Drum Trainer

Rock Band 2 attempts to teach those having trouble keeping time on the drums with a new drum trainer. It has a series of different drum beats ranging from basic patterns to more challenging rhythms. It also contains a freeplay mode where you can play along with any song on the 360 or PS3 HDD. It also includes a trainer to help you with your freestyle notes, just to make them sound right on with the song.

Tour Challenges

Tour Challenges require certain players or other requirements to complete. At first you compete only against those on your friend list, but it will open to the entire world if you're able to beat all of your friends. DLC is fully integrated into this mode as the challenge list will be update regularly as new DLC is released.

Battle of the Bands

With Rock Band 2 you are able to take your created band and challenge bands across the world with band leaderboards available on rockband.com.

No Fail Mode

When having a Rock Band party there maybe people with different experience in playing the game. Especially after a few drinks people might start to fail during a song and end the song for the whole band. To avoid failing a song you can activate the No Fail Mode for those people and keep playing the game together.

Breakneck Speed

The Hyperspeed Mode from the Guitar Hero games is back. You can double the scrollspeed of the fretboard for all the instruments but not the vocals. This is not considered a cheat but rather a gameplay option, because the amount and speed of the notes as well as the timing window stays the same, the notes are just more spaced out on the fretboard.

Instruments

Let there be guitar...there was guitar.

Guitar

Like its predecessor, Rock Band 2 will be available in a bundle featuring all new instrument peripherals. The new Fender Stratocaster guitar, while functioning nearly the same, has a number of improvements from the last and features a new sunburst finish. This new Strat improves on the original Rock Band guitar by having a more reliable strum bar, quieter and more responsive buttons, and a new calibration system that allows you to calibrate the audio/visual lag directly from the guitar. The guitar once again features an effects switch with five effects and the high neck solo buttons.

Drums

The new drum kit is improved in terms of functionality by offering more responsive pads with better rebound. The pads are also quieter and velocity sensitive, meaning the volume of the notes you hit in game will be determined by how hard you hit the pads. The drumset also includes a new kick pedal that will be reinforced with metal plating, offering a far more reliable and longer lasting pedal. There are also expansion plugs located on the back of the kit which allow you to plug in optional cymbal additions (sold separately). The cymbals will act as their respectively colored pads.

Ion Drums

Ion Drum Set

A drum kit that has all the features of a electric drum set will also be available for $299.99. This drum kit will work with Rock Band as a normal controller, but can also be used as a real electronic drum kit. However, an electronic drum module, or "drum brain", is needed to for this feature.

Microphone

The mic offered in the Rock Band 2 is the same as the original and functions in the same way.

Compatibility

All Rock Band instruments are compatible with Rock Band 2, and vice versa. Also, through confirmation from Microsoft and Sony for Xbox 360 and PS3 respectively, all other instrument peripherals from games such as Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Revolution will be compatible with Rock Band as well. This is not the case on the Wii due to technical differences.

Setlist

All 84 on-disc songs in Rock Band 2 are master recordings. Additionally, 55 songs may be imported from the original Rock Band setlist for a small fee.