Band Hero has new instruments

By Robert Purchese Published 30 September, 2009

Spot the difference.

Activision will adorn poptastic Guitar Hero spin-off Band Hero with a brand new drum kit and guitar this autumn.

The drum kit, pictured in our gallery, has "floating" pads that make hardly any noise as well as a more responsive kick pedal.

Plus, there are two ports for multiple pedals, which you'll need to best the Expert+ tracks being readied as DLC. On top of that is a "handy slot" for drumsticks and a more height-customisable stand. It really doesn't look very different.

The guitar, meanwhile, has a better strum bar and neck slider solo area. The other improvements are superficial: chrome-effect pegs and red and white faceplate. Still no strings, mind you.

There's no word on price. Band Hero is in development for PS3, PS2, Wii and Xbox 360.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 2 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • awb83 #1 2 years ago

    What a waste of time.

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #2 2 years ago

    What's the difference between Band Hero and Guitar Hero then?

  • ademkermad #3 2 years ago

    gay game this sucks xbox rulez

  • Toothball #4 2 years ago

    I thought these instruments were going to be the Guitar Hero 5 set? The drums do look a bit better than the last set, but they're still nothing compared to the Ion kit.

  • kangarootoo #5 2 years ago

    @Britesparc

    Pop music instead of rock, as I understand it (poppy art style and all that jazz too I guess).

  • JahB #6 2 years ago

    @MrMarc

    totally agreed, but these are the instruments that came with the US version of GH5; we should be having those already...

  • RobotRocker #7 2 years ago

    Evidently, making good instruments means ripping off the good parts of the Rock Band 2 instruments (WHICH THEY STILL HAVEN'T RELEASED HERE) and then being smug about it.

    Yeah, better quality but still Activision.

  • skillian #8 2 years ago

    As the games themselves are complete rip-offs of each other anyway I don't think that's too big a deal.

  • dunlop #9 2 years ago

    When will it end?

  • metalangel #10 2 years ago

    The games industry is slowly coming full circle.

    The 1983 crash was caused by the market being flooded with absolute shit cynically churned out. Go to your local games shop or HMV and look - the Wii and DS sections are huge, rack after rack of tat with the odd gem.

    So to convince retailers, Nintendo had to package the NES with a stupid plastic accessory, R.O.B., who is completely different from yet another pretend guitar/drum kit/DJ deck/skateboard. Oh yes.

  • makeamazing #11 2 years ago

    Is anyone else as confused as me with all these competing products... or perhaps its just me :D

  • Jay-ITFC #12 2 years ago

    They're not having a pound of my money - more plastic tat to fill the living room. The GH3 guitar I bought 2 or 3 years ago still works fine thanks.

  • Jonathan_Fakenham #13 2 years ago

    It's sad that now all the guitars are working cross platform, you still need two drumsets to play both Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

    This is the same as the Guitar Hero 5 guitar right?

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #14 2 years ago

    Who's the tedious cunt that's negging everybody's posts in these comments?

    How about you grow some balls and actually post what you don't like.

    I mean seriously, as an example, what the fuck was wrong with Kangarootoo's comment???

    EDIT: Looks like he's gone. ;)
    Well done guys and gals.
    Edited by 1 at 30/09/09 @ 19:34

  • Zomoniac #15 2 years ago

    Evidently, making good instruments means ripping off the good parts of the Rock Band 2 instruments (WHICH THEY STILL HAVEN'T RELEASED HERE) and then being smug about it.

    They came out here several weeks ago. I have them. The RB2 drums are exponentially better than the RB1 ones (and GHWT ones), to the point of being worth the £180 bundle cost just for them if you're an avid RBer.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #16 2 years ago

    Have you got a link to those Zomoniac? I've been holding back until they were released and was expecting I'd have to buy B:RB to get them.

  • 43n1m4 #17 2 years ago

    Well, the strum bar on both the GH3 and GH4 guitars could use some work (have the Xbox360 versions) - or maybe I just got some bad models. (they are a bit squeaky and noisy, and not too dependable when alt-strumming imo)

  • Zomoniac #18 2 years ago

    @SpaceMidget, you do have to buy B:RB to get them, but well, well worth it if you can afford it.

  • CableNut #19 2 years ago

    My second hand £12 les paul guitar does the job, screw all this over priced shite :p
    Edited by 1 at 30/09/09 @ 23:24

  • Britesparc Verified Creative, ITV #20 2 years ago

    Cheers for the info.

    If it's all about being in a pop band, shouldn't it just come with four microphones, no instruments, and a copy of the Bee Gee's greatest hits?
    Edited by 1 at 01/10/09 @ 00:07

  • squeakyg #21 2 years ago

    The guitar here was also released with GH5, as standard in America. In the UK you can only get it from GAME, and only if they have it in stock. Otherwise GH5 comes with the World Tour guitar.

  • Toothball #22 2 years ago

    @Zomoniac:

    If you haven't already I recommend you look up the cymbal attachments. Neversoft had the right idea with raised cymbals, but two of them aren't enough. When you have them set up, trying to decide whether a beat should be on a pad or a cymbal is a little tricky, but once you get the hang of it it's great fun. The note tracks on Rock Band are actually very versatile even though there's one less note on there.

  • MikeN #23 2 years ago

    If the pad layout was more in line with the RB drums I might have been tempted to upgrade to these. But our drummer (the missus) has gotten too used to the RB layout (she tried the GH:WT drums once and didn't like 'em). Since the RB1 stuff is going so cheap nowadays hopefully that means they're trying to clear the stock to make way for the RB2 instruments.

  • udat #24 2 years ago

    I'd be interested to know how much noise these drums make compared to the GH:WT ones, which were so loud you had to have the TV up at housemate-annoying volumes to be able to play.

    Of course making something you're repeatedly twatting with a stick "quiet" is probably a difficult problem to solve!

  • RobotRocker #25 2 years ago

    @ Toothball

    Harmonix were quite clever with the drum charting as they just needed to have one constant (The Snare) charted to Red and the others were malleable. They chart Yellow/Blue/Green to either Hi-Hat/Ride/Crash or Floor Tom/Mid Tom/High Tom (in fills mostly, but you can notice it in most songs). Guitar Hero is constrained simply because they chant chart everything and change charts to better suit the song. Hence why GH's drum charting is particuarly awkward.

    Unfortunatley I have Beatles RB already so I'd love to just get a RB2 kit without the drama of importing from the US. Hopefully they may bring them over here for Lego Rock Band in separate SKUs.

  • Rubarack #26 2 years ago

    The GH3 guitar I bought a couple of years back works, but is a bit shaky, the WT one broke 3 months after I got it. No doubt these will be broken right in the box. I'd like a decent set of instruments to play these games with, but the ION kit takes too much room, and I really don't trust Activision to ever release anything that works. If they ever released the RB2 drums in this wretched country they could be good, but the RB1 guitar was so shockingly bad I can't see the RB2 one being worthwhile.

  • Toothball #27 2 years ago

    @<a href = "http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/ band-hero-has-new-instruments#comment1300382">RobotRocker</a>:

    Yeah, I do like the way they worked the drum tracks. The only down side is when they map the hi-hat to the red. I expect they did that as the mechanics place a greater emphasis on the snare and bass drums, but when you want to be hitting the hi-hat but have to hit the snare it's not quite the same. Also it's not so bad that they sometimes map open hi-hat to the blue pad, but again it doesn't always feel right when you've got cymbals set up.

  • metalangel #28 2 years ago

    @lord: Nope. But there wasn't the sheer volume of awfulness, nor the quantity of plastic accessories, that we suffer today.

  • LiamK #29 2 years ago

    "It's sad that now all the guitars are working cross platform, you still need two drumsets to play both Rock Band and Guitar Hero."

    Er, no you don't. You can play either game with either drumset. It's a bit awkward, but it works.

    And as several people have pointed out, the B:RB instruments are essentially the RB2 isntruments. Except someone has attacked the drumkit with tipex and the guitars with awesome.

  • Rack #30 2 years ago

    ^Trick there is that it's designed to be awkward, if the pads were Red, Yellow and Blue, with the cymbals being Orange and Green then the cross compatibility would be great, but they've mapped yellow to a cymbal specifically to stop you using them for Rock Band, and HMX/EA never allowed them to be redefined to compensate. Meanwhile the RB2 drums cymbals just aren't picked up by GH.