Rock Band - A Masterful Performance - 9/10
What is Rock Band?
Rock Band is a music-based game in which players use a number of peripherals to play popular rock song from 60's and 70's, such as the Rolling Stones "Gimme Shelter" and The Sweet classic "Ballroom Blitz", right through to more modern songs such as Jet's "Are You Gonna Be My Girl". Rock Band allows the use of three peripherals, which are a microphone, drum kit (4 pads and a kick pedal), and a guitar, which can also be used as a bass guitar in the game.
Gameplay & Controls
In Rock Band, players earn points by correctly strumming, hitting or singing the correct note or lyric during a song. Notes/chords appear as coloured bars that scroll down the screen into a large bar at the bottom. When the notes enter this larger bar, the player should respond accordingly by performing the requested note/chord on their instrument. Guitar/Bass guitar is played when the player holds down the correct coloured fret(s) and then strums up or down on the strum bar. Drums are played by either hitting the correct pad(s) with the drum sticks or by pushing down on the foot pedal your foot. Similarly, lyrics scroll across the screen, and when the requested lyric intersects with an onscreen line (or visa versa in the'Static Vocal Style' mode), the lyric should be reproduced by the player into the mic. Simple. But it can also be very challenging.
Game Modes
Rock Band is split up into single player, multiplayer, training and practice modes.
In single player, you can play any one of the 63 available songs in a Quickplay mode that allows for a one off session where you rock out to the selected song (note: most of the songs must be unlocked in the career mode first). Single player Career mode allows you to play through a range of songs that increase in difficulty as you go. There are also four difficulty levels to chose from; easy, medium, hard and expert. Players can play Career mode using the drums, mic or guitar (but not bass guitar).
In multiplayer, Quickplay and Career mode are still both available. Up to four people can play in any of either of these modes. The only exception being that there is no difficulty setting in the Career mode. There are also two other options in multiplayer, Score Battle or Tug-Of-War. In score battle, two player play against each other using the same instrument in a competition to see who can achieve the highest score. In Tug-Of-War mode, each player trades off sections of a song, trying to outplay the other player. Note that both of these modes require two of ane one peripheral (i.e. two guitars) to play. Both modes are great fun, particularly if you have a mate with a second drum kit/guitar/mic.
The training and practice modes are also nice additions to the game. Training mode allows one player to learn how to play the different peripherals that can be used with the game. This is a must for beginners and first time players. The practice mode is also very helpful, as it lets you play different parts of any song in the game so you can learn the correct notes etc. to master the song. Song parts can even be slowed down to help the player learn the selected part of the song.
Graphics
As far as a Wii game goes, the graphics are fairly decent in Rock Band. The background animations are a nice touch, although you will spend little time focusing on them as the upcoming notes/lyrics takes up most of your attention.
The menus are well set out and easy to navigate, although the select few songs they use in the background to the menus can get a bit repetitive and annoying. The graphics never seem to interfere with the game, which is always a good sign for a music-based video game.
Music
The track list for the Wii version of Rock Band is as follows:
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper" Blue Öyster Cult
"Are You Gonna Be My Girl" Jet
"Ballroom Blitz" Sweet
"Black Hole Sun" Soundgarden
"Blitzkrieg Bop" Ramones
"Celebrity Skin" Hole
"Cherub Rock" Smashing Pumpkins
"Creep" Radiohead
"Dani California" Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Dead on Arrival" Fall Out Boy
"Detroit Rock City" Kiss
"Electric Version" The New Pornographers
"Enter Sandman" Metallica
"Epic" Faith No More
"Flirtin' with Disaster" Molly Hatchet
"Foreplay/Long Time" Boston
"Gimme Shelter" Rolling StonesThe Rolling Stones
"Go with the Flow" Queens of the Stone Age
"Green Grass and High Tides" The Outlaws
"Here It Goes Again" OK Go
"Highway Star" Deep Purple
"I Think I'm Paranoid" Garbage
"In Bloom" Nirvana
"Learn to Fly" Foo Fighters
"Main Offender" The Hives
"Maps" Yeah Yeah Yeahs
"Mississippi Queen" Mountain
"Next to You" The Police
"Orange Crush" R.E.M.
"Paranoid" Black Sabbath
"Reptilia" The Strokes
"Run to the Hills" Iron Maiden
"Sabotage" Beastie Boys
"Say It Ain't So" Weezer
"Should I Stay or Should I Go" The Clash
"Suffragette City" David Bowie
"The Hand That Feeds" Nine Inch Nails
"Tom Sawyer" Rush
"Train Kept A-Rollin'" Aerosmith
"Vasoline" Stone Temple Pilots
"Wanted Dead or Alive" Bon Jovi
"Wave of Mutilation" Pixies
"Welcome Home" Coheed and Cambria
"When You Were Young" The Killers
"Won't Get Fooled Again" The Who
"29 Fingers" The Konks
"Blood Doll" Anarchy Club
"Brainpower" Freezepop
"Can't Let Go" Death of the Cool
"Day Late, Dollar Short" The Acro-Brats
"I Get By" Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives
"I'm So Sick" Flyleaf
"Nightmare" Crooked X
"Outside" Tribe
"Pleasure (Pleasure)" Bang Camaro
"Seven" Vagiant
"Time We Had" The Mother Hips
"Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld" Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld
"Dirty Little Secret" The All American Rejects
"Don't Look Back In Anger" Oasis
"Roam" The B-52's
"Rockaway Beach" Ramones
"Roxanne" The Police
Plus a few more songs that can be unlocked later in the game.
Rock Band has an extensive track list and varies through the past few decades lightly. There is also a great mix of genres here on offer. Some of the lesser known songs, such as some the favourite local bands of the creators Harmonix(R), are still great fun to play, although the ones with German lyrics can be a pain to try and complete when singing. Some of the easier songs may become too easier for more expert players over time, but are still good for when you are playing with a less experienced player. The matching of the actual song chords/beats is also well represented by the on screen prompts in the game. The only real concern is that the harder songs can become basically impossible on expert difficulty.
Score
Gameplay (8.9) - Fantastic fun for casual or hardcore fans of music video games. Will appeal to most music-lovers.
Sound/Music (9.2) - A great range of song titles to keep everyone happy.
Graphics (7.5) - Decent graphics for a Wii game, although they don't mean a lot when your rockin' out.
Controls (9.5) - Fantastic and easy to pick up controls. The drum kick pedal has been known to break however.
Lasting Value (10) - Will be a game that you will play by yourself and with your mates for yeasr to come.
Overall (9.0) - Get your mits on Rock Band and stick the disc in your Wii. Then grab your desired peripheral and Rock On my friend.
Track Packs
Just a quick note about the Rock Band Wii Track Packs. There are 3 track packs for the Wii version of Rock Band. At the moment these are stand alone titles that can be played with the Rock Band instruments. The three track packs are Rock Band Track Pack #1, Rock Band Track Pack #2 and AC/DC Live Track Pack. These track packs are to make up for the lack of Downloadable Content (DLC) for the Wii version of Rock Band.
Rock On!
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