Rock Band

"Finally a game that lets me use my 3 months of drum lessons."

When I heard about Rock Band I thought it was just a knock off of the upcoming Guitar Hero 3. Boy was I wrong. Let me start out with a little background. After Guitar Hero 2 (I'll abbreviate GH1 and GH2 for both from now on.) the developers left for a different company. Leaving the original label (who still had rights to the guitar hero series) to give development to Neversoft. Well GH3 sucked so I picked up Rock Band in hopes it would make up for it, and make up for GH it did.

Sound 10/10 Usually in my reviews sound gets a little snippet because frankly I don't care about sound too much unless it blatantly is so horrible you can't stand it. Well this being a musical game and all it will get a bit longer section. They did a good job picking music that will appeal to every generation including artists from the 70's to the modern day. There's nothing like playing KISS and following it up with Radiohead, only to finish of the night with Soundgarden. This time around they got master tracks, so instead of saying "As made famous by *insert artist*" it just says *insert artist*. Although they did have to record some songs their own, the majority are master tracks. A thing I liked was the inclusion of more then just the generic guitar twang when you don't play the games set notes. For example on drums you can hit whatever drum pad you want and it will make a sound that corresponds with that drum, for a certain time before the song starts. Even then in the middle of the song you have freestyle bars that activate your overdrive, we'll talk about that later, the freestyle bars allow you to play a short solo of whatever you want all you have to do is end it with a symbol crash to activate your overdrive.

Gameplay 10/10 This is your standard scrolling screen denoted with marks telling you what to press in order to play the song. This time around to spice it up, for the Guitar they've included solos, complete with a tracker that tells you how good you did on the solo, tambourines for the singer, executed by hitting the mic with your hand like you were playing DDR. And the aforementioned freestyle bits to activate the drums star power. A real treat though is at the end of certain songs you can go on a finishing solo allowing you to even further live out your dreams of playing live on stage. Basically you go crazy and try to yell, strum, and bang as many notes as you see fit to get the most points.

Graphics 10/10 Unlike in GH the models actually match the song, so you wont see your guy shredding his guitar on a slow song. Which is nice because it seemed so silly to have your guy going crazy while you occasionally hit a few notes. Now you can completely customize your character as you see fit, buying clothes, instruments, haircuts, tattoos, piercings ETC ETC. You want to have a green haired rocker wearing a face mask and spikes on his shoulder? Go ahead. You wanna create a teeny little 100 pound female singer? Go ahead this game lets you do it all. In fact sometimes I find myself passing away my drumsticks (my instrument of choice) just so I can watch my tailor-made character beat out a song.

Multiplayer 10/10 Here is the real treat not only can you if have all 4 peripherals hook up with your buddies for a midnight jam session, but you don't even have to be at the same house, you can do it via internet. It's basically the create a band function from single player.....but with 4 people!! You select a name, are added to the leader boards and compete with other bands to see who really is the best. The leader board is like any record labels hit board. If you are number 1 you rock, but don't be surprised if some young upstarts come knock you off. Another great thing is they are constantly adding songs (for a fee of course) for you to download of an Itunes-esque store. Which is nice because once you have perfectly memorized every setlist song on expert for all 4 instruments you really need more songs.

Last Words If you can find the money to get the whole thing, I highly suggest you do, but even if you don't find a friend and permanently move into his house. This game is too fun to pass up, and if you have a PS3 Xbox 360 or whatever other machine you can play this with not getting this game would be hampering the potential of you, your machine, and everyone in your neighborhood.

I rarely do this to games but this game gets a

10/10

Reviewer's Score: 10/10, Originally Posted: 06/02/08

Game Release: Rock Band (US, 11/20/07)