Then Guitar Hero and Rock Band happened. Music games are officially big business now, and everyone and their mother (literally) wants in. Next thing you know, you're boycotting the Grammys and defiantly tattooing the word "sellout" on your forehead. Battle of the Bands for Wii is THQ's entry into the rock music arms race—but is it a worthy innovator on the scene, or just a trendwhore leaping onto the bandwagon?

Loved
Awesome Musical Mashups: Battle of the Bands is a "musical combat" game, meaning two bands from different genres square off to try and hit the right notes in the same song. Because of the range of musical genres to pick from—rock, country, hip hop, marching band and Latin—players have the opportunity to hear each of the game's 30 tracks covered in any one of these five musical styles. The quality of the covers is really thorough—right down to Spanish-language lyrics in the Latin versions, a lovely touch. Going up against a friend or the CPU, the song you're playing will periodically switch back and forth from your version to your opponent's, which feels frenetic, silly and fun.

Decent Song List: This is always a matter of opinion, of course - after all, many rhythm game connoisseurs prefer cool original songs that play well to any popular song. In this case, songs like "Insane in the Brain," "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Mama Said Knock You Out," for example, were all clearly chosen to work well with each of the different cover band styles, and it's fun to hear new takes on solid popular music.

Hated
The Controls: Are you tired of waggle for its own sake yet? The game's control scheme, which asks you to jerk the Wii remote left, right or down (depending on the direction indicated) in time with the music, doesn't serve the genre and becomes boring after just a few tunes. Moreover, the Wii remote sensitivity doesn't feel quite right here - for a keep-the-beat game, being just a little bit off is a total dealbreaker.

The "Battle" Thing: You don't just keep the beat in Battle of the Bands. Chaining accurate notes fires a special weapon at the enemy, who's also firing at you. You can push the Wii's B button to block, and you and your opponent only gain points if you hit one another. This method of scoring, however, feels tacked on, and distracts from the music.

The Aesthetics: Oh my goodness, it's hard on the eyes. If a froth-mouthed fanboy wants ammunition for his "glorified GameCube" argument against the Wii, he would be well-served to screencap this game. It's almost inexcusably low-fi.

The Characters: Guitar Hero III's goofy character designs took some knocks in the court of public opinion for their Muppet-ish proportions and stylized looks. Battle of the Bands' characters are even more exaggeratedly cartoonish - but that's less of a problem than the fact that some points of view might find them borderline offensive. The country bands are white trash hicks, the hip hop groups are thuggish and cash-obsessed, and the dialogue that opposing bands exchange before they fight contains humor that plenty of people will just find tasteless.

The Clone Factor: Imagine this: two scrolling fretboards with dots on them oppose one another on the screen. No, it's not the market leader, it's Battle of the Bands! True, that's what a guitar looks like, and a band game is bound to have guitars. But the game board is perhaps the most blatant example of the game's knocked-off, "me too" vibe.

There are a few reasons to love rhythm and music games - the joy boost you get from feeling as if you're actually playing, like with Guitar Hero or Rock Band; endearing periphery, a là Gitaroo Man, or utterly satisfying beat-keeping, as in Elite Beat Agents. Battle of the Bands lacks any of these points in its favor, unfortunately.

It's a shame, because the music is quite well-done and the core concept is encouragingly creative. The simple gameplay might be more enjoyable to younger kids or casual gamers who might be less inclined to mind the imperfections—but the crude dialogue would likely be a turnoff for casual fun-seekers, and it's not really suitable for young ones.

Battle of the Bands was developed by Planet Moon, published by THQ and was released on April 21. Retails for $49.99. Available on Wii. Played single player story mode to completion, and a few levels of local two-player battle.

They were showing of the multiplayer capabilities of the game which meant I was pitted against one of the game's developers. Each player chooses from a number of "bands" each with its own different style and type of music. Then a song is picked from a rather extensive song list although admittedly I only recognized a few titles like "Mama Gonna Knock You Out" and "One Thing Leads To Another." Once the song is picked you are presented with two Guitar Hero like fret boards with the now familiar scrolling dots representing the notes. But, instead of hitting buttons on a plastic guitar, you flick the Wii remote in rythm the direction of the arrow that the little dot has on it. It seemed a little weak and gave me the same feeling I got when playing Boogie. Rather unfulfilling. Every once in a while you could gather firepower or bombs and a little symbol representing that weapon would appear above one of the moving dots. If you flicked in rhythm at the correct time, you would send the weapon over to the rival band, knocking off portions of their points. By the end of the song, the band with the most points is declared the winner.

If this all sounds confusing and weird to you, welcome to the club. It's exactly the same way I felt after finishing playing. My buddy I was with actually quite enjoyed so I'm sure the game will find an audience somewhere, but certainly not with me.

The latest gamer Battle of the Bands is being hoted by the good folks behind God of War II.

HOW IT WORKS: Musicians should go to (www.myspace.com/godofwar) to register for the contest and upload their song onto the God of War II MySpace entry page. All musical entries will be available for fans to listen to. Fans will be encouraged to vote for their favorite song - musicians are encouraged to get their fans, friends and family to go to the site to vote for their song. There are three rounds.

Round 1 "The Beginning" - Starting OCTOBER 11 - Musicians can log on and post their own recording on the official entry site. Fans can listen to all the entries and then vote for their favorite. The top fifty vote getters will make it to Round 2.

Round 2 "The Semis" - The top 50 songs/vote getters from Round 1 will be whittled down to the top 10 songs by the development team behind the creation of God of War II. They will pick their ten favorite songs that best embody the spirit of the game and potentially deserve a place on the official soundtrack.

Round 3 "The Finals" - The top 10 will be announced on the website and fans will be encouraged to listen to the top 10 and vote for their favorite. The song with the highest number of votes will win and it will be featured on the God of War II soundtrack alongside other major recording artists (recording artists to be announced).

Contest ends on Nov. 8. My interest in this contest ends... now. Brian Crecente