Band Hero delivers an exciting music collection featuring top-40 hits, including No Doubt, Lily Allen, The All-American Rejects, Snow Patrol and Jackson 5, designed to expand the experience to a new genre and appeal to a broad family audience who can play together on the guitar, drums, bass and microphone. The game builds upon Guitar Hero’s easy-to-play, difficult-to-master signature gameplay and allows novice players and expert fans to join together on their favourite songs. Band Hero supports all Guitar Hero instrument controllers, as well as other music/rhythm game controllers.

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 popularised 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 customise your band members, No Fail mode and Stage Stunts, Band Hero changes the way games can be played on the road.

For owners of both Band Hero (Wii version) and Band Hero on the Nintendo DS Lite connecting the two games wirelessly will unlock extra gameplay and content. Band Hero Wii players can download dozens of Fan Request challenges directly into their Nintendo DS Lite’s Band Hero career. Completing these Fan Request challenges will unlock awards and exclusive characters that are playable within both Band Hero games.

The revamped drum kit controller features an improved and visually compelling ‘floating’ drum pad design with quiet drum heads and easy access first party controls for additional flexibility when navigating the game. The updated kick pedal offers players a new level of responsiveness while drumming along to the music, as well as two built-in kick pedal ports, so players can bang out the double bass beats of Expert+ drum tracks that will be available via downloadable content and song importing. The new drum kit controller also features a handy slot for players to store their drumsticks under the drum pads. The entire unit rests upon a newly designed stand offering stability as well as height guides on the vertical supports to make adjustments a breeze.

Xbox 360/PS3

Wii

At the North American launch, a new, redesigned drum controller will be available exclusively in the Wii Band Kit.  The new drum controller will be available for the PS3 and Xbox 360 at a later date.

Newly Revealed PS2/Wii/PS3/X360 Tracks

• The Bravery - "Believe"
• Counting Crows - "Angels of the Silences"
• The Dashboard Confessional - "Hands Down"
• Evanescence - "Bring Me To Life"
• Fall Out Boy - "Sugar, We're Goin' Down"
• Hilary Duff - "So Yesterday"
• Jesse McCartney - "Beautiful Soul"
• The Kooks - "Naïve"
• Mighty Mighty Bosstones - "Impression That I Get"
• OK Go - "A Million Ways"
• Robbie Williams and Kylie - "Kids"
• Styx - "Mr. Roboto"
• Yellowcard - "Ocean Avenue"
• The All-American Rejects - "Dirty Little Secret"

Previously Revealed Wii/PS3/X360 Tracks

• Alphabeat - "Fascination"
• Aly and AJ - "Like Whoa"
• Carl Douglas - "Kung Fu Fighting"
• Cheap Trick - "I Want You To Want Me" (Live)
• Don Mclean - "American Pie"
• Duran Duran - "Rio"
• Jackson 5 - "ABC"
• Janet Jackson - "Black Cat"
• Katrina and The Waves - "Walking on Sunshine"
• Lily Allen - "Take What You Take"
• Maroon 5 - "She Will Be Loved"
• No Doubt - "Just A Girl"
• Roy Orbison - "Oh Pretty Woman"
• Snow Patrol - "Take Back the City"
• Taylor Swift - "Love Story"
• Taylor Swift - "Picture to Burn"
• Taylor Swift - "You Belong With Me"
• Tonic - "If You Could Only See"
• Village People - "YMCA"
  

Newly Revealed NDS Tracks

• The All-American Rejects - "Believe"
• Boys Like Girls - "The Great Escape"
• Foo Fighters - "Monkey Wrench"
• The Pretenders - "Boots of Chinese Plastic"
• Sum 41 - "In Too Deep"
• The Vines - "Get Free"

Previously Revealed NDS Tracks

• Avril Lavigne - "Girlfriend"
• Blink-182 - "First Date"
• Evanescence - "Call Me When You're Sober"
• Fall Out Boy - "Thnks Fr Th Mmrs"
• Kaiser Chiefs - "I Predict A Riot"
• The Killers - "Spaceman"
• KT Tunstall - "Suddenly I See"
• No Doubt - "Excuse Me Mr."
• P!nk - "So What"
• Queen - "Crazy Little Thing Called Love"
• Queens of the Stone Age - "No One Knows"
• Spin Doctors - "Two Princes"

Key Features:

• Rock to the Beat – Band Hero includes the most fun music that brings friends and family of all ages together to sing, play guitar, or drum to a wide variety of today’s chart topping hits and most recognizable anthems. The game features an explosive on-disc set list of more than 65 tracks from the hottest new bands and classic artists, including Maroon 5, Jesse McCartney, Go-Go’s, The Turtles and Janet Jackson.
• Let’s Get this Party Started!– Novice and expert players alike will find it easier than ever to jump in and jam out with friends and family thanks to Band Hero’s Party Play mode. Party Play inserts players straight into the action from the start-up menu with the press of a button allowing them to join in, drop out, or switch personal options at any time without fear of failing the song or interrupting the jam session.
• Put The Band Together Your Way – In Band Hero gamers are free to create the experience they want by tailoring their band to suit their style. People can play alone or select any combination of multiple vocalists, bassists, drummers or guitarists to create their own band and rock with, in Band Hero.
• Step Up to the Challenge – A little competition never hurt anyone! Band Hero’s RockFest mode is a collection of challenges at varying difficulties designed for up to four players locally and up to eight players online. RockFest challenges include:
  • Momentum – Song difficulty level changes with player performance.
  • Elimination – Each song is divided into segments, after each segment, the player with the lowest score will be eliminated from the game.
  • Do or Die – Missing any three notes for a song section temporarily knocks players out of the game and keeps them from scoring.
  • Streakers – Players are awarded points whenever their current note streak is a multiple of 10.
  • Perfectionist – Points will be awarded to the player who hits the highest percentage of notes in each section of a song.
  • Pro Face Off – Head-to-head battle where players all play the same song on the same difficulty with the same instrument.
• Live In the Moment – Capturing the essence of being in a big-named band and nailing those memorable sections of popular songs is what Band Hero’s Band Moments is all about. Hitting all the notes in a special section earns bands bonus multipliers and creates the ultimate sense of accomplishment as the crowd screams for more.
• The Ultimate Jukebox – Further expanding upon the hours of nonstop on-disc entertainment in Band Hero, is the ability for fans to play Guitar Hero® World Tour’s downloadable content in the game, utilizing all of the upgrades and features in Band Hero*.
• Sing Any Way You Want – A classic karaoke mode where up-to four players can showcase their vocal chops, Sing-Along allows players to perform any song from the entire set list, without worrying about scores or failing out.
• Make and Share Music – Band Herofeatures the innovative GHTM Studio and GHTunessm first introduced in Guitar Hero World Tour. Produce hits in the redesigned music studio with improved editing tools, new guitar samples and mix patterns, or budding musicians can head over to GH™Jam and rock out with more than 400 easy-to-use music patterns for any instrument to create recordings that can be refined in GHMix 2.0. Up to 50 songs can be uploaded to GHTunes giving players the chance to share what could be the next breakout hit!
• Rock With Your Wii – Multiple exclusive game modes for Nintendo fans will let living room rock stars interact with their music and friends like never before.
  • Band Hero on the Nintendo Wii features an entirely unique Wii/DS connectivity ability that lets more then just the band call the shots. While players and their bands are rocking away with Band Hero(Wii version), family and friends who own DS and DSI’s can update and change the band’s set list on the fly giving them the ability to experience the performance they want.
  • In Mii Freestyle Mode, gamers can rock any way they want with their custom Miis for a unique experience that connects players to the music and adds another layer of personalization to the game. Players can jam with the Guitar Hero controllers and create their own note tracks on the fly utilizing multiple music genres or simply rock out using the Wii remote and Nunchuk to “air drum.” The new Mii Freestyle Stage Manager allows DS players in the audience to get in on the action by controlling lightshows, changing cameras and even igniting pyrotechnics! And, for the first time, fans will be able to capture videos of their Mii rocking out and share them with other Wii owners.
• Nintendo DS fans can experience the life of a band roadie thanks to the brand new Roadie Battle mode. Up to two DS players can connect with two Band Hero Wii guitar players for an intense competition. While the guitar players rock out on stage, the DS players frantically navigate their virtual roadie from one side of the stage to the other trying to sabotage opponents’ equipment while repairing any damage to their own.

The Band Hero Kit includes the following items:

• Band Hero Software
• Standard USB microphone with 15ft Cord
• Band Hero Wireless Drum Kit with 5 Pressure Sensitive Drum Pads
• Band Hero Wireless Guitar Controller
• Kick Pedal for Band Hero Wireless Drum Kit
• Standard Wood Drumsticks
• Guitar Faceplate
• Standard 1" Wide Guitar Strap

Budding music stars, their families and friends, will all live their musical fantasy on the Band Hero stage, playing as Taylor Swift or alongside the singer/songwriter and guitarist, as she performs her smash-hits "Love Story" and "You Belong With Me" from her latest album Fearless as well as "Picture to Burn" from her self-titled debut record.

Band Hero, rated E10+, is currently scheduled for release on Nov. 17, 2009 on the PS2 ($39.99), PS3/X360 ($59.99) and Wii ($49.99) while the full Kit will retail for $199.