A little bit for everyone!

So, you loved Guitar Hero3. You've probably played the other two and the spin offs. Now, you've downloaded all the content you can and want a new challenge. In comes Rock Band. Rock Band is everything the Guitar Hero fan would love, and more.

Remember how Guitar Hero made air guitar look cool by adding a guitar controller? Well, it's back for Rock band, but that's not the first thing I noticed. Actually, it was the drums. In addition to playing lead guitar, you can also play drums with the drums controller. Since Rock Band is actually a 4 player game, there's also room for a bass guitarist. To further the experience, player 4 is the vocalist, so all of you Karaoke Revolution fans can show your mad singing skills while your friends rock out on their instruments. Despite the fact that this all works together, playing each part has its own feel.

Guitar
Guitar is most like Guitar Hero. You play the game by pressing buttons and flicking the switch (which imitates strumming). At times there will be held notes that you can use the whammy bar to trick out. Unlike Guitar Hero, you don't get as many chances to do use the whammy bar, but in the end, it's still the same basic experience. Guitar is also one of the key players in the game. If one of your friends sucks soo bad that he's dropped out of the game, an excelling guitar player can rock the guitar back (like activating star power in Guitar Hero) to save his friend. You only get 3 saves per song.

Bass
Bass is a little easier than playing lead guitar. The notes are most static and not following some seemingly erratic pattern. Bass uses the whammy bar even less than lead, but it's the only other player that can deploy a save should one of the other players perform poorly. Essentially, you play bass just like guitar, in the sense that you push the colored buttons on the neck that correspond with the colored bars on the screen while flicking the switch. More or less, it's a similar, but easier, experience.

Drums
Urgh, I love to hate playing drums. Drums is (for me) easily the hardest aspect of this game. When playing drums, you have to hit the drum that corresponds to the color on your screen. Unlike guitar (either), a drum solo will come up and you can hit the drums however you want, so long as you end on the color the game designates. Drums cannot save a player. It is also more difficult to play drums because you have to make sure your swing is in line with the beat of the music. Thankfully, there is no pedal to worry about.

Vocals
Ok, the first time I tried this, I got weird looks from people in Best Buy. I'm thinking, if you really want to play vocals, do it at your own risk. Regardless, I haven't played Karaoke Revolution, but I would imagine the play is the same. The system seems to track your pitch (not tone, thank God). As long as you can keep your pitch in sync with the music, you'll do well. The higher the skill level, the less tolerance the game has for people to be off key. Here's the humor behind the game.... Although your pitch may match, if your tone is off, you'll sound funny to those around you. Surprisingly, you can be tone deaf and still succeed at this game. Since you're using a microphone, there are times where you'll have to clap. Clapping is done by tapping the top of the mic. It's pretty easy. If you want to play Guitar and Vocals, you can use a headset. When playing with a headset, the clapping portions of songs is disabled. Like drums, you cannot save a player from their sukkage.

The Game
The game play is more of the same. Players start in a garage band and work their way through a world tour. You can recruit more band members as the game progresses. I wasn't too thrilled about the designs, since you have members ranging from mummy girl (she's wrapped up like a museum exhibit, but plays guitar) to purple haired punks. It was hard for me to really choose a favorite since the characters all seemed so generic. When playing with more than two players, the game gets even more confusing. You can see your character's screen, but the notes you have to play (or pitch you have to hit) covers up enough of the action where what's going on no longer makes a difference. You spend most of the game watching your fret board, drum queues, or notes. The free download of “Frets on Fire” (an open source Guitar Hero clone) can give the same effect since it features absolutely no background animation. It's not to say that Harmonix didn't put a decent amount of detail into the backgrounds, it's just that the general game play focuses too much on what you're doing to really notice/appreciate the graphics.

Here's what caught my attention. I'm a fan of Flyleaf. I'm So Sick is one of the songs you can play in this game. The general tone of the tunes are alternative to grunge. This is my kinda music. There's a little country western with Bon Jovi's Wanted Dead or Alive. I found the mix to be perfect for the play, but also more to my liking. They even managed to include CrushCrushCrush by Paramore. If you're not into the Alternative/Grunge scene, there really isn't a whole lot outside of these that make the game appealing to other music lovers. I would assume this style was chosen by Harmonix because it was easiest to convert to a multiplayer format.

Obviously there's your standard multiplayer (with friends on the same Xbox). There's also online play (which I don't have Xbox Live to test). From what I've heard, you can link up with players around the world and compete for the best score or play through world tour mode. Either way, I've only played hotseat games.

In comparison to Guitar Hero, Rock Band is the total package. Playing all four staples of a typical rock band makes this game a wannabe's dream. I can certainly say that this inspired me to learn guitar. The guitar portions are slower than guitar hero, but this is because the main attraction is the band, not one part of the band. Sadly, like Guitar Hero, you must purchase a bass guitar (same controller as the standard guitar). At least the game comes with drums and the lead guitar, so you can start to rock with your friends straight from the box.

Rock Band is ALMOST a MUST OWN. If it wasn't for a $180 price tag, I'd almost give this game a 100% recommendation. It's fun, but at a steep cost. You might as well be purchasing an arcade machine for that money. But if you love party games, Rock Band is the way to go. You can't beat jammin' with friends and making fools outta yourselves while playing a game. Also fun is to record videos of friends who get too much into it and post them on YouTube for public humiliation. I call it a guilty pleasure. =p