Speaking of the competition, when asked if he saw musical juggernauts like Guitar Hero and Rock Band as rivals, Huntsman revealed that the development team took a very Nintendo-esque approach to making the game. They don’t even see themselves in the same category as the bigger games, since the target demographic is so different. “In my opinion,” he said, “[we have an] entirely different audience.” He continued: “We’re peripheral free, and that was a conscious decision to play to the strengths of the Wii.”

“We recognized where certain competitors are. If you imagine making a grid, and you plot what [kind of content] that certain audiences go to, we always made a conscious decision to stick towards the other side of that.”

And of course, a little bit of that “everyone’s a gamer” ethos fits in there as well. “We wanted to make game that’s a little more accessible, so that hardcore gamers like us can play on hard and do all the crazy stuff, and you can give the controller to your kids, or your nephews, or your mom and get them off of the couch and jumping around on easy. And you can do it together as a family and have a really good time.”

There’s also a DS version in the works, which will feature connectivity (don’t worry, it’s not that GBA-Gamecube crap all over again) and similarly innovative controls. “You play the game using the stylus to pluck or strum the guitars, to beat on the drums, to crash on the symbols. It’s all done through the stylus and also the D-pad to change your chords.” Said Mark McArthur, who acknowledged that a lot of the feedback from last year’s excellent (and really overlooked, given the license) Hannah Montana game went into consideration for Ultimate Band’s portable version. He also explained the title’s music creation feature – Studio Mode: “you can choose a genre – say a rock or jazz or blues rhythm going, and lay that down, and then kind of play notes over that. We’ve made it really simple for kids to record pre-made loops... or if you want to get more advanced, you can actually go in there and play, say, a rhythm guitar track and record that, then go back in and lay down the drums, lay down the bass...” While it won’t give KORG DS-10 a run for its money as a music synthesizer, this certainly sounds like a very cool little feature.

As for the proper tracklist, the team made an effort to get a good variety that would appeal to a wide demographic on both iterations of the game. They threw in some classic rock, some more pop-influenced songs, and tracks from bands that are just starting to break. Said Huntsman: “We spent a lot of time, actually, just scanning the whole spectrum of rock & roll, and doing a lot of focus testing in terms of what people are into and listening to. And then of course, sneak in some of our own favorites too.”

While there are still a number of question marks regarding the game’s future (will the gesture-based gameplay fare better than Wii Music’s?), Fall Line and Disney were certainly smart to avoid the pitfall of trying to be a “me-too” rhythm game. We’ll find out how it all comes together soon, when we (that is, the gaming community) weed through the hits and misses of the season like so many re-gifters.

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