Disney creates Ultimate Band

These days it seems everyone wants to be a rock star, and the success of Rock Band as well as franchises such as Guitar Hero and SingStar would seem to prove it.

Now Disney Interactive Studios has also thrown its hat into the rhythm-based game ring by announcing Ultimate Band this holiday season for the Nintendo Wii and DS.

Disney believes that the big selling point of Ultimate Band will be that it won't require any extra peripherals to play. The game will instead rely solely on the Wii Remote and DS stylus.

No specific bands or songs have been announced for the game, but Disney promises enigmatically that there will be hits from "some of the biggest names in rock, alternative, popular, emo, and indie rock music" from the 1960s to the charts today.

Ultimate Band is being developed by Fall Line Studio, which Disney set up in November 2006 to focus on Nintendo platforms. Ultimate Band is the Salt Lake City-based shop's first project.

The DS and Wii versions of Ultimate Band will have a different focus. In the Wii version, gamers will customize a rock star (lead singer, bass guitarist, lead guitarist, or drummer) and then play through his or her career, starting from gigs in a garage to international stadiums. On the DS, the game will feature a recording-studio section built into the game, which will let players create their own tunes.

Ultimate Band is due out in the US this holiday season, and is anticipated to be rated E10+ by the ESRB.