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Going into this I had zero clue as to who the Naked Brothers Band actually was, I was a bit under the impression that it was like a show for the Jonas Brothers or something along those lines, but obviously I was pretty wrong. Take it from me kids, it doesn't take long before you're that old guy who doesn't even know what's popular anymore.

From what I could understand based on the game, Naked Brothers Band is a TV show from Nickelodeon, featuring a variety of mid-teen musicians. There were six playable in the entire game, five on instruments and one vocalist. The game itself is designed to a music rhythm game in the same vein as popular titles like Guitar Hero and Rock Band. However, the license here is only for the music of the band featured, so if you're not into their music, I can tell you right now that this game isn't going to be for you.

That said, even if you are into their music, it's probably not going to be the game for you. The actual gameplay doesn't make use of all the peripherals we've grown used to from the other titles, instead, the version I had only made use of a microphone, which was included with the game, and also completely optional. Everything is controlled via the nunchuk and remote, and the mechanics at play are pretty basic. Each instrument has their own particular control scheme, but the string based ones are all pretty similar to each other. Cello, Bass, and Guitar have a bar at the bottom of the screen set to mimic the string layout of the instrument. To the left you have a pointer that you need to match up with the incoming lines of notes from the right. If a note is on the middle string, you need to have the pointer in the middle and so on. You can alternate between the three middle strings (using Guitar as an example here), by simply pressing up on the nunchuk, or you can hold down a button and move to the top and bottom most strings. It's a super simple formula, and the lack of any real difficulty keeps it from ever becoming interesting. The other instruments, Keyboard and Drums, don't fare much better than this either, so regardless of which instrument you choose, chances are you'll be bored with it after the first song.

Using the microphone for vocals doesn't seem to be all that accurate, in fact you can get away with just making noise during the word parts and it'll most likely give you a pass. It was really difficult for me to try and nail down the pitch on the normal mode though, something I don't have too much difficulty with in Rock Band. However, the game would always keep my multiplier going, so I didn't technically "miss" the note. I was confused as to how this actually worked, since my final score on vocals was a far cry from 100%. If you want, you can just opt to use the nunchuk/remote controls for this section too, and it plays out pretty much like the stringed instruments.

The main gut of the game resides in a story mode that details the band starting out a world tour, without the majority of it not yet booked. When you begin the game you'll only have one venue unlocked, and you'll need to play more and more songs to unlock the other locations. Also, you can't really pick an instrument or character and stick with that thru the entire game, it actually makes you play as everyone at one point or another, so when you begin you'll be introduced to drums or guitar, and then for another song you might need to play bass, cello, vocals and so on. Certain songs will allow you to pick from multiple options, but in the beginning it slowly introduces you to all the different band members. The story itself is pretty basic, and not all that interesting if you have no real knowledge of the show/band going in.

Also, the music selection is obviously not meant for me, and it most likely won't appeal to the 20 something gamers out there. I'm sure there are Naked Brothers Band fans out there of all ages, but this is definitely a game that's been geared towards the younger crowd, both in appeal and gameplay, so I'm not going to mark against the music that much. I will say, however, that while it's meant to be positive and clean for the younger crowd, it also feels a bit mindless and definitely lacks any kind of substance. If I had kids I would rather they listen to music that might make them think rather than this cheery pseudo-pop stuff.

Visually the game doesn't do anything interesting, and while you're going to be paying more attention to whatever on-screen directions you're supposed to be following, Guitar Hero and Rock Band have both proved that you can still have a lot of stuff going on in the background, and if you have someone watching this game they're not going to be nearly as entertained with the low quality graphics that are shown here. Cut scene work isn't much better, and while the Wii isn't know for HD style graphics, the whole thing reeks of a PS2 port (which I believe it is, since it released for PS2 as well), and I really wish that developers would try to utilize the hardware a bit more for these multiple system games other than just tacking on a slightly new control scheme every time.

Basically, I didn't care for The Naked Brothers Band at all, and even if you are a fan of the show or band, I can't suggest picking this up. The game itself just isn't fun to play, and while I'm a big fan of music games, this one feels less based on rhythm and more so on your ability to match a pointer up with a line. It's simple and mindless, much like the music the game is based on.