Rock Band

Rock Band is developed by Harmonix the guys behind Guitar Hero. This year the guys took it one step forward and introduced not only the guitar, but also drums and singing into the mix. This leads to one of the best family and friends experiences I have ever had playing a video game.

Rock Band's set up is very nice. It is set-up well and plays out well. First lets talk about the instruments themselves. The guitar control, which can also be a bass, is very much the same as the Guitar Hero controller. It has five buttons that are all color coordinated with the button you are supposed to press. The drums work the very much the same way, but you have to hit the drum set according to color as well, and use the foot-petal too. Singing is very much like a karaoke game. The words scroll across and you have to match the pitch. Playing all these together you can become a great band.

Rock Band features two playing modes: a solo tour and Band World Tour. Solo tour is essentially Guitar Hero. You can play this mode with any of the instruments. Solo tour is nice, but you really want to play Rock Band with someone else. Band World Tour is what Rock Band is all about. You and up three other friends can create a band and start touring the world. You each can create a custom character and even name your band. You start out as a little band playing in your home city, which you select. As you play more and more you unlock new cities. Eventually you will be prompted to play in a concert to unlock new traveling means such as a van or bus. This allows to play in even more cities and more places. World Tour does have it's problems. You can not play World Tour online with anyone. A major setback. You also have to move up in difficulty as you progress through World Tour. (Note: As I went through Band World Tour this was still a problem, but I believe a new patch fixed this.)

Rock Band does feature a "battle mode" called Tug-of-War, where you can face off against someone playing the same instrument. When doing this you each play a part of song and push each meter down. Once the song is over and the person who has the other person pushed all the way down is the winner. It is an interesting battle thing, but more would be nice.

You can't help but to talk about the track list in Rock Band. Rock Band features a lot of great songs already included with the game. The does feature a in game music store that allows you to buy more songs to play in Rock Band. Many great songs are available for download at reasonable prices.

Fans of Guitar Hero will find themselves at home with this one. But Rock Band does have limitations. As I mentioned no online World Tour is possible at the moment of this review. Rock Band's imitation instruments do have their limitations. The drums do not always respond and the foot petal is frail, so people with lead feet be warned.

These are only minor problems, all of which can be fixed. I recommend this to all.