Title: Band Hero

From: Activision

For: Xbox 360

I never got the opportunity to play Guitar Hero World Tour, and with the reported problems that the hardware suffered, I’m kind of glad. Band Hero is very much the same thing, but the drum kit has been given an all important upgrade to make it a little more durable. The yellow and orange ‘cymbals’ are full discs which makes them far more solid and the foot-pedal slots onto the crossbar a-la the Rockband kit which keeps it from moving around. However you don’t need a the new kit to play Band Hero as the GHWT kit will work just fine, as will only a guitar or any combination of instruments you want to use – you can even play with 4 microphones if you wish.

The gameplay resembles the latest Guitar Hero 5 but the mix of songs is purely pop this time around. You can play as your Xbox Live avatar if you wish as well as Taylor Swift herself, No Doubt and Adam Levine from Maroon 5 along with a myriad of weird and wonderful characters.

It’s a fun game, even if it does feel like a bit of a Christmas cash-in in the whole scheme of the Guitar Hero series.

Score 75%