Musings: Band Hero

/So watch me strike a match on all my wasted time/
/as far as I'm concerned, you're just another picture to burn/

I'm not going to do a full review of Band Hero as I'm sure most everybody's already formed an opinion about it by now. I will post a few thoughts on the game though, as how I felt about the game basically rollercoastered up and down over the 2 weeks I've owned it.

I got my PS3 copy of BH as a Christmas gift, and I was excited to finally play the songs I enjoyed on my friend's 360 in the comfort of my own home. Some of my favorite pop songs were on there - "Picture to Burn" by Taylor Swift, "Just A Girl" by No Doubt, "Black Cat" by Janet Jackson, the list goes on. After the initial rush of jamming my way through these sugar-coated tracks however, I rolled through the rest of the track list and was a bit let down by the other songs on the disc. Apparently Activision was a bit short on licensing cash (or, more likely, simply didn't want to spend that much), so after the big names (current artists) there's a huge dropoff in terms of music age... from the mid 00's, the setlist jumps through a whole lot of songs from the 80's, with the 1990's being sorely underrepresented. Where's the Alanis? Top 40-era Smashing Pumpkins, Oasis, etc? In addition, a lot of the older songs seemed to be the ancient recycled chestnuts that seem to pop up in every other DDR game - YMCA, Kung Fu Fighting? Huh?

However, after I played through the career mode, I found that I had gained a better appreciation for the cheesy stuff - the versions of said oldies they included are pretty well performed (esp. the long playing version of American Pie by Don McLean - that's fire right there!), and the choreography of YMCA is so INCREDIBLY, ULTRA GAY it's worth watching just for laughs. All in all, Band Hero is still pretty decent value for the money.

Midori got a fucking terrible redneck makeover.

And if I ever get sick of the rest of the tunes, I figure I can always just loop "Picture to Burn" until I puke. It's the most upbeat song about bitterness ever, and one of the only country songs I appreciate.