What Is the Difference Between Band Hero and Guitar Hero?
Activision could have been more specific by calling it Family Hero or Pop Hero but instead named it "Band Hero", resulting in confused gamers wondering why Guitar Hero World Tour wasn't called Band Hero, since it was the first GH game to feature full band support.
There Are Two Distinct Versions of Band Hero – Console (Xbox/PS2/3/Wii), and Nintendo DS
Band Hero for the console systems has virtually identical features and functionality as we examined at length in the 5Frets.com Guitar Hero 5 review. Basically, it is Guitar Hero 5 but Rated "E" instead of Teen/14, and focusing on pop songs targeted at the casual gamer and families. You won't find any screaming death metal songs in this game whatsoever, instead you'll see pop icons like Fall Out Boy, Spice Girls, Hilary Duff, OK Go, and The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. (Check out the Band Hero Song List: 65 Tracks for Xbox 360, PS2, PS3, Wii.)
The graphics have been re-themed to feature a lot of bright, colorful venues like a shopping mall or a concert stage loaded with neon colors.
Band Hero DS is More Like Guitar Hero World Tour For Nintendo DS
Nintendo DS already received 3 Guitar Hero: On Tour titles based around the clever "Guitar Grip" controller peripheral, selling over 4 Million copies of the games. However, they were all based on Guitar/Bass. And wouldn't you know, the DS has a microphone built in. To make a full band, that leaves only…
The Drums!
With the new Band Hero DS drum skin controller peripheral, you can now play a full 4 player DS band. (Kotaku.com: The Band Hero DS Drum Peripheral Revealed) The Guitar Hero DS series remains exclusive to DS Lite (the original DS "Phat" can likely still handle Guitar/Bass as it could in the other 3 Guitar Hero On Tour games). In other words – no DSi compatibility.
DS Developers Vicarious Visions and hardware team RedOctane are showing some serious love for Nintendo's most popular console here with Band Hero DS. After GHOT: Modern Hits, many thought the Guitar Hero DS series would either end, or move on to DSi editions, but clearly the enormous installed base of DS Lites out there proved more attractive to warrant such a significant upgrade to the Guitar Hero portable series. (Over 45 Million DS Lites have been sold, compared to only 1 Million DSis. For reference, 30 Million Xbox 360s have been sold.)
Band Hero DS Has a Different Setlist Than the Console Versions
See the 30 track Band Hero DS song list.
it looks like the drum kit in Band Hero is different from the drums in GHWT. A review on Amazon claimed the BH drum kit is "updated". Any idea if the drum kit(and other instruments) is updated?
The Band Hero guitar is the same as the GH5 (red) guitar.
The Band Hero Wii Drum Kit is definitely updated and a different model than what Guitar Hero World Tour had.
However the Xbox 360 and PS3 Band Hero drum kits shipped with the old GHWT model. I'm not sure when they are going to run out of the GHWT drum kit stock and start including the new drum kit for 360 and PS3… It's possible they already have, but you'd be lucky not to get an old stock.