Oh the music genre of gaming, instead of being a fad in Japan it has actually turned into a viable moneymaking video game for next-gen publishers. Over the years there have been countless attempts at creating a game for the overall music genre but the two that really struck gold were Activision’s Guitar Hero franchise and Sony’s Sing Star franchise. Both did a great job at capturing one small corner of the musical genre but neither gave a complete, overall experience. EA and MTV Games surprised everyone last year when they announced that not only was Harmonix switching teams, they were swinging for the fences with their all-new musical band game. This time the developers were not going to focus on the guitar or microphone alone, but put it all together along with a badass set of drums. Rock Band was the name of the game and it has easily been one of the most anticipated games of the year. The experience I had this past weekend with two of my friends on the guitars and my wife on vocals is something I have never experienced with a video game before. It was a lot of fun and really is the only way Rock Band should be played. While it does not do any of the four available instruments better than any other game out there the fact that it does all four in one package is the reason this game should not be ignored by any music fans out there. Let me note that there are much more detailed reviews out there of the individual instruments, doing this solo did not allow me to take as much time with each single one so this review is more of a general (overall) review of the entire game that is Rock Band.
From the day Rock Band was created it was never meant to be experienced by a single person, alone in a big house with a tall glass of red wine (or beer). Even so there is still one hell of a single player career mode, which can also be played through with a group of friends on the other instruments. The basic premise is the same as gamers have seen in the past except this time instead of being one small part of a band you are the band. To be clearer you cannot control all parts of the band, obviously, you are only one person so an instrument needs to be selected, character created, and band named. Once all this is done the normal options open up such as song and venue selection. The first thing that someone thinking about purchasing Rock Band needs to decide is what instrument they are going to play, the Special Edition is the best bang for the buck but should only be purchased if there are really 3-5 friends waiting in the shadows to play along. The four different musical options are lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and microphone. The Special Edition version of rock band ($169.99) comes with one guitar, a set of drums, and the microphone virtually giving the owner a chance to rock out with any one of the optional band members. Most likely gamers will have decided what to play long before they ever load up their first game of Rock Band. Personally I went with the drums because if the guitar were the instrument I wanted to play I would load up Guitar Hero 3 for the 360.
Most sites that review the entire bundle of Rock Band have one person on each of the different instruments, here at PlanetXbox360 our staff is a tad smaller and our budget a tad more non-existent so we are going to briefly go over each one. First up are the two different guitar options, lead and bass. Both can be played with the same guitar, the one Rock Band provides in the 360 version is no where near as fancy as the GH3 wireless one but it does the job and has a nice authentic feel to it. All of the buttons are recessed into the main bar so from the get go it’s going to feel totally different from anything you have used before. There are a couple entirely new features like some buttons on the low part of the guitar neck used for rocking out with the guitar pointed towards the sky and a cool little button that switches up what feature the whammy bar does. During the first song anyone who has played a music game before (think Guitar Hero) will instantly think they are terrible at the game, missing note after note. The reason for this is the timing of the notes and when you have to actually strum the guitar. The Guitar Hero franchise has always given gamers a small amount of lag time to hit the note, Rock Band has a zero tolerance way of doing things but after a couple songs players of the guitar will get used to it and do just fine. Overall the guitar only game is very similar to what has been done in the past and not the strongest reason to purchase Rock Band, still though it is a very strong guitar game and can be enjoyed enough if guitar is the only instrument you plan on playing. The preference between the Rock Band guitar and the wireless Guitar Hero 3 guitar is going to come down to personal taste and which one feels right in the hands of the player, no reviewer can make that decision for someone.
There are two different options when choosing which guitar to play (Lead or Bass) but it is really no choice at all; lead guitar is much more fun, has more solos, and should always be chosen in a music-playing videogame. If you are out to experience something entirely new with Rock Band than you have the choice between the microphone and the drums. Because a karaoke style game has yet to grace the Xbox 360 having the option to sing along (and be judged on it) in Rock Band is a really big deal for music fans. I actually have one of the worst voices (tone and pitch) this side of the Pacific; along with my southern accent (and lack of country songs in the game) causes me to never touch the microphone sober. After a few drinks maybe but that does not mean this game is not one hell of a karaoke game. My wife on the other hand loves the microphone option and had a great time the other night singing along to some songs she had surely never heard of before. I was on drums, one of my buddies was on lead guitar, another on bass, and my wife on the vocals. As with other karaoke type games the scoring system is based on the tone and pitch of the singer’s voice, not if they are actually singing the right words or not. Because I am unsure of whether this is done because it is more fun or because it is the only way possible it is hard to rate the microphone. All I do know is after seeing my wife play both Sing Star (the flagship karaoke game) and now Rock Band, both are very similar in singing features and fun factor.
