Rock Band Rocks
If you love music, and love games, this is a must.
I can't quite think of a game that gives a better 'feel good' feeling during play than this one. The concept is simple, you use instrument-shaped controllers (guitar, drum-pad) to a stream of notes that more-or-less relate to the song that's being played (depending on difficulty). The execution is near perfect--when your skill picks up you start to genuinely feel that you're playing the song, and if you like the song that you're 'playing', this is near perfection.
Graphics-wise it's not too 'outstanding', but its not the focus in this type of game anyway. The graphics are fun and contribute directly to the focus of the game, that is, to have fun playing the songs. There are several 'stage performances' of the characters/rockers that do capture the nuance of being there at a concert and thats just awesome.
Sound-wise there's nothing to complain about; that being said, if you have a 'large' stereo sound system hooked up to the system it'll make the experience that much better. There's a little bit of an influence of the track that you're actually playing (for instance, if you're playing the bass part, bass is amped up a bit so you can hear it better over the other parts)...and that's a good thing.
Features are great, though there are several points against it that are well known: 'World Band Tour' mode, which lets you make a full band with local friends is great, but the lack of an online version of this mode is sorely missed. Downloadable Content (DLC) is by far its best feature, that being able to purchase (with Marketplace points at about 180 per song, usually) more songs for the game, adds an almost inexhaustable replay value to this game.
The song list (including DLC) is vast and very wide-spread, covering classic rock oldies (my personal favorite) to punk to modern rock.. it's all there. As far as what's good or bad, that's purely dependent on what kind of music the player likes and is so beyond the scope of this review.
Overall this game is just awesome, and if you like games and music it's a simple MUST-HAVE. It would have a full 5 stars if it wasn't for a few issues regarding characters (being stuck with a particular instrument) and the lack of an onlline band world tour mode.
