FOR THOSE ABOUT TO ROCK…
…Harmonix salutes you. But really, we should be saluting them. Because they’ve catered to every whim of the Rock and Roll fantasy that is the music game. They scratched the surface with Guitar Hero 1 and 2, which were the best music games we had seen to that point, but for Rock Band they pulled out the big guns and delivered in a huge way.

They stuffed their disc with hit after hit, nearly all of which are performed by the original artists. Throw in some great bonus songs, some of which are performed by members of the development team (and you’ll recognize a few of them if you’ve played the early installments of the Guitar Hero series) and more than one hundred songs offered as downloadable content to date, with more being released every week, and you’ve got yourself an unbeatable entertainment machine.

So let’s break it down. You’ve got the option to sing until your lungs ache, pound the drums (pounding not actually recommended, but more on that later), shred an axe or—in the Band World Tour or quick play options, at least—be the super-cool bassist you’ve always wanted to be.

Every singer who has played any of Rock Band’s karaoke predecessors and cringed at the Ricky Martin or Whitney Houston songs being forced on them can take a deep breath and be the rockin’ front man they’ve always wanted to be.

The guitar gameplay is similar to that of Guitar Hero’s, the only differences being very accurate charting (unlike the latest edition of Guitar Hero, which goes a little overboard at times) and the introduction of the solo or “finger tapping” buttons on the new guitar design.

These small but powerful buttons enable the guitarist to breeze through solos without strumming. It takes some getting used to, but by the end of the game you’ll wonder how you got along without them. The bassist may feel a bit underappreciated though, since no bass solo tour is available.

Out of all the instruments, the drums are the one that deliver the most consistently. Not only do the charts progress nicely as you learn more about the mechanics, there are very few, if any, songs that the drummer will be bored with. If you’ve never held a drumstick in your life, or if you’ve been playing the skins as long as you can remember, there’s a difficulty that will suit you as well as satisfy you.

Rock Band is truly about the full band experience however. While each instrument has its own merits, whether it’s an unexpectedly hard guitar solo to finish out your career, or the final tier of vocal songs leaving you winded, each also has its own shortcomings since the songs were chosen with the full band dynamic in mind.

The vocals can become a bit repetitive and some of the guitar parts are bland, even on expert, with not much more than a succession of two-note chords. If you’re looking to impress your friends with your insane music game guitar skills, reach for Guitar Hero 3 and leave Rock Band to play with your friends, because that’s where Rock Band really shines.

The Band World Tour option simulates every aspect of bringing your band from humble, bar-playing beginnings to an arena-packing spectacle. Prolonged Band World Tour play can be a bit grueling at times though (the endless setlist is nothing to scoff at; be prepared to devote several hours to it), particularly if a band member is having trouble with a certain song.

A member of your band failing out doesn’t spell disaster for the rest of the band however; if someone has enough overdrive to deploy, Rock Band allows you to save said member and keep on rocking, a truly useful feature.

The option to create your own band members is, in all honesty, not essential to the game, but it is a great addition. The characters you can create do retain some of the cartoon quality that Guitar Hero is still leaning so heavily upon, but the animation provides the best music game visuals to date.

At times, it really does look like a packed arena. At other times, cool visual effects make it feel like you’re watching a music video. When your guitarist is shredding an amazing solo, you get a close-up of the fretboard.

For all of its great attributes though, Rock Band does have some issues that can affect gameplay. The most glaringly obvious is the hardware. The fact of the matter is that it’s just not made of high quality material. There are seemingly endless sensor issues with all of the instruments and physical damage occurs quite frequently.

Whammy bars snap and flop around lifelessly if used with too much vigor too often and if you get carried away on the drums there’s a good chance of breaking the red or green drum clear off of the kit. The kit’s kick pedal is notoriously weak; you’re almost guaranteed to snap it in at least one place if you play on a difficulty higher than easy for more than an hour. An overenthusiastic drummer will mean the certain death of your pedal (and possibly your kit at the same time).

Now, Harmonix does have a great warranty coverage that takes some of pain of this problem away. If you send back the broken controller, they’ll send you a new one as long as you’re in the warranty period, usually no questions asked—but there’s no getting around the fact that you can’t play your game the way you’re supposed to when your drums are cruising around in a delivery truck.

Another issue for many, many people is the fact that the drums create quite a bit of noise. Often times, the banging drowns out the game, and let’s face it; no one enjoys the tap, tap, tapping of cheap plastic over music.

The plus side to the hardware issues is that people have become creative trying to find ways to work around them. Everything from socks to mouse pads are being used to try to damper the noise the drums make, and people have become quite adept at fixing the overdrive sensor and mushy strum bar of the guitar.

Several entrepreneurs have launched businesses selling everything from high quality kick pedals to equipment to fix your own instruments. Do take note however, that if you open any of your instruments in anticipation of fiddling around with its contents your warranty becomes void.

Even though these problems do put a slight damper on an otherwise fantastic game, you’ll be hard pressed to find someone with a broken instrument who gives up on the game because of it. It’s a bit of a hindrance, but returning your instrument for a new one so you can keep on rocking is worth it.

With the recent announcement of a fourth installment in the Guitar Hero series, complete with microphone and drums, and a new band-based game in the works for Konami, one wonders what the future will hold for Rock Band. Will they release a second game, or keep on pumping out the downloadable content instead? No one knows for certain yet, but we can all rest assured in the fact that no matter what they do, Harmonix will continue to rock our worlds.

Final score: 9.5

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