By DJ Simmonds
Published on January 30, 2008
“(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” “Welcome Home,” “Enter Sandman.” If you can recognize any of these three song titles, then this game is for you. Welcome to “Rock Band,” a $200 game that includes drums, a microphone and a guitar, and plays on either the PS2, PS3 or XBOX 360. That is a small inch of what is set in stone on this game, and what is coming up.
As I type this, “Rock Band” is doing one thing that most games never do – update, update, update. They update their songs and release a new set or new song about once a week, if not twice.
So far, among the awesome songs they have (see above, and add “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Creep” and “Highway Star), they have new songs coming out like “All The Small Things,” “N.I.B” by Black Sabbath and “Justice For All” by Metallica.
All of the songs on this game are great, except for one – “Dead On Arrival” by Fall Out Boy. Now, I can groan and complain about this being their worst song, and they could have done better, but I’m not going to. Instead, I’m gonna move on to the peripherals.
All of the peripherals, the drum, mic and guitar, are well made, and also come with a jack that allows you to plug them all into the system, though you have to plug that jack into a wall. Now, the only complaint I have, which has been resolved, is the problem with the guitar. The strum bar seems to break about three weeks into playing it, and EA Support needs to step up on their return policy, as it’s been about a month since a friend of mine returned his guitar, and he still hasn’t gotten it.
Another main thing that rocks with this game is the “Band World Tour.” This idea is great because it allows you to work with friends and play the game together with them. Now, you all can argue over what instrument you each will be taking, but the one problem you will have is that your band name may be taken. So, other than that, you and your friends will have a blast with this game.
The only gripe I have with it (other than “Dead On Arrival”) is the endless set list. Yes, you heard me right, endless. If you don’t download songs off of Xbox Live, you will be playing for over five hours on this one set. If you have downloaded songs, well..I pity you. This will hurt your arms, thighs, voice..everything until you are done, but it is all worth it in the end, as you earn a cool symbol that appears over the instrument you play in Band Quickplay online. That means you can show off that hey, you beat the hell out of the game and you are a GOD at that instrument.
So, what do I say about this game? It’s $200 to get the game, peripherals and the jack, – that is what I would recommend grabbing. If you don’t get them all at once, you will be paying over $300 for everything. But other than that, buy this game; it gets an A from me. You will enjoy this game if you are a Guitar Hero fan, I guarantee it!