Since these games are so similar I figured I'd roll both reviews into one. Anyone who is familiar with video games knows that growing popularity of music games lately. This started with Guitar Hero and now it has extended to Rock Band.
Rock Band was the first to jump into the arena of having instruments other than the guitar. The game came out of a split that caused the developers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band to separate. So now instead of being from the same company they are going against each other. For right now I believe Rock Band is winning the battle.
If you don't know about these games they are pretty simple. You are given a song, sometimes a cover sometimes the original, and you either hit the buttons on the guitar controller to match the ones on the screen or you hit the drum pads or sing along. All 3 of these are a lot of fun and can occupy you for hours.
Let's talk about the instruments themselves. First off there is the guitar that comes with the game. For the 360 version it is a wired version. It is modeled after the Fender Stratocaster and looks the part. On top of the neck are the fret buttons then at the bottom of the neck there is another set of buttons. These can be used during solo sections to play the notes without hitting the strum bar. On the base of the guitar is the standard buttons as well as a switch to add effects to the songs. Personally I did not like this controller at all. The buttons felt sticky and the strum bar was a little more stiff than it needed to be. Also when you transfer down to the lower buttons you'll find yourself messing up when it's time to go back to the higher set. So right now I play with the Xplorer controller that I got with Guitar Hero II.
Now comes the drums. A lot of people have complained about them but I haven't noticed anything wrong with them. Either people get the pads not working or the foot pedal breaks. The only thing I've noticed is you have to hit the pads as close to center as possible to get the best response. The red pad seems to be the most guilty of this and even has a sweet spot for the faster notes. The pedal itself feels pretty good but on harder songs the response just isn't as fast as it should be. Now there are quite a few mods that you can buy to change out the pedal or the pads and if you are an expert level player this is probably the way to go. Also avoid the drumsticks that come with the game unless you like the lighter feel.
The mic is pretty simple and is just your standard USB microphone. When you sing a song it's not about getting the lyrics right and it's all about pitch. So lots of times you'll find yourself singing monotone or really high or really low. And on some songs where there is no pitch all you have to do is get the pacing right.
When it comes to the gameplay both games are put together pretty well. I won't go too deep into the track lists but they are both pretty solid. The only complaint I have is that there are about as many emo and alternative rock songs as there are classic rock songs. I like stuff like Jimmy Eat World and Fall Out Boy but these should be set aside to give us more classic songs. Of course in the future there is the promise of a lot more downloadable content. Also if you have both games Rock Band offers you the chance to transfer all but a few of the songs to your hard drive to be played on Rock Band 2 and all your downloaded songs can be played on both games.
A lot of people have said that this game is easier than Guitar Hero and they are right. The first Rock Band even on expert most songs won't give you too difficult of a challenge on the guitar. But there are a few that will really test your skills. Now Rock Band 2 they caught onto this and put in more songs that give a bigger challenge. Another thing people complained about was the simple bass lines and playing bass was boring but like the guitar they addressed this in Rock Band 2. But if you are someone who can fly through Raining Blood on expert then these songs won't give you much trouble. As far as the drum difficulty that has been stepped up a bit too.
In the game you create a character and a band to go along with them. In Rock Band there is a solo career where you just go through a list of songs of increasing difficulty. Unfortunately you have to create a different character for each instrument. In Rock Band 2 the one character you create can play every instrument. Now when it comes to creating the character they give you quite a few clothing, instrument, and hair options. You can even deck your rocker out in lots of tattoos and face paint.
The meat of the game is the Band World Tour mode. In Rock Band this mode was multiplayer only. But in Rock Band 2 you are given the option to play it solo on any instrument. In Rock Band 2 they also added challenges. These are a set of songs you have to beat with a specific instrument and they increase in difficulty as you go. The other thing is the Battle of the Bands. This is where you are given a task and a set of songs and you try to post the best score you can. This is fun but I have found it always matches me up against someone with a really low score so I blow them out of the water. Also in some cases unless you are running a full band you don't have much of a chance of cracking the top level of scores. But the game tries to keep these fresh as they are rotating new battles in every few days.
In the Band World Tour mode you take your band to venues all over the world and play songs. Your score earns you more fans and money and the eventual chance to become a rock legend. The ultimate test is the Endless Setlist. This consists of every song that comes with the game played back to back. Now in Rock Band the game will instruct you at a certain point to increase your difficulty to earn more fans so if you are playing on hard you will earn 0 fans unless you go up to expert. In Rock Band 2 you still earn fans but there is a cap around 179,000 so even if you play the 80 songs in the Endless Setlist you will only earn 179,000 fans but if you do expert you will earn somewhere around 25,000,000.
One thing that is nice about these games is being able to watch your band in the background. In the Guitar Hero games all the characters seemed a bit stiff but in the Rock Band games they strut around and a look a lot more realistic.
A lot of people said this is the type of game that is most fun when played with other people. I will admit that but I disagree with people that say it isn't fun alone. I personally have enjoyed many hours playing the game by myself.
As for where the series will go from here I really don't have any idea. Guitar Hero is going the way of releasing artist specific games, such as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith that was released earlier this year. There is also the promise of Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Kiss. The only thing on the horizon for Rock Band is Rock Band: Japan but that probably won't be released in the states. But I personally think so long as they can keep putting out good downloadable songs the game is as good as it's going to get.
My score (Rock Band): 8.5/10
My score (Rock Band 2): 9.0/10
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