While Guitar Hero (from the same developers) lets you get out your Hendrix, Jimmy Page or John Frusciante demons, Rock Band gives you the true rock fantasy and you co-operate with your mates to deliver a multiplier charged, crowd-cheering experience.
Think you can do better than these guys trying to be Nirvana?
Besides the guitar, there's a chance for someone to sing with the sturdy wired USB mic. It's easier than it looks if you can keep in tune but I wasn't game to try multitasking vocal and guitar. At the top of the screen (or bottom in solo mode) in SingStar-style, you get the words block or scrolled along with a pitch indicator showing whether you need to sing up a note or down an octave.
If you get the pitch right, you earn points for each section and it measures your timing for each phrase, not just on how bad you think your voice sounds through a mic and huge speakers as you amp up the volume. If you know the songs, it's not hard to deliver but notch up the difficulty level and you could find it a real test of skill.
Without a doubt the real novelty buzz around this game is the drum kit because that's something we haven't experienced before.
Considering how aggressive rock and metal drummers get, you need something solid to lay your beat down on and the four coloured rubber drum pads and (pedal only) kick drum for your foot take the beatings well, though mine now have a few dents on the plastic edges. To add authenticity, your drumsticks are monikered with the ink label of
Ludwig
.
If you are new to drumming, it's a big challenge but may also turn out a revelation especially as you try to co-ordinate left and right with the bass pedal. And to think I thought that guy at the back of the group had the easiest job of all since he just had to whack the drums, right.
Your band mates may want to wrest the job off you if you don't perform up to par as you learn how important and fun the drummer's job is in guiding the feel of the song. I found it's more scientific than it appears, meaning that first
learning the basics
of rock drumming will help.
If you've played Guitar Hero, you'll be familiar with the basics of the guitar in this package. The PS3 wireless guitar, doubling as bass, has five coloured buttons of the fret board similar to the real guitar neck. The orange notes, for example, play high notes. Five smaller buttons lower down the neck are for any impromptu jam.
There are some nice features such as the mode selection for guitar echo or whammy and there are more buttons than on the earlier Guitar Hero guitars. This one is again plastic but you unscrew metal screws to insert the batteries and the wireless is very responsive, including a feature in game to adjust the delay settings for 'wireless communication' - as if that is the reason you fail the song.
After downloading an update to the game, it required the 2.50 PS3 system update as well, meaning I spent a good deal of time setting up the kit as the updates installed.
As for gameplay, you select a character, choose whether the person is a rock, goth, or punk player etc and then customise the look. Each discipline requires a new player and you can customise each of your band members with accessories, body art, make-up and tailored clothing and add decals to your $64,000 guitar (the selection is huge). You can add bling, rings or piercings or whatever depending on unlocks and the money earned.
You feed off the excitement of each band member, their input of sweat, energy and enthusiasm, and multiplayer is where it's at. "Overdrive" means when you are giving an awesome performance, you get a multiplier boost which means your audience experience is improved and the fans go wild. It saved me countless times especially when I reached a seemingly impossible series of fretwork in
Gimme Shelter
- and boy did I fret!
The songs included classics with the original performances and will please a range of rock fans from David Bowie's darker Ziggy Stardust moments (
Suffragette City
) to to the Stones end-of-the-world song
Gimmie Shelter
, with the rhythm guitar intro that's difficult to master, to more recent numbers like Yeah Yeah Yeahs'
Maps.
My red-haired punk girl character went wild with the Clash's
Should I Stay or Should I Go
and the Ramones simple three-chord
Blitzkrieg Bop
.
Kiss, Radiohead and Soundgarden are among others with songs represented but you can also buy online dozens of other songs - see the latest list
here.
My fingers are sore from a weekend of playing, the neighbours are grumbling thinking a real rock band has moved in and begun practicing and the usual rock band member tensions are setting in.
But I think we are ready for the Auckland Vector Arena.
MadGamer rating: 9.5 / 10
