Guitar Hero and Singstar now have some mighty competition. Rock Band combines both of these worlds, adds drums, offers a buttload of downloads and customization, and brings friends, family, and band wannabe’s together for one sweet experience. Doesn’t sound like fun to you? Get back in your cave then.
If you’re familiar with Guitar Hero or Singstar, the goals of Rock Band will seem striking similar. You, by yourself or with other players, must gain points by playing songs, and the more songs that you beat, the more songs become unlocked. Also, the higher your point ratings are, the more customizable “stuff” (guitars, clothes, characters, etc.) and songs become available. Then there are the levels of difficulty; easy, medium, hard, and expert. Obviously, the harder levels allow more points as the difficulty is increased, and often achievements at those upper levels have greater benefits and rewards.
So what makes Rock Band the same as those other games, and what distinguishes it? Same old stuff includes unlockable and purchasable content, different playable venues, leader boards, new instruments, and the power-up and point system. New fun stuff includes more character customization, leader boards including your entire band, no boss battles (only new to Guitar Hero III…sorry), and more emphasis on the band acting as a team rather than successes as an individual.
More about the team effort: previously myself and other members of the staff have experienced losers on Xbox Live attempting to show off during multiplayer and bringing the duo down due to their sloppiness and ridiculous egos. At least with Rock Band, if someone in your band sucks and is sitting in the same room as you, you can beat them with your mic., guitar, or drum sticks. You want your band to succeed, so all of the members have to be equally capable and choose a level of difficulty that is the actually feasible for them to execute.
However, if one of your band mates blows a solo or just blows a passage in general, they fail. Luckily, if one of your other band members is so kind, they can bring the loser back into the game. Three strikes and you’re out, so use those saves wisely. If your band mate sucks enough to fail the third time, then you’re screwed. Once one of the band members is totally blocked out, your band will most likely fail the song completely. It is important for all of the members to make it through the song in order to make it to the next playlist.
Characters in Rock Band are completely customizable. Everything from clothing to hair, face shape, and so on is available for customization. As I mentioned earlier, success with your band enables you to download and/or buy more options.
Now to the instruments: the $169.99 bundle is a sweet deal because it includes one guitar, set of drums plus sticks, microphone, and the game. You can buy one additional guitar for a team of four to play together. The included guitar controller is similar to the one for Guitar Hero, although it feels more like a real guitar. Without even looking at the brand name I said that the guitar looks and feels like a copy of a Fender Stratocaster, and low and behold… it has Fender Strat tattooed to the headstock. The extra buttons near the top end of the fret board (solo buttons) are really not as scary as they look; unfortunately Rock Band’s guitar parts are much less challenging than Guitar Hero’s.
The drums feel nice, and a light tap is enough to trigger a drum beat. The kick pedal works okay, but is pressed to the floor with a little difficulty. Since you have to beat the kick pedal to the floor to get it to engage, playing really begins to take a toll on your right leg after awhile. Lastly, the d-pad and 4 buttons on the Xbox version of the controller work like crap, so I had to smack the d-pad several times to get anything out of it.
The microphone works great and looks like a real audiotechnica microphone. It picks up the player’s voice really well and seems to register diction decently. No complaints here.
The set list is comprehensive with even more of a variety and original artist tracks than Guitar Hero. I feel that for younger generations (people in their early twenties) Rock Band may be better than Guitar Hero for song recognition as it offers many tracks that are more recent, with some oldies-yet-goodies mixed in.
The characters, instruments, and venues look sharp, although perhaps not as sharp as Guitar Hero. Overall both games (and Singstar if you’re more of a vocalist) are worth owning for different reasons, but getting your friends together for Rock Band “band practice” sure offers for some great times. You can even turn it into a sick drinking game if you wish…
Title: Rock Band
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3
Rating: T for Teen (Lyrics, Mildly Suggestive Themes)
Players: Up to 4, online play available
Genre: Rock Band sim…groupie sim…yodeling sim…. (rhythm game)
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