Rock Band XBOX 360

Playing Guitar Hero when it first came out, I immediately thought how cool it would be if one day they added drums and voice to make the game complete. That day finally came with Harmonix and EA releasing Rock Band. For just under $180, a large box containing the game, a drum set, guitar, and microphone can be purchased.

Putting It Together

The hardware components are mostly assembled out of the box. The microphone has no parts to assemble, just plug it into the supplied USB hub. The guitar ships with the neck of the guitar off, and it plugs into the rest of the guitar without the need for any tools. Also, the guitar strap must be easily installed. The guitar is very similar to the standard guitar hero guitars, however there are two sets of buttons on the neck, as opposed to just one set on the guitar hero guitar. The drums are the most complicated part to put together. They come in about 10 pieces, however they can be easily assembled without the need to look at the directions. The drums consist of a kick pedal, and 4 pads that you can hit with the supplied wooden drumsticks. It took me just under 30 minutes to assemble the entire thing.

Compatibility

In order to complete my dream band, I needed a bassist, and thus needed a bass. I used a Guitar Hero 3 guitar as a bass, and it worked like a champ. No issues at all using the Guitar Hero 3 guitar as a bass or a guitar in Rock Band.

I also tried to use the supplied Rock Band guitar on Guitar Hero 3, and found surprising results. The guitar would navigate the menus, however when it came time to play, it did not work. The guitar showed up in the menus as a standard controller, where the Guitar Hero 3 guitar showed up as a guitar. I am not sure what the problem is here, but the Rock Band guitar does not work with Guitar Hero 3.

Game Play

The game is a blast to play alone or with a group. In single player mode, you can chose what instrument you want to play, including the microphone. In multiplayer mode, you can select the number of players (up to 4) and what instrument each player plays. The guitar and bass play exactly like Guitar Hero, and the drums are self explanatory - just hit the color drum that is shown on the television screen.

Building a band and touring the world is the way to play this game. I experienced some strangeness when saving a players profile, and my drummer has to recreate the character every time we want to rock. I am not sure if this is pilot error, or a problem with the game, but either way it is annoying.

The songs vary from hits of the 70's to the hits of today, and are all extremely fun to play. The wide range of songs will get most people interested in this game regardless of age. As you play gigs, you gain fans and open up more venues and songs to play. I really liked the Guitar Hero method of unlocking songs, they were presented to you in a logical order. In Rock Band you must travel to different cities to see the new songs. You could be playing the same songs for hours because you missed a new song that was opened up. This is very frustrating.

Hardware

The hardware appears to be of solid quality. When opening the equipment out of the box, it reminded me of the same packing that some garbage I bought from Korea was shipped in, but the quality of the instruments appeared to be solid. This change, however, after playing for a few hours the strum bar on my guitar broke. Fortunately I had my Guitar Hero guitar around and was able to play while I waited for EA to send me a replacement.

The drums are very sturdy, and during some crazy solos I beat them pretty hard and they took it all in stride. The microphone is also of solid construction, although it is much smaller and lighter than its SingStar counterpart.

Conclusion

Overall this is a great game. The wide range of songs makes it great for entertainment at parties for people of all ages. Although my guitar broke, the hardware seems to be made of quality materials, and all pieces feel natural to play. The game play is addicting and hours feel like minutes when you are rocking out. This is not a perfect game as it is hard to figure out when and where songs are unlocked, however it is a lot of fun to play and should have a lot of multiplayer life in it. I give this game an 8 out of 10.