Activision Releases Full Track Listing for Band Hero

As far as the song listing goes, you will utter "Sweet Song!" as many times as you say "Huh?" I mean, "YMCA" by the Village People is a great crowd pleaser, but does anyone really want to play drums for the song? It almost feels like Activision tried so hard to find songs in every genre and time period that this feels more like a terrible mix tape*, rather than a gelled complication of songs. For every classic Don McLean or David Bowie song, you have a matching tune from, say, the Spice Girls. There's nothing wrong with the Spice Girls or the Village People, but I guess I don't see how that's a good translation to playing with plastic guitars. It could be an indicator that we're scraping the bottom of the barrel for good content.

One thing I would like to bring attention to is the ability to import the songs from GH5 to BH and from BH to GH5. The rhythm game communities have long embraced the cost to import and the convenience of the service. This ability to transfer is old hat for the XBox 360 and PS3 crowds, but for the Wii community, this will be a first. Vicarious Visions, the developers of the Wii versions of the Guitar Hero franchise, have been the innovators on the rhythm game front from the beginning. When Rock Band 1 was off-line and unable to read the SD card, Vicarious Visions broke through and made those functions high priorities for Guitar Hero: World Tour. This forced Harmonix to follow suit with Rock Band 2 just to keep up. Now, with the approach of the release of Band Hero and LEGO Rock Band, it is Vicarious Visions that bring GH5/BH importation to the Wii while LEGO Rock Band has no such support with Rock Band 2 on the little white console. Keep your eyes peeled on Harmonix to play catch-up once again.

Band Hero by Activision releases on November 3rd on XBox 360, PS3, PS2, Wii and Nintendo DS.

Band Hero™ Brings the Most Exciting Event of the Season To Living Rooms Around the World With Chart-Topping Hits From a Variety of Popular Acts

First E10+ Rated Console Guitar Hero® Game Offers Fun for Friends and Families with Music from Taylor Swift, Nelly Furtado, Lily Allen, The All-American Rejects and Jackson 5 and many more

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Oct 19, 2009 /PRNewswire- FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- The most popular bands from yesterday and today will be coming to living rooms this Fall as Activision Publishing, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ATVI) Band Hero™ delivers the most exciting and accessible music collection ever assembled for the entire family. The game's set list is packed with No. 1 hits, including Jackson 5's "ABC," Don McLean's "American Pie," KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree," The Turtles' "Happy Together" and Taylor Swift's "Love Story." Music fans will enjoy all of the critically-acclaimed innovations from Guitar Hero® 5, such as Party Play, RockFest and various Nintendo exclusive modes, in the most social music gaming experience ever as they strum, drum and sing along to their favorite, popular tunes as a full band with any combination of four singers, guitarists, bassists and drummers or simply sing together in the all-new karaoke-style Sing-Along Mode.

Band Hero also offers a great value to owners of multiple Guitar Hero® games by allowing players to import songs from Guitar Hero 5, Guitar Hero® Smash Hits and Guitar Hero® World Tour. The week Band Hero hits store shelves, 69 tracks from the acclaimed Guitar Hero 5 will be available to import for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft for 480 Microsoft Points, on the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system for $5.99, and Wii™ for 600 Wii Points™. In addition, 61 of the chart-topping hits featured in Band Hero can be imported into Guitar Hero 5 for Xbox 360 for 420 Microsoft Points, on the PlayStation 3 system for $4.99, and Wii for 500 Wii Points. The previously released forward compatible songs from Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero Smash Hits will also be available for import into Band Hero at launch. Finally, Guitar Hero fans can play almost all of their previously purchased Guitar Hero downloadable content in Band Hero, for a music library of up to 300 tracks. For further information and a complete listing of forward compatible content, please visit http://hub.guitarhero.com/support/faq/song-import-information.

When Band Hero ships on November 3, the whole family can jam together and sing along to their favorite, chart-topping tracks:

Set List for Band Hero console:

  • 3 Doors Down - "When I'm Gone"
  • The Airborne Toxic Event - "Gasoline"
  • The All American Rejects - "Dirty Little Secret"
  • Alphabeat - "Fascination"
  • Aly and AJ - "Like Whoa"
  • Angels&Airwaves - "The Adventure"
  • Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals - "Steal My Kisses"
  • Big Country - "In a Big Country"
  • The Bravery - "Believe"
  • Carl Douglas - "Kung Fu Fighting"
  • Cheap Trick - "I Want You To Want Me (live)"
  • Cold War Kids - "Hang Me Up To Dry"
  • Corinne Bailey Rae - "Put Your Records On"
  • Counting Crows - "Angels of the Silences"
  • Culture Club - "Do You Really Want To Hurt Me"
  • Dashboard Confessional - "Hands Down"
  • David Bowie - "Let's Dance"
  • Devo - "Whip It"
  • Don McLean - "American Pie"
  • Duffy - "Warwick Avenue"
  • Duran Duran - "Rio"
  • Evanescence - "Bring Me To Life"
  • Everclear - "Santa Monica (Watch The World Die)"
  • Fall Out Boy - "Sugar, We're Goin' Down"
  • Filter - "Take A Picture"
  • Finger Eleven - "Paralyzer"
  • The Go-Go's - "Our Lips Are Sealed"
  • Hilary Duff - "So Yesterday"
  • Hinder - "Lips Of An Angel"
  • Jackson 5 - "ABC"
  • Janet Jackson - "Black Cat"
  • Jesse McCartney - "Beautiful Soul"
  • Joan Jett - "Bad Reputation"
  • Joss Stone - "You Had Me"
  • Katrina and The Waves - "Walking On Sunshine"
  • The Kooks - "Naive"
  • KT Tunstall - "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"
  • The Last Goodnight - "Pictures Of You"
  • Lily Allen - "Take What You Take"
  • Maroon 5 - "She Will Be Loved"
  • Marvin Gaye - "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"
  • Mighty Mighty Bosstones - "The Impression That I Get"
  • Nelly Furtado - "Turn Off The Light"
  • N.E.R.D. - "Rockstar"
  • No Doubt - "Just A Girl"
  • No Doubt - "Don't Speak"
  • OK Go - "A Million Ways"
  • Papa Roach - "Lifeline"
  • Parachute - "Back Again"
  • Pat Benatar - "Love Is A Battlefield"
  • Poison - "Every Rose Has Its Thorn"
  • Robbie Williams and Kylie Minogue - "Kids"
  • The Rolling Stones - "Honky Tonk Women"
  • Roy Orbison - "Oh Pretty Woman"
  • Santigold - "L.E.S. Artistes"
  • Snow Patrol - "Take Back the City"
  • Spice Girls - "Wannabe"
  • Styx - "Mr. Roboto"
  • Taylor Swift - "Love Story"
  • Taylor Swift - "Picture To Burn"
  • Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me"
  • Tonic - "If You Could Only See"
  • The Turtles - "Happy Together"
  • Village People - "YMCA"
  • Yellowcard - "Ocean Avenue"

Band Hero for Nintendo DS™ Lite, also available on November 3, introduces full band play for the DS system, utilizing the built-in mic, renowned Guitar Grip® attachment and all-new innovative Drum Grip™. Players can take Band Hero on the road with music from today's top artists:

Set list for Band Hero for Nintendo DS Lite:

  • The All-American Rejects - "Believe"
  • Avril Lavigne - "Girlfriend"
  • Black Eyed Peas - "Let's Get It Started"
  • Blink-182 - "First Date"
  • Boys Like Girls - "The Great Escape"
  • Duran Duran - "Hungry Like The Wolf"
  • Eagles of Death Metal - "Wannabe In L.A."
  • Evanescence - "Call Me When You're Sober"
  • Fall Out Boy - "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs"
  • Foo Fighters - "Monkey Wrench"
  • Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict A Riot"
  • The Killers - "Spaceman"
  • Kings of Leon - "Manhattan"
  • KT Tunstall - "Suddenly I See"
  • Lacuna Coil - "Our Truth"
  • No Doubt - "Excuse Me Mr."
  • Pink - "So What"
  • The Presidents of the United States of America - "Lump"
  • The Pretenders - "Boots of Chinese Plastic"
  • Queen - "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
  • Queens of the Stone Age - "No One Knows"
  • The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus - "You Better Pray"
  • The Rolling Stones - "Under My Thumb (live)"
  • Spin Doctors - "Two Princes"
  • Sublime - "All You Need"
  • Sum 41 - "In Too Deep"
  • Ugly Kid Joe - "Everything About You"
  • Vampire Weekend - "A-Punk"
  • The Vines - "Get Free"
  • Weezer - "Troublemaker"

This holiday season, the biggest music event of the year will hit living rooms around the world as family and friends come together to ascend the virtual stage and rock their way to superstardom with Band Hero. Brought to you by the makers of Guitar Hero, one of the best-selling video game franchises of all time, Band Hero features the hottest chart-topping hits from everyone's favorite bands including Fall Out Boy, Nelly Furtado, Lily Allen, The All-American Rejects and Jackson 5. Headlined by some of the leading names in music as in-game artists and playable characters, including singer, songwriter and guitarist Taylor Swift and Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine, Band Hero is the ultimate party game where friends and family can choose to join the band or "take five" at any time without interrupting the performance, in Party Play mode. Band Hero allows fans to create the band of their dreams, using any combination of vocals and guitar or drum controllers, providing budding pop stars the chance to customize how they interact with and experience their favorite music.

Band Hero is being developed by Neversoft Entertainment for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 system, by Vicarious Visions for Wii and Nintendo DS Lite and by Budcat for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system. The game is rated E10+ (Everyone 10+ - mild lyrics, mild suggestive themes). Become a fan of Band Hero on Facebook at facebook.com/bandhero and for more information about Band Hero, please visit bandhero.com.

* - Tape, as in cassettes, from the Mesozoic Age between Compact Discs and Vinyl LPs.