introduced the risk of the system failing to recognize two rapidly successive taps, particularly if the player was inputting them with two styli or fingers on the left and right sides of the screen. Going with something more button-based literally felt better for Vicarious Visions. âWhen we sat down and started prototyping drum play we wanted to replicate the rhythmic, kinesthetic experience of drumming,â Nathanielsz said. âWhat we quickly realized is the movement of your thumbs in a horizontal and vertical direction was really compelling and fun.â The gameplay that way should have the quickness and a bit of the physicality of drumming in real life.
The new game also includes WarioWare-sized, music-themed mini-game challenges that can be thrown at players in a competitive mode to throw them off or can be given to a struggling player in co-op mode to earn a boost. All songs are unlocked at the beginning of the game, but an expanded single player batch of 200 Achievements-style âAwardsâ spread across four instrument-based progressions has been included to help add longevity.
The game does not support the DSâ Wi-Fi functionality and Nathanielsz said there are no plans to support downloadable content (as expected given the DS Liteâs lack of storage capacity).
Why isnât this game called Guitar Hero 5 DS? Activision is splitting its rock-based Hero games this fall with both a Guitar Hero sequel and the new Band Hero console and portable game. The latter has a broader and more pop-inclusive soundtrack. Tracks include artists ranging from Queen to Pink to No Doubt.
To the skeptics, note Vicarious Visionsâ philosophy with these games. âWeâre not trying to replicate 100% the experience of Guitar Hero on the DS,â Nathanielsz said. âThe console games might be trying to make you feel like a guitarist⊠weâre trying to abstract that one step. How can we make a great music game based on playing in a band?â
