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Rock Band (X360)

• Developer: Harmonix
• Publisher: MTV Games
• Genre: Music & Dance
• Official Website: http://www.rockband.com
• Score: 5 of 5: Purchase

Rock Band is aimed at those of us that drum on the steering wheel in the car while passengers play air guitar and sing at the top of their lungs. It's for those that own and love both Guitar Hero and Singstar but wish there was some way, any way, to combine the two games at a party. It's for people that love fun, love to play in groups, and can never get enough solos.

Rock Band is four games all rolled into one. It's a single-player guitar game, a single-player drum game, a single-player karaoke game, and a four-player party game featuring lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals. It's completely reasonable to pick up the entire package for the multiplayer experience alone because that's where Rock Band really shines, and that's where you'll have the most fun with it. Sure, it feels good to make it through a particularly difficult solo by yourself, but it is oddly better to fail the solo while playing with friends, have one of them save you by going into overdrive, and going on to earn four stars on the song as a team.

Mechanically, Rock Band is easy to learn but extremely difficult to master. Both lead and bass guitar work as in three of Harmonix's previous releases: Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero II, and Guitar Hero Encore: Rock the 80s. Hold down the appropriate fret button and strum as a note crosses the line. Strum 10 notes perfectly and get an increased multiplier. Drums work similarly, in that notes fall toward a line and need to be played as the cross. Drums are easily the star of the show here, and they're extremely true to life. By the time you've finished the expert drum tour you'll be ready to pick up a real set of drums and join a band. Between the four drum pads and the bass pedal you'll be busy for a long time - especially if you ever hope to earn 100% on a song at the expert difficulty. Vocals work like Singstar, Karaoke Revolution, and the like. Sing at the proper pitch to earn points, and don't worry about the octave, ladies. If you know the words and the notes you'll be able to sing Radiohead's "Creep" with the best of them.

Rock Band, like most other rhythm games, requires the use of specialized hardware. Any USB microphone (or Xbox 360 headset) will work for vocals. There's a microphone included in the bundle, and it both works well and comes with a suitably long cord. The included drum kit stands up to a beating well, but unless you play with the television volume cranked up (and you should be!) you'll always hear the tik-tik-tik of the drummer as he beats wooden sticks on the electronic drum kit. The bass pedal is responsive, and just like with real drums, it's a perfectly valid play style to default your pedal to the down position. The included guitar, a plastic replica of the Fender Stratocaster, is the weakest part of the instrumental lineup. The Strat differs from Guitar Hero guitars in several ways, but two are especially significant. The strum bar is mushy, and it makes the guitar difficult to play - especially on difficult non-solo passages. It works well enough for easy and medium, but speed pick sections are pure, unadulterated torture to play with the included guitar. Thankfully, the Guitar Hero II and III guitars are both compatible with Rock Band. The second difference is an addition set of solo frets much closer to the base of the guitar. These are used during solos and remove the requirement to strum notes - essentially turning every solo into an extended hammer-on/pull-off sequence. For some songs (Green Grass and High Tides, I'm looking at you) this is a life-saver, but most of the time the benefit afforded by the solo frets isn't worth muddling through songs with the mushy strum bar.

Rock Band's headlining feature is Band World Tour, the local multiplayer mode. In it, you and up to three friends tour the globe and perform individual songs and sets of songs while earning fans, money, transportation, and lackeys. At first you'll play primarily single songs and two to three song sets, but before long you'll be able to play 10, 12, 15, or 58(!) songs as a set. Sets are either themed, request (randomly created by the game), or make-your-own, and each are an absolute blast to play with three friends.

Delivering such a stellar multiplayer experience comes at a price, however. The single player game suffers at the expense of the multiplayer. Songs are fun to play as a team because there's always something going on. Whatever is going on might not always be your assigned part (no drums during a guitar solo, for example), but your team is still working to deliver a great song to the crowd and earn five stars. That extended guitar solo is a lot less fun while playing the solo drum career. There are no band-mates to cheer on and no friends to talk to. All there is is waiting for the next time the drummer has anything to do, and the same thing applies to all parts. Outlaw's "Green Grass and High Tides" is a fitting career-ender for lead, bass, and drums, but the vocalist is bored throughout 80% of the song.

Rock Band isn't perfect (no game is), but it's easily the most fun rhythm game out there. A solid soundtrack, plentiful and regular downloadable content, and the ability to play online (quickplay only, no online Band World Tour sadly) make Rock Band the party game to own. If you like rhythm games and multiplayer then Rock Band is a must buy title that will keep you busy for quite some time.

Jan 8, 2008 | 7 comments
Justin Last