Rock Band: Special Edition (Xbox 360)

Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix
Release Date: 11/20/2007
Genre: Music
Number of Players: 1-4
ESRB Rating: Teen


Anyone who may have looked at my Gamer Card can see that I have indeed played Mass Effect. Don't worry. A review is coming on that game as well, but probably not till the end of the week. The reason, of course, is that this weekend I have been kept busy playing Rock Band.

Let me start off by saying, if you have a 360, love rhythm games, and can only buy one game ever for your 360... then buy Rock Band. Here's the link.

If you're like me, you're going to look at the price tag and think... I can use the head set for my microphone, and I already have two Guitar Hero guitars, do I really want to pay $110 extra just to get a drum set? The answer is yes. Not only do you get the drums, but you also get a guitar that feels more like a real guitar and, the microphone included in the $170 bundle is way better than using your headset.

The game play is very similar to the Guitar Hero games, but if you played Guitar Hero you'll notice that the guitar and bass parts appear to be cut down. I feel like this gives a more realistic feel, since the guitar/bass isn't used to just fill space. This also makes the guitar and bass easier to play. It is still tough learning to include the orange button, but it seems like Rock Band has looked to ease in the orange button when stepping up to hard in a way that will allow you to spend less time in practice mode, and more time rocking.

The microphone measures your voice against the singer's voice from the song. If you're sharp, than an arrow will appear above the line that shows what note you should be singing. If you're flat, then the arrow will appear below. If you're right on, then your arrow will be in the middle of the line. Since they don't really adjust for male or female singers, it can sometimes be hard for a guy to sing a song like Maps, and at the same time, it can be a little tough for a girl to sing something like In Bloom.

The drums, which are my personal favorite, is probably the one instrument in Rock Band that most closely mimics the real instrument. While there is a difference between difficulty levels, you are using all of the drums in each level, including the kick pedal. This makes it harder to just jump in and start playing the drums, but at the same time, it makes it easier to move from one difficulty to another when you're ready. The hardest thing here is trying to move your foot independently of your hands. I feel like Rock Band does the same for the people who drum their fingers to the beat of their favorite songs what Guitar Hero originally did for air guitarists.

Of course even sliced bread has crust, and here is Rock Band's crust. The durability of the instruments. There have been countless reports of the drum's bass pedal breaking, or the drums not registering a hit on a fast beat. There have also been some people having trouble with the guitar only registering upward strumming. While not as common, there have been people who have had trouble with the included USB hub (my only problem is that the attached cable isn't long enough) and trouble with the microphone.

To Harmonix's credit, they have an excellent return policy set up, and while replacement parts were taking a long time to ship when the game first released, by the time I ran into problems I had my parts within a week. I'm also happy to report that I have not had any trouble with the new parts that were shipped either. So that being said, by this time, the instruments you receive today will most likely be free of defects.

So now that I've talked about the instruments, let me talk about some of the main reasons I enjoyed this game.

Band World Tour - This game mode allows you to create your band, pick a leader and play your way to the top. The practice of touring is kept somewhat realistic, in that you play gigs to earn cash for clothes, new hairstyles, etc. You enter competitions for various things such as Vans, Buses, Jets, etc. to allow you to play in locations further and further away from your band's home town. The only downside to this mode is that in early reviews, it sounded as though you would be able to create your band with a mix of local, and on-line members. Unfortunately, this does not appear to be the case. Also, until you've unlocked a lot of songs, this mode can be quite repetitive.

Ever growing list of tracks - It seems like every week, or at least every couple of weeks there have been new tracks released for Rock Band. While the tracks aren't always favorites of everyone, it does show that the Rock Band library is growing, and with the release of full albums in the future, this feature will just get better and better.

Online play - So, this isn't really that big a feature, and in fact, it's less big once they removed Band World Tour from the online options, but there's still a Band Quick Play, and online head to head. Who knows... maybe they can add the Band World Tour sometime in the future?

So that's the basics, and here's the rundown.

Graphics – Obviously this isn't where they focused their efforts, but the graphics are pretty good. The venues all seem to have their own theme, and you're given quite a bit of options when it comes to creating your character.

Sound – I had planned on removing this category but honestly, sound is pretty important to a music game. The songs sound great, but while there's an option to remove the original vocals, you still can't hear the person singing through the TV so well. (I'm only using my TV's speakers, so this may change with a real system). Another thing to comment on is that the drums are loud. I mean, seriously... hitting the drums can in some cases overtake any sound coming out of the TV. There are various mods listed online to try and quiet down the striking of the drum pads, but I haven't tried any, so I can't say how well they work.

Gameplay – Ha. Is this even a question at this point? This game is crazy fun. This is one of the few games that my wife enjoys playing, so that should say something. Each of the instruments play differently, and so it's easy for everyone to find something they like. Even on easy the most tone deaf vocalist can feel like Pavarotti.

Lasting Appeal – This game has it in spades. Once you get tired of playing all the songs that are available with the game itself on guitar, you can switch to singing, or to the drums. Once that gets boring, you can bet they'll have another long list of songs available to purchase on the Xbox Live market place. At $2 a song, or $5 a 3-song pack, it's fairly affordable, and at least worth picking up a few of your favorites when they become available.

Overall – If you haven't guessed by now, I'd give this game my vote for game of the year. There have been some people ask me before when trying to decide between Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3, which one to buy. After purchasing both of these games, and giving them both a fair shot, I can honestly say that I believe Rock Band to be leaps and bounds over Guitar Hero 3.