User Reviews (1 - 11 of 198)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Harmonix Delivers another Slam Dunk

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 281 / 299
Date: November 20, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Let me first admit that I'm a Guitar Hero fan. I adore playing all of the Guitar Hero games, and we have multiple guitars in the house (for multiple platforms) so that we can jam together. When Harmonix turned over Guitar Hero III to another company, I was really curious what they would choose to do next. I am THRILLED with the result - Rock Band, which combines together all the fun of singing karaoke, playing guitar (lead and bass) plus DRUMS!!!

My boyfriend is in several bands, and he plays lead guitar, bass guitar and drums. I love to sing. So we have played many, many games in all of these genres (including the Donkey Kong Konga game which is surprisingly fun). We were quite interested to see how the Harmonix guys would merge these variety of instruments into a single game.

First, the instruments. The guitar is FAR better than the guitars previously released for Guitar Hero. The buttons are "full fret" making the much easier to press. You don't have that annoying ridge line. You get TWO sets of buttons in fact - one for easier guitar solo play. You have sound settings. I can't say enough about this guitar. The only thing it lacks is stickers :) Really, couldn't they include a sticker set or two, to customize the thing? A minor flaw :)

The drum set is REALLY cool. It comes with a stand and it has a very nice feel to it. My boyfriend complained a bit about the wood sticks not being smooth, but heck, you're not paying for high quality sticks here.

There is a four-plug USB hub so you can actually plug all these items into your XBox 360 :) And there's a few headset adaptors, and a microphone. We already had several of these.

Now for gameplay. The graphics are visually lovely, although really, with up to four people playing and singing, the background stuff is pretty meaningless. The screen is taken up by all of the progress bars and alert bars and so on. I do have to comment that the customization for your characters is AWESOME. You customize their style of movement (punk, rock, etc), their facial look, hair style, eye color and much more. Plus you can buy all sorts of great outfits in the store. Never mind equipment. They really went overboard in this area.

I found when I played an instrument whose track was on the far left (the lead guitar, for example) that I could easily see the "overall progress" bar showing how everyone in the band was doing. I could see that the drum guy was doing poorly and slipping down into the red. However, when *I* was playing the drums - and the visual for my drum track was on the far right - I had NO idea how well or poorly I was doing. That overall band progress display was on the far left (past the other instruments' tracks) and there was no way to watch both my own drum note list and see how I was doing at the same time. So you almost need to designate whoever is playing in that far left track as the "band alert person" to yell out if someone is doing not so well.

The band works as a unit. If for example the drums are doing poorly, but the guitarist is doing well, the guitarist can use their energy the rev up the crowd which helps everyone in the band. So the guitarist can save the drummer, for example. On the other hand, if the drummer is really bad, after a few failures, the crowd gives up. You can't have the remaining players try to play the song out.

Which brings up one of my only complaints about the game. Let's say you start a band "Asia" with the leader being a drummer. Now any time Asia wants to continue on their career, the drummer MUST BE PLAYING. In real life, band members change positions sometimes. You have a drummer who also likes to sing. But here, if you have a position set as the leader, the game can't be played (with that band and the songs it's unlocked) without that instrument being played. We found that really annoying. You should be able to say that person X now wants to play instrument Y and keep going.

Now, interestingly, my boyfriend plays the drums. He found the drum pads AWFUL to use and thought they were broken. We swapped off and he took over guitar while I played with the drums. I did a 100% performance. So it's something about the way you hit them. I *think* they have to be hit pretty close to dead center, with a sharp rap. I'm not a drummer so undoubtedly I'm not hitting them "technically right" but I am able to sail through many songs on easy with 100%. So it's a matter of getting used to how they work.

The vocal / mike track is much like any karaoke game, and you "yell" to activate overdrive. It's a lot of fun. I did try several songs with a mike stand setup so I could play guitar and sing at the same time. It was a lot of fun - but part of the mike track is "cowbells" where you're supposed to thwap the microphone in time to the beat. Unfortunately if you're busy playing the guitar or drums you no longer can thwap the microphone. I tried yelling "POP" and it worked about half the time, if I used a very snappy sound to my POP. Still, it's a shame you can't sing and play because of this.

The songs in this list are GREAT. I really love some of them, and there were few that I simply didn't like at all. It's cool that they have multiple venues per location, instead of the Guitar Hero games where there was just "one Boston" and so on. You have to actually earn a Van or Bus or whatever to move on to a new city. You actually build up a fan base as you go, and lose it if you do poorly. That is all very cool. On the down side, the progression of songs is rather odd. You can play 2 songs you like in Boston, and then go to Chicago and play the exact two songs again to earn more stars there. The songs seem to unlock slowly. I'm also not overly fond of several modes where you have no idea what songs are coming up until 2 seconds before the songs begin.

They do have a training mode and solo mode, but really you figure the great appeal of this game is to play with your friends, using the various instruments. So we found that interface - where you are stuck with a single leader, and it is very much one-person-one-instrument oriented, to be a bit frustrating. Sure, I love playing drums - but I love playing guitar too! Sometimes I love to sing. It didn't seem like it should be THAT bad to let a person switch instruments once you'd unlocked a bunch of venues and songs.

Finally, I really like that right from the start you have access to all difficulty modes, and can set them by person. So if you have a really great guitarist in your family, and someone who is perhaps younger or just getting started, the great guitarist can set themselves to difficult and the younger person can set to easy and both can have a really fun, challenging time.

I am really looking forward to new song downloads too, and imagine that could make this game last years and years and be just as much fun.

Highly, highly recommended if you can get your hands on this thing. We were there right when the store opened to get our hands on ours, and it sold out immediately. Well worth tracking down!! Note that I have photos of the instruments on my website and am happy to answer any other questions you guys have about this game.

Are you ready to rock?!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 87 / 91
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

When I first heard that Harmonix was creating Rock Band, I thought to myself, "Guitar Hero Remix". Until I heard about the mic and then the sweet drum set. So I was amped for this to come out. Then GH3 came out and all I could think of was "Dang...Rock Band better be awesome cause I just can not put GH3 down". Then I hit up my local Best Buy with a mock set-up of RB..and once I hit those sticks on those drum pads..I was in heaven. I was already going to buy RB, but now I HAD to have it.

I bought it the day it came out as soooon as my local Target opened up. Went straight home (with Kane & Lynch also...which at this time hasnt been played..heh) and began opening it up. After a few minutes of setting up (drums take a few parts to put together..nothing hard though..no tools), I was ready to go.

I started off with the drums (like probably most people). I'm gonna have to say..they are a lot tougher than I thought they were gonna be. I've never played drums in my life so it's gonna take a little time to get used to them. When I tried them at Best Buy...they had a demo that didnt include the base pedal. Well now I have to worry about stepping on that, while also worrying about where I'm slamming my two sticks at also. Sounds easy right? I really dont think so..least not yet..lol. By no means am I dogging this part though. I can see that this will be a lot of fun, especially when you start playing on Hard. On Easy the beats are so slow that I really do not feel like a rocker... I feel more like I'm some slow drummer in some jazz band. But I know it's like that to get people like myself accustomed to this new piece of equipment.

Secondly, I grabbed the new guitar. I put it on Medium and began playing a bunch of songs. I looovveee this guitar. The top fret buttons feel so good. One the edge of the green button and the orange button, there is a lift about half an inch high. So when you start playing on Hard or Expert and you start moving up and down the fret buttons trying to hit every button, you won't get lost cause you'll bump into those lifts. Definitely helps out. Also at the bottom you have 5 more fret buttons with the same color. Once a 'solo' appears on screen (the background will be a shade of blue) you can use these buttons and not even have to strum. Just hit the buttons once the button appears on the line. So much fun and you feel like even more of a rocker. The selector on the guitar has a bunch of sound effects that you can do on the fly. Pretty cool I guess, but I swear I cant hear a difference. Not saying it's not there, but I just havent heard the difference yet. The ONLY gripe I have about the guitar is the Whammy Bar. Its so dang long and almost gets in the way of my strummer. It looks very good, but I'm just not diggin it. It's not crazy bad where you would hate the guitar, but I would have liked it just a bit shorter. One last thing about the guitar. My roommate is insanely good at Guitar Hero and he is in absolute love with this new guitar and the new way it plays out on Rock Band. He doesnt even want to look at the GH guitars anymore..lol. He has issues with the whammy also though.

The Mic is next. I've never played a karaoke game before on any system. I never really cared for it (even though I do like Karaoke sometimes...when I'm drinking). I also didnt really know how it worked. Well before I stopped playing RB for a while, I decided to try it out. HOOKED. Seriously hooked on this part of the game right now. I was laughing at first while singing cause it was just funny to me, but then I really started getting into it. Then my roommate wanted to join in with the guitar. So we picked Creep and aced the crap out of it. Next thing you know we had Mississippi Queen playing and then I'm standing up and just rockin the mic. Right then I could just TELL this was going to be a very fun party game. I'm getting off track here. Ok, back on. When you sing you have to keep the pitch or tone of your voice on track with the line that shows on the screen. There is an arrow that will let you know if you are to high or to low. When it's time for your 'energy' meter (star power), you can just make any noise or statement you want to to activate it. I just usually hold out the note of the last word longer than usual to activate it...or scream ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?! (cause it always gets a laugh..lol). The only thing I dont care for is that you have to tap the mic on certain parts to make a tambourine sound or a cow bell sound. It's not bad if you are JUST singing, but I can see how that would be crap if you were playing a guitar or drum also. It doesnt HURT you if you miss those beats, but you dont get extra points. So far I love the mic, but probably cause I've never played those Karaoke games before like I said.

Although the 360 version isnt wireless cause of Microsofts greedy self (they use a proprietary wireless that they charge companies to use and Harmonix didnt want to pay for it so they could keep the PS3 and the 360 versions the same price), it's not TOOOO bad. The wires are a lot longer than the GH guitar wires. Plus the 4 port USB that comes with the game is a godsend for this game (make sure you have one more outlet for the USB plug). Hopefully they'll make some wireless stuff later.

When you start your career, you'll get to start customizing your guy or gal you want to use. Lot of different things you can do also...I was very surprised. If you ever played any of the Def Jam fighting games, then you might think back to those games like I did. Faces, Rock Styles (fighting styles on Def Jam), Hair, Height, Color, Rings, Bracelets, Pants, Shoes, Shirts, Tattoos. It's crazy. Lots of items to choose from the start and more and more as you get farther into the game. I unlocked 5 things in 5 songs I believe. I cant talk much about career mode since I stopped after my first 5 songs since I had to get ready for work. What I played though was really fun and what I've read and seen on videos (mainly from the rockbands website) its seems like it's going to be a blast.

I still love Guitar Hero. 1, 2 and 3. Not 80's, but whatever. I'm still gonna play them because of certain songs. But I think Rock Band has become my new favorite. Especially since once in a while, we have a good group of people show up to just drink and play GH. I think Rock Band is gonna replace that thanks to the 4 player support, GREAT song list, and more than just a guitar or two to play with. Actually I know it is..lol.

While you are reading this... I'm pretty sure I'm playing Rock Band. =D

***UPDATE for 22 Nov 07.***

2 more gripes about this game.

1. Harmonix seemed to use a LOT of constant repetitious notes..for example..you have to hit the blue button say...6 times in a row..then the red..6 times in a row..then back to blue..6 times in a row...then yellow..six times in a row...and on and on. I dont mind this on some songs...but I'm just saying they used it a lot this time around. Even my roommate was getting aggravated with it.

2. I believe my guitar is starting to act up like others that I have read. My strum bar after only a day is getting less responsive on the down strokes. I'm missing notes for no reason. I started using the up stroke instead and now I'm hitting ever note. I'm gonna send a request for a new guitar soon. Usually I'm not a victim of the faulty hardware that many people come across (I've never even seen a red ring of death in person on the 360...knock on wood), but this time I think I am. *sigh*

Cool stuff I like though since I first posted.

1. I figured out how to use the Guitar sound effects switch. Gotta be using star power (energy..whatever). Very fun!

2. Love how the star power adds up even while you are using it. Huge improvement over GH's.

Thats it for now.

LOVE this game...really I do. Just wish the guitar didnt start messing up. =(

***UPDATE for 23 Nov 07.***

2 really cool new things I like.

1. I REALLY love how when you are doing good during a song...the crowd starts to sing along with the song. WOW! That made me feel more like I was there than GH ever did. Very cool feature.

2. During Thanksgiving...I took my game over to a friends house. We had enough people to put a 4 player group together. Talk about A LOT of fun. 2 people never even touched GH before. Yet they had a blast playing all three instruments. The one girl I was playing with who I would have thought would've been on the mic more since she likes karaoke STOLE the drum set almost the whole time..she loved it. It was a lot of fun watching her beat the crap out of the set..lol. I was on mic most of the time since most were scared of it. Sometimes other people took the mic over, and even though they were sometimes bad..it was never embarrassing. Most of the time the other people were to engaged into their own playing or either it was so bad that it wasnt embarrassing, but just down right funny.

I had way to much fun with that game this Thanksgiving. Like I said way earlier..I knew this would be a great party game. We didnt even think about putting GH in.

All About the Drums

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 10
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I've only had Rock Band for XBox 360 one day, but I can easily recommend it to any and all. This special edition comes with everything you need to play the game - a guitar, mic, drum set and the game. There is a fourth instrument however - bass, which is played using the guitar. If you want to play guitar and bass at the same time, a second guitar is needed. Fortunately, the guitar hero guitars work well if you have them. If not, I recommend buying Guitar Hero 3 bundle for xbox360, which comes with a wireless guitar. The instruments for rock band are all wired (to USB ports on xbox 360), which can be annoying, but on the plus side, they don't require any batteries!

Thanks to Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero, singing and playing faux-guitar are nothing new for video games. They've been done, and done well. In fact, you should check them out too.

What hasn't been done before is the drum set. The set you receive is made from mostly aluminum and hard molded plastic, extremely durable. Gaming magazines have reported the drum set as taking tons of abuse without being worse for the wear. The 4 well-sized drum pads are on a ~30° tilt, are adjustable in height and have a good, rubbery spring to them. The foot pedal is awkward at first and could be more responsive, but certainly does the job. Everyone in the family will be eager to give it a try, and once won't be enough. One word of caution - unless you're a percussionist, start off with Easy and expect to make plenty of mistakes. It will probably take a LOT of practice to make it up to Hard, but then again, being a good drummer takes a lot of practice too. And perhaps the best feature of Rock Band, unlike other music video games, is by the time you hit Expert, you'll actually be able to play drums.

The special edition bundle may be pricey, but if you and/or your family are at all musically inclined, you'll get more than your money's worth. Just one note of caution - although far from the volume or noise of a real drum set, between the drums and singing, you may want to set this one up in the basement.

Quite Possibly the Greatest Party Game Ever Made

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 6
Date: December 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This Christmas season many people and parents are thinking about whether or not to buy Rock Band or Guitar Hero 3. I bought Guitar Hero 3 when it came out but the truth is I only bought Guitar Hero 3 so I could have the extra guitar controller. Guitar Hero 3 is a fun game but if you're a parent who's looking to decide which one to buy there's really no competition. Rock Band may be $170 but it's been many years since I felt that I got this much value out of one game. Rock Ban's replay ability downright massacres Guitar Hero 3's. Rock Band may be a lot of money but I think you'll win parent of the year award if you buy this game.

Harmonix, the original Guitar Hero creators have once again revolutionized the way we play video games with Rock Band. Rock Band's main game play is meant to be its multiplayer where four people create their own characters in a band and travel to various places around the world playing gigs and earning fans and money. A new feature introduced in Rock Band is that you are penalized in the game for failing or restarting a song during world tour. As you gain fans you gain people like sound technicians who in reality do nothing but look cool in the game. The world tour should supply you with many hours of game play even more if you aren't using the same four people as your band mates.

The solo career is basically the same thing as Guitar Hero's except it should give you a lot of much needed extra practice with drums, vocals, and guitar if you need it. I found the guitar parts to be much easier than Guitar Hero's but at the same time more enjoyable because hard and expert are not all about pushing the same two buttons over and over again as fast as you can. It's quite fun. I'm a bassist so I was disappointed about the lack of bass career mode but the bass lines can be rather boring so I don't exactly blame them. The drum parts are very hard at first but you should get the hang out it. Singing is a different story, I still haven't mastered it. Despite what people might tell you, Rock Band's single player is just as fun as Guitar Hero and gives you more stuff to do.

Rock Band fixed some of the annoying things about Guitar Hero. Rock Band shows you how many stars you have earned and how close you are to the next one while you are playing so you get a sense of where you need to improve. However I felt that the Rock Band guitar was not as good as the Guitar Hero 3 wireless guitar. The set list is great but contained fewer songs than Guitar Hero, but there are more downloadable songs and Harmonix have announced more for the future. I was very impressed with the selection of songs the game had, every genre is represented in the game.

Guitar Hero is a great game but Rock Band has taken Guitar Hero's basis and built so much more on top of it. Rock Band so far has destroyed every party game I've ever played and this game is the must have game of the year. I would still buy Guitar Hero 3 for the controller, but if you're only going to buy one Rock Band is the one for you.

The Dream Becomes a Reality!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: November 29, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The Good: It is the ultimate party game. It's fun to play every instrument (except maybe for bass). Cool visual style.

The Bad: $170 price tag. Guitar peripheral a mixed-bag. Unfulfilling single player mode.

For the uninitiated, let's play a quick round of catch-up. Harmonix, the game developer responsible for the massively popular (and rightly so) music rhythm series, Guitar Hero, has taken that idea to the next level. This time around, instead of just rocking a sweet axe, a drum kit and microphone are included in the package. The idea is to offer up the ultimate multiplayer music experience, that of being in a real live Rock Band! Does it succeed?

In places, yes. Let's start off with the guitar, shall we? Any person familiar with the Guitar Hero series should have no problem jumping into Rock Band on the guitar. It plays identically to it's spiritual predecessor. In the past, however, official guitar peripherals have been designed and manufactured by Red Octane. Now they're developed without the help of of that great name. The result is an aesthetically pleasing design, paired with a concoction of smart moves and missteps. The peripheral (which resembles a Fender Stratocaster) has fret buttons that are flush with the neck of the guitar (both at the end and closer to the body). This makes it more difficult to keep track of where your fingers are located than it would on a Red Octane guitar, but after a few practice songs it hardly matters.

The largest problem with the guitar is the strum bar which, even though it is entirely silent when strummed (finally), feels too spongey for it's own good. In a fast song like The Ramones' "Blitzkrieg Bop" where you're required to strum quickly, it can become difficult to lose track of where you are in the song. The old Red Octane guitars had a definite "stop" to it that you could feel (and hear). These do not. Overall, it's a somewhat decent peripheral (even if the failure rate is remarkably high). Still, I won't be throwing out my Red Octane guitars anytime soon.

The microphone peripheral is, well, a microphone. There's no getting around this one. Even if you can't play guitar, you can still shred the stuff at Guitar Hero (I'm proof of that). But if you can't sing, you may want to do your friends and family a favor and pass the mic to someone who can. Accordingly, the gameplay is fairly straightforward. Getting a high rating on your vocal performance will require you to sing the song well. Like the other instruments on the game, "notes" will scroll across the screen and it is your job to not only hit the right notes, but to begin and end the notes at the correct time. An arrow to the right of the screen will tell you if you need to shift your voice to match the correct pitch, just in case you couldn't tell on your own. As you increase the difficulty of the game, you'll have to be more accurate in your notes as well as your hits and releases. Things can get pretty unforgiving at higher difficulties.

But like all songs, there are times when you're not going to be singing, just standing around. Harmonix has smartly added in a nice gimmick to keep you busy. During these times, small dots will appear on the screen and you'll have to tap the microphone in time to simulate shaking a tambourine or clapping your hands. It's not the most enthralling gameplay ever, but it keeps you from getting bored while your buddy is wailing away on the guitar. The worst part about singing is trying to tackle a song that you're unfamiliar with. Fortunately, Harmonix has done it's best to get a wide variety of songs in to make sure that most people know a few songs beforehand.

Ahh, but most people aren't going to be buying Rock Band for the guitar or the microphone. They already own games like that. No, the big draw for Rock Band is the new drum peripheral. And it's great! I had my doubts the first time I hopped behind a demo kit, but now that I've had substantial time with the drum peripheral, it's safe to say that this is what people will be fighting over at the inevitable Rock Band parties. The build quality of this peripheral is phenominal. It feels solid, and unless you're taking out your aggression on the bass pedal with cement shoes, you should have a hard time breaking it. Real wooden sticks are included in the package, and though the pads don't have as much bounce as a real kit would, the experience of sitting behind the kit and rocking out is awesome!

The gameplay is very similar to the guitars. Notes will scroll vertically from the top of the screen, and you must hit the correct colors in rhythm. When a long orange line appears, you must step on the bass pedal. It's all pretty straightforward and self-explanatory for anyone familiar with Harmonix's other games. In addition to that, there are also "fill sections" where you're free to bang around on the drums at your leisure and hitting the crash cymbal at the end of the section will trigger "overdrive" (Rock Band's "Star Power"). The fill sections can be a curse too, however. While a real-life drummer could knock out a fill without hesitation, someone who absolutely sucks at playing real drums (myself) will find themselves struggling to keep rhythm when they're not spoon-fed scrolling notes. It really breaks-up the gameplay. When you add in the fact that these fill sections will become more prominent until you activate your overdrive, it can get kind of annoying. Also annoying is when you're playing guitar while someone else comes across a fill section and butchers it, screwing you up in the process. It's a cool idea, but poorly implemented.

And now on to the game, itself. Single player is set up almost exactly like the Guitar Hero series. There is a career mode, where you play through the game's entire soundtrack, and there is quickplay. Career mode is the game's biggest failure. It's an absolute chore to complete this mode by yourself when all you want to do is jam with friends. And you have to complete it if you want to unlock all of the game's songs too (a huge, huge misstep). Unlike Guitar Hero, there are no encore songs, and therefore no surprises. It's just a straightforward play-through mode with little to no reward for completing it.

Multiplayer is where it's at. And unlike most Xbox 360 games, local multiplayer severely trumps online play. When you're in a room with 3 other people in your virtual band, it can get pretty fun. You just don't get that same feeling when you're going online against people you don't know and can't interact with. The biggest attraction in multiplayer mode is the Band World Tour mode (no Xbox Live functionality here), where you and your friends can start a virtual band and tour the world. The better you perform, the more fans you attain. Likewise, if you fail a song, you lose fans. You can also unlock vans, busses, and other rock gear to help you on your tour across the globe. The whole idea of this mode is to realistically mimic the real-life journey of a real-life band. For real. Harmonix has also added in some choices to the gameplay that will keep things interesting (i.e. Will you sell out or not? Will you play this large venue and risk losing more fans or stick to the small one?). It all makes for a surprisingly fun, and engrossing multiplayer mode.

The standard multiplayer modes are here as well, including "Tug of War" and "Score Duel" (similar to Guitar Hero's "Face-Off" and "Pro Face-Off," respectively). Unfortunately, these only work if you have two of the same instrument lying around. Unless you're unfathomably wealthy, that means you'll likely be dueling on guitars only for the time being.

The game has a pretty cool visual style, with heavy distortion and filters applied to almost all in-game character animations. It gives it a very raw feel, which fits the game's rock-theme perfectly. There is a pretty deep character customization system too, where you can create a digital version of yourself or your idealized self. Tattoos, piercings, and fauxhawks are all available for you to play around with, and you can even unlock more through the game's career mode. Load times can be a bit grueling (at least on my early-model Xbox 360), and the lack of any wireless peripherals is an absolute joke! Expect plenty of tangles, especially from that 20-foot mic cable. The game also comes with a USB splitter to allow you to connect all peripherals, but unfortunately it requires it's own power supply.

In the end though, there are very few things to complain about when it comes to Rock Band. Harmonix's dream game has finally made it's way onto store shelves, and if you're lucky and rich enough to snag a copy (the game currently retails for $170), you will have an absolutely amazing time rocking out with friends. If you don't have any friends though (or at least any that would be interested in playing Rock Band), you may want to spend your money elesewhere. Rock Band's single player experience is fun for a short time, but you'll find yourself longing to play with real live human beings before too long. And if all you're interested in is the drums, you can always just wait until early 2008 to pick up a copy of the game with the drums only (for much cheaper). Anyways, the point is that Rock Band is one of the finest music rhythm games ever made and quite possibly the greatest party game ever to come into existence. If Guitar Hero was your thing, and you have plenty of friends to play with (and, of course, the money), buy Rock Band! You will not be disappointed.

9 out of 10 Stars

Rock band or guitar hero... Rock band!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I was skeptical of this game at first. $170 is alot of money, especially since I had bought GH2 and GH3 for the 360. This game paid for itself day one.

The fact that you can have 4 people make this a blast. Singing is alot of fun, the bass parts are better than what is found in GH, the guitar is good (with the same timings as in GH2, but without artificial difficulty added in GH3, which is a great game BTW) and the drums are the meat and potatoes.

It takes about 10 minutes to get into the game. Create characters, name your band, and start rocking. The set list is very good, and the difficulty scales well. And the drums are the best part about this game, and the reason the $170 price tag is easily justified.

If you can only choose one game, go with rockband, you and your friends won't regret it.

Rock Band vs. Guitar Hero

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: March 21, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/RPWRT37Y9ZEKW Disclaimer: I've uploaded some video here with me drumming and another with me on bass and vocals. My "singing" may make your ears bleed. You have been warned. I'll try to shoot a better video in the future, but in my house it's pretty challenging with the glare in mny living room and the family and all that so this one will have to do for now. Sorry!

So which to buy, "Rock Band" or Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock? The big money is on both, but which of the two is the best? That all depends on what you want out of YOUR kicka$z rock simulator. Both have flaws and can be excruciatingly difficult, both are insanely fun to play, both are great party games, both cost an arm and a leg and both ROCK THE MUTHA@#%*ING HOUSE! The wireless guitar controller for GH3 works wonderfully with RB, but there is no such love for GH3 if you buy the RB guitar -which has a few extra features like soloing frets on the top of the neck (both have the awesome whammy bar, though). If you don't want to drum (singing can be done in a pinch with your xbox live headset), then buying the GH3 bundle is a no brainer as the gameplay, song quality, and presentation are far superior than RB's. Plus, after you're done thrashing it up with GH3 you can get the RB game for a mere $60 (or cheaper) and enjoy it's very customizable characters (GH3 has no such thing) and super-eclectic song selection using the GH guitar. Also in GH3's favor is a new version of "Anarchy in the UK" recorded by the Sex Pistols just for this game. Slash, Tom Morello, and Brett Michaels also make appearances in-game which is sweet. Score one for the Legends of Rock.

However, the fun of playing drums in RB should not be underestimated. It's pricey, but if you've got the dough and a little bit of rhythm and aren't tone-deaf (like me) than RB is like 3 games in one: guitar/bass, karaoke, and drums. Plus there is an amazing and ever-growing selection of downloadable songs (priced about $2 each) from bands like The Police, Grateful Dead, The Clash, and Metallica. So for a few extra bucks you can increase the game's replayability even more. Not a big fan of the "nickel-and-diming", but to play "Complete Control" and "Synchronicity II", it's worth it. Plus, did anybody say "ultimate party game?" My friends and family aren't gamers so I don't get to indulge the multiplayer nearly as often as I'd like (though the wife does enjoy singing on occasion and this marks the first time she's enjoyed a videogame not named "Tetris") but I can assure you that the Band World Tour career mode is outstanding and much better than the lonelioness of the Solo Tour. GH3 also features downloadable songs, but they aren't particularly enticing to me even though the game itself features the most rockin' collection of songs humanly possible: thrash, hardcore punk, blues, avant-garde alternative rock, and much more. I've also gotten 4 songs ("Dream On" and 3 Dropkick Murphy jams) for free by keeping an eye on xbox live so hurray for Activision on that one.

Now the bad. It's annoying to have to beat every single song to progress on solo modein RB. I've been stuck on the insanely long and difficult "Green Grass and High Tides" by The Outlaws on drums and I don't really have time to practice a 10-minute song over and over. GH3 let's you skip a song on each difficulty level if you choose and is easily the more challenging game when it comes to the guitar. The notes come fast and hard even on normal difficulty and the final run of songs will make you head spin and fingers hurt if you're not one of those inhuman gamers who can do this stuff blindfolded. And if you are, I'd like to eat your brain and gain your powers like Sylar because I've got only slightly more talent for this than I do real guitar playing -which is significantly easier than playing expert difficulty on GH3. I play these games to relax, not to go all Pete Townshend on my gaming equipment. Normal difficulty on RB is absolute cake after playing GH3, and the timing on notes often isn't right either, but when you go into hard difficulty the game goes from slightly challenging to impossible for me about halfway through the solo career mode. At least GH3 ramps up the difficulty slowly. There is no such problem on Band World Tour mode, by the way. YOu can pretty much pick and choose what you want to do and what songs to play. RB's flaws and a very cool, over-the-top style make GH3 the king of guitar games. But, again, if you want to drum or sing RB is the only game in town. Unless you get American Idol, that is. And if you do, you suck. Majorly. And still can't drum.

The bottom line is this: if you love rock music, save up whatever you can and buy both. Even if you have to buy them piece-by-piece like I did, both games are awesome for rock music fans. If you're into the hard stuff like Slayer and Dead Kennedys and do most of your gaming singleplayer than go for GH3; the game's song selection and challenge is unrivalled. If you prefer more mainstream alternative music like Radiohead and REM than RB is your ticket. While GH3's guitar battle mode is very cool, RB definitely gets the win on the multiplayer aspect. If you've got 3 friends or family members who are into it, there is no better way to enjoy some great music together than with RB. There is some song overlap as both games feature "Sabotage", "When You Were Young" and others which is annoying and there should never, ever, EVER be a rock game -much less two- with no Jimi, no AC/DC, and no Van Halen. It's just not right. But all is forgiven because these are two killer gaming franchises that will keep us busy (and broke!) for years to come. Rock on!

The Microphone works! Just keep your controller handy...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: November 21, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Oh boy! I was lucky enough to get this on launch day. Terriffic! I am one of the few who prefer the Rock Band guitar, it's more comfortable than the GH ones. VERY NICE!

I first thought my mic was broken, I plugged it in over and over, the documentation for Rock Band is very slim, and the microphone warrants lees than two lines about setup. It turns out the singer needs to have an Xbox controller handy to register the mic and to select songs etc. You also get a little widget (two in fact) that lets you use your Xbox headset as a mic. The guitar and drums have an input jack for it--however, so far, I haven't gotten that setup to work. Which is too bad, because I'm dying to sing AND play guitar at the same time. I'm sure I'll figure it out soon.

One last thing, my six-year-old was entranced by the microphone. Just for kicks, I let him sing while I played drums. He doesn't know any of the songs, but he had a great time shouting the words that appeared on screen--in fact, on Easy mode, he can pass most songs he tries. You haven't lived until you've seen a six-year-old belting Gimme Shelter. "Ra-a-a-ape! Murder! It's just a shot away! It's just a shot awa-a-a-y!"

Solid & well thought out

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: November 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I never knew drumming could be so hard! I lack any functional coordination! But I love this game. Having owned and played the Guitar Hero series since December of 2005 I was anxious to take things in a new direction with Rock Band. I wasn't disappointed. At first the new style Guitar Controller with recessed buttons felt a bit odd.. but only for a few minutes until I realized that this was one well thought out and positively reworked piece of gaming technology. A huge improvement over the standard GH controller? I wouldn't say that, but definitely better in my opinion and it has a strum bar that feels solid and doesn't make that annoying "click" "click" sound! RIGHT ON! Also, I love the addition of having a second set of fret buttons to jam some solos with.

I enjoyed most of the songs on the game, but that is a very subjective thing so I can't rate this game entirely on its song selection. But being among the "older" crowd that plays this game I can say that I did enjoy a lot of the songs they had to offer.

I did notice that this game was very easy on the guitar side of things. Even the Expert levels were a bit too easy for my taste to play. But that's cool. I didn't like the rectangular shaped notes all that much, but that could be due to the fact that I'm used to round shapes dropping down the screen at me. Not that big of a deal really, but I mention it because I would prefer to have round notes drop instead of rectangles.

Drums. I must be the most uncoordinated person on the planet! Before this game arrived I had visions of myself whaling like a mad man on the skins, sadly I found out that I can't operate two limbs, let alone three limbs independantly of one another. I look like some type of broken electronic monkey drummer toy as I kick when I should punch and basically look like some type of neurological wreck when trying to drum to simple songs on the easiest of levels! But I'm learning and that's what makes this game great, it's a challenge and I know that down the road the reward will be great.

Singing, forget it. I croak like a wounded toad but I'm sure for some people this will be great fun.

Over all I love this game and it has delivered. And this goes without mentioning the ability to form bands with people over the internet and play concerts together. Wow! This is a great idea and a great game. Worthy of 5 stars.

Never have I played a non role-playing game for as long as I play rock band.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I can sit and play this game for 7-8 hours or more at a time. In fact on my days off I normally play most of the day. I Sing for the majority then when I get a little tired I break out the guitar and play tell my pinky starts to hurt (about an hour or so) then I will either go to the drums or back to singing .
Now mind you I have never played guitar hero or anything so I am a total newb when it comes to games like this. This game has that in mind. The easy is just that easy. It has songs in order of difficulty so you will gain proficiencies in the skills you need to move on to harder songs. Not to mention the practice mode that can slow songs down for you to work out that really difficult part of a song. You can also pick just parts of the song to practice so you don't have to wade to a part just to practice it.
The game has a few different Modes. Lets first talk about "solo" You can Sing, play guitar or drums in this mode. I myself being a singer went straight here. I am all ready ranked in the top 300 over all for singers and even ranked in the top 3 for the song "heroes" by David bowie. (at least last I checked, the leader board changed every 15 min or so) Songs are split up into groups of 5 by difficulty and city. Once you complete a city a new city opens up with more difficult songs. You can also do bonus set that has all the hard unlockable songs that you can get like the classic "Timmy and the lords of the underworld" from an episode of south park. I had so much fun singing that song! Well more yelling that song 8 )
Band World tour mode is the next. This is what you are going to play with your friends at a party.
You get at least two people on different instruments (supports up to 4 players including drums, base that uses the same controller as the guitar, even supports guitar hero II and III from 360 controllers, Singer, and Guitar. And you start playing and having fun. Its really interesting how the band dynamic works here. You start acting like a band even if you aren't a real band. You start to argue about what songs you want to play or who is going to play what instruments or if one person is not so good how they are holding you back. And to me that is great. It feels real. The point of this area is to get "Fans" the more fans you have the better. You can also win, Vans, Busses, even a Jet, You are limited to the amount of fans you get by the difficulty your band picks. Everyone has to pick the same difficulty to get the increase in fans.
There are also a few online multiplayer aspects that are nice but I haven't really played much with them cus the lack of people who sing is pretty prevalent. Also the Downloadable content for the 360 is amazing. I can't wait to get entire albums when they release them this month.
The Cons: When you play Solo or in Band mode the computer generates Non Human players. Some of them are really really Creep looking or ugly as sin. I would love to be able to pick who was in my band. Some kind of Lobby that will help in finding other people to play with would also be nice. Band World tour is only avail with local multiplayer. I have heard they plan on patching and letting you form bands online. As online you can only do quick play that doesn't keep your score or earn fans.
Even with the flaws this game is GREAT!

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next 

Actions