In its race to continue churning out Guitar Hero games at as high a rate as possible, nothing that Activision has done has been sillier than Band Hero for Nintendo DS.

After three Guitar Hero On Tour games for the DS in one year, the fourth arrives today, bearing the branding of Activision’s new family-friendly E-rated version of its music game. True to the name, Band Hero lets you play not just guitar but drums and vocals.

How? Well, Band Hero ships not only with the guitar grip controller but a rubber sleeve that fits over the DS Lite, overlaying the unit’s face buttons with four soft rubbery drum pads that you press with your thumbs.

In a word: useless. Pushing on rubber pads isn’t any different than pushing buttons, and doesn’t make the game any easier, any more fun, or any more realistic.

You can also choose to sing into the system’s microphone, if you want everyone else on the bus to scoot awkwardly away from you.

Image: Activision

Guitar works just like it does in the three previous versions: The guitar grip plugs into the Game Boy Advance slot of the DS Lit