I have to start this review by telling you my first reaction when I opened this package from THQ and saw the name of this game. Seriouly, all that popped in my head was “please don’t tell me these kids play naked with the instruments positioned in strategic places…”
As you can tell by this oh-so-colorful mental image, I have never heard of The Naked Brothers Band before. It honestly sounds like a porn movie title to me. Seems like a pretty unfair name for a children’s band though, when you think about all the dirty jokes you can make about it.
As always, when I don’t know about the background of a game, I look it up. So I came up with an explanation for the name, stated on the all-knowing Wikipedia: “When Nat and Alex were very young, they came out of the bathtub shouting, “We’re the Naked Brothers Band!” They formed a band in preschool with Nat’s best friends.” Note to managers: do not let preschoolers name their bands. Ever.
But on to the actual game. This is actually a bit like Rock Band for your DS, with no peripherals though. The band goes on a tour throughout 10 venues, each venue offering Easy, Medium and Hard difficulty modes. For any given song, you must play through all the intruments available: bass, guitar, keyboard, cello, drums and vocals. While the notes scroll on the top screen from right to left, you must do the correct movement as they hit the target, but each instrument is obviously played differently.
For the bass, you tap for short notes, or tap and hold for long ones. For the drums, you tap the corresponding symbol (drum, snare drum or cymbal). The cello requires you to drag the stylus across the strings either way. The keyboard has short and long notes like the bass, so for the short ones you tap, for the long ones you drag the stylus across. There are two keyboards, so you must play the note on the respective colored keyboard. For the guitar, you strum by sliding the stylus up or down to play the notes. Vocals are different, and it’s a bit like Gitaroo Man: you need to keep the star icon inside the yellow line as it scrolls through the screen, up and down.
If your performance is good enough, your manager will give you the option to save that performance as a video (up to six). You can then edit the video with pyrotechnics, add lights and change camera effects.
You can also record your own versions of the band’s songs in the recording studio. Pick the instrument you want to play in the order you want to play them and do your own recording session. Videos and songs can be shared with other players via DS Wireless.
Aside from the Tour mode, there’s a tutorial aptly named Music 101 where you can learn how to play each instrument, plus a Battle mode that allows you to challenge a friend for a musical duel.
As you progress through the Tour, you will unlock new outfits for the band members, that is, if you perform well enough. You can customize each band member’s clothes before a performance in the Wardrobe individually, or apply a particular style to all of them at once.
Now and then in the story you will come across challenges, but these don’t really change anything aside from showing a little cutscene that goes little beyond “my band is better than yours”. But you’re never shown a score to beat or any sort of competitive element, it will still be a normal performance with the only exception being a crowd pleasing meter. There’s not even any kind of encouraging word at the end to tell you if you did better than the other band.
As far as the sound goes, the songs come through very clear. Unfortunately, they’re really not my style and annoyed me quite a bit. L.A. (L.A. L.A L.A. L.A.), Taxi Cab (T-t-taxi cab) and Crazy Car (Cra-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-ay-zy car) were particularly annoying, the repetition was really driving me nuts. The lyrics weren’t all that great, and the singing is definitely nothing to be proud of. I would not call this “talent”, that’s for sure.
So yes, this is definitely a game for fans of the Nickelodeon show and the band’s music. And for that, it surprises me there isn’t a jukebox feature to add the 15 songs to a playlist and use the DS as a music player. It’s worth noting that the PS2 and Wii versions come bundled with a microphone and contain 25 songs, which means your little gamers will probably get more enjoyment out of the karaoke element.
Overall, this is something that will only work for fans of The Naked Brothers Band. I think that with other music, the game would have worked for me a lot better, since the mechanics are those of a simple rhythm game that actually synchronizes the beats and voice notes with the songs. Although there is no actual voice acting for the cutscenes (text only) and the characters seem a little blocky, it really does well as a rhythm/music game and is appropriate for the target age group. And better yet, no one shows up naked.
Special thanks to Kristina Kirk and THQ for providing a copy of this title.