Like a virus, the plastic parade’well-known to Wii folk’has spread in earnest to the DS with the upcoming Band Hero. Where once there was a smattering of cool Arkanoid spinners and the occasional bulky faux-guitar grip now stands a pile of new accessories for a new game in the “Hero” series from Activision. I fear, as always, for the children.
Band Hero, the latest bundle installment in Activision’s quest to fill landfills the world over to the tippity top, comes with the aforementioned guitar grip as well as a new drum attachment for maximum no-longer-portable goodness. There’s also vocal support, which was included because of DS owners’ propensity to actually use the microphone funcitonality and speak loudly in public (yes, that was sarcasm—they don’t).
Sadly for Activision (but good for us who stopped playing these fake music games long ago), rhythm games are on the decline with something like 46% year-over-year loss in sales. And thank goodness, really. From all the squawking about how motion controls are officially cool enough for the core going on these days, it looks like our living rooms are going to need all the extra room they can spare.