Band Hero Goes Portable on the DS, Includes "Drum Grip"

Marc "DjinniMan" Allie July 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 PM

It's like deja vu all over again. Band Hero has been announced for the Nintendo DS via press release. Wait a minute, you say. The DS has a microphone built in, and the Guitar Grip has been out for a while now. How are folks supposed to play the drums? There's a miniaturized and likely finger cramping attachment coming that will allow just that. The aptly named Drum Grip (which you don't really... you know, grip) will let you pretend to play the larger pretend drums you have back home, while you're on the go!

You have to give them credit for trying, but it appears that this is just a skin/glove holding some fancy button toppers. I wonder if the drums will be playable without the grip? According to the release, 30 songs by "today's top artists" will be available. One has to wonder if they will be able to squeeze vocals, bass, guitar, and drums for thirty songs all onto one cartridge. Let's hope so, or the portable Band Hero won't really be very portable.

TAKE THE FULL BAND EXPERIENCE ON THE ROAD WITH

BAND HERO™ FOR NINTENDO DS™ LITE

Revolutionizing the music videogame genre once again, Guitar Hero and Activision are expanding the boundaries of music gaming with the introduction of full band play in Band Hero™ for Nintendo DS™ Lite. Band Hero delivers an explosive and unprecedented social gameplay experience for Nintendo DS Lite with the addition of vocals and drums – via an innovative new Drum Grip™ – to the guitar and bass gameplay popularized by the Guitar Hero® On Tour trilogy. Band Hero allows handheld gamers to choose the way they want to play in multiplayer mode with any instrument combination of guitar, bass, drums and vocals as they strum, drum and belt out some of today’s most popular tracks across multiple genres of music, including rock, pop, alternative and punk. With the largest and most diverse set list in a Nintendo DS Lite offering to-date, Band Hero offers fans 30 master recordings from today’s top artists including: Blink-182, Avril Lavigne, The Killers, KT Tunstall, and Fall Out Boy. With new features players can enjoy anytime, anywhere, a brand new Rockstar Editor to fully customize your band members, No Fail mode and Stage Stunts,Band Hero changes the way games can be played on the road.

Source: Link

Tags: rhythm game 4 player co-op ds band hero

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9 Total Reader Comments

ong_elvin at 11:45 PM on 7.23.2009

Squeezing 30 songs won't be a problem. R4s use microSD cards to hold the data and firmware. Last I checked, microSD cards can now hold up to 32gb. That's about the size of five or six DVDs, and larger than even a Blu-Ray. The technology to "squeeze" 30 songs exists, and people have been using it for more than a year now.

HobocidalManiac at 04:36 AM on 7.24.2009

I think DS cards can only hold up to 2GB without becoming really expensive. That's why developers try not to use a ton of space. They can fit whatever they want, but it becomes expensive.

pheriannath at 06:45 AM on 7.24.2009

The best part about this is that there's no way for it to work with the DSi- these addons all work through the GBA slot, which has been phased out.

HobocidalManiac at 06:59 AM on 7.24.2009

Wow. Way to go Nintendo. Does anyone here own a DSi? I have an old DS that's kind of broken and a DS Lite.

pheriannath at 07:05 AM on 7.24.2009

bapenguin and I both own a DSi, not sure about community members.

HobocidalManiac at 07:12 AM on 7.24.2009

I'm thinking of buying one eventually. If nothing else, I can trade Pokemon with myself.

hedgehogaj at 07:14 AM on 7.24.2009

Even if I had the money for the DSi I wouldn't have upgraded. Half the games I play on my DS are GBA.

DjinniMan at 07:33 AM on 7.24.2009

It looks like the Drum Grip might work on the DSi. Does it have different dimensions than a standard DS? If not, the glove part won't fit. Bad form, bad form.

pheriannath at 08:06 AM on 7.24.2009

Not only do the Drum Pads not fit a DSi, but the game itself is incompatible with the device.