EA’s decision to venture into this fairly new genre was only a matter of time. It makes good business sense after acknowledging the lactose enriched cash cow that is Guitar Hero. It simply shows the success that can be made from strapping on a plastic scaled guitar to your body and strumming in time with your favourite music tracks on screen. With Rock Band, EA has dipped into its bottomless pockets in an attempt to out-do its one and only rival, who is already in its third adaptation of its very successful franchise. Teaming up with MTV, EA and its developers, Harmonix, bring to the table a festival worthy line-up of bands old and new, all waiting for you to pick up a drumstick, guitar or microphone and rock your stripy socks off to.

It has been quite a while for Rock Band to appear here in the UK. Rock Band was first demoed to the masses by Peter Moore’s lacklustre performance (similar to watching your dad dance). The US has had a pretty lengthy head start, and in that time we’ve had a third Guitar Hero already, but its original creators, Harmonix, claim to literally thrash their rivals with its collaborative band system and peripherals in Rock Band. So let’s unpack this beast…

Inside the enormous box you’ll find not only an environmentalist’s distaste of packaging, but amongst all the cardboard you’ll find a guitar peripheral for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay, a drum peripheral, and a microphone. It takes longer to unpack everything than assemble the whole kit, which is surprising considering the simple IKEA-like assembly instructions that come with it all. If you are a few USB ports shy on your Xbox 360 and you wish to plug in all of the three peripherals, you can use the USB hub supplied. Sadly this USB hub needs to be powered, so before you know it, with the amount of cables running from the console to your instruments, your floor quickly begins to resemble a band’s stage set. Yes that’s right, the guitar, drum kit and microphone are all wired! This is surprising in a day and age where everyone is favouring wireless, such as its competitor Guitar Hero. [Microsoft did not supply Harmonix with the license to their wireless technology. Thanks Microsoft! – Ed.] But with that said, at least you don’t have to worry about batteries and disconnection warnings during your performance, so I wouldn’t dwell too much on this issue. Right, let’s fire it all up and get our Rocks off!

For those people that are not aware of this genre, the aim of the game is simple. In a similar fashion to a dance step game, you have to hit the corresponding lit markers as they reach a point at the bottom of the screen. Each marker can be of a different colour, each colour is represented on the guitar’s fret boards or the drum kit’s pads. Hitting or strumming the correct series of colours at the correct time is critical for it to count in the game. Doing this correctly will result in you hearing the instrument’s sound track play out in the way it’s meant to be heard, but do this incorrectly and all you will hear is a miss hit beat or fumbled strum, followed by a disapproving crowd of boos. And if you are consistent in doing so badly, then it’s game over.

One of the most unique features to Rock Band is its drum kit. The drum kit consists of four pad surfaces, each coloured to coincide with the four face buttons (Red, Yellow, Blue and Green) while underneath you have a fifth function – a base drum peddle. The kit is simply put together, with a few vertical height adjusting poles and a solid base frame. Considering how light the whole plastic set is, it’s a very sturdy piece of kit. The pads themselves feel that they can take a lot of beating, which is ideal for budding Travis Barker wannabes out there.

Positioned in between the pads you’ll find a standard controller setup (D-pad, face buttons etc.) which lets you control the in-game menu system with ease, although it’s just as fun to navigate around the menu by hitting the corresponding pads with your drum sticks. Just like the guitar, the kit is scaled to suit all drummers of all ages. It can be height adjusted to obtain a comfortable position when seated, although being able to tilt the pads up and down would have been a worthwhile feature to include. In use, the pads are very responsive, giving a tactile bounce when struck, which is ideal when you are trying to keep a good rhythm.

The replica Fender Stratocaster guitar in Rock Band feels a little cheaper in build quality when compared to Guitar Hero’s latest. Instead of a black neck, we have what should be a wooden coloured neck. Instead it’s a little peach in colour, making the guitar much less life like, and a little cheap looking. The frets themselves span the whole width of the neck. This makes reaching the most difficult notes that little bit easier, while also letting you slide across for cords a breeze. Unique to Rock Band’s guitar is the inclusion of high-note fret boards that are placed on the neck nearest to you. These buttons can not only be used for smaller handed people but their main purpose is for bonus notes which feature as part of the tracks finale and to help boost your final score. On the body of the guitar there is a standard setup of a D-Pad and buttons, a whammy bar and a 5-way effect selection switch. Inside the guitar is a tilt sensor, so that when tilting the guitar upwards (in true Brian May style) you can trigger the energy meter that you have built throughout your set and gain extra points. This feature can be a little hit and miss at times as you really need to bring the guitar head vertical, and with a jolt, in order for it to register correctly in the game. This is also something you really need to be standing up for if you want to keep on hitting the correct notes during this process.

Another unique feature to Rock Band is its microphone support. Like interactive Karaoke you sing into the supplied microphone (or headset) in time with the backing track, which can also be turned off if you are feeling confident. Words and their pitch are displayed and monitored on screen, singing the correct works, in time and at the correct pitch will award you with the biggest score. On easy level you don’t have to be that exact to pass, you could mutter any old garbage at the right pitch and still achieve “Awesome” on the meter. But it’s in later levels where the difficulty curve is high. The room for error is much less forgiving and knowing the track word for word will be the way forward in completing a set perfectly. Another nice touch during non vocal parts of a set is where you can hit the microphone into the palm of your hand to simulate a tambourine, doing so correctly, and in time, will help give you extra bonus points to your score. If you are using a standard headset microphone, then pressing the A button on the Xbox controller also simulates this function.

Rock Band features a plethora of rock tracks, old and new. Its 60+ line up of tracks contain a mixture of classic rock, alternative, glam, metal, pop-rock, punk, southern rock and, well, just rock. Each track has their varying difficulty within them; though their difficulties might not span all instruments however. Where some tracks may be easy on guitar, they maybe a lot trickier when played on drums or on vocals. If the current line-up of tracks is not to your tastes, then you better be hooked up to LIVE, as Rock Band contains a fully integrated marketplace within the game that lets you browse, preview and purchase the vastly growing list of downloadable tracks. This list grows every week, with many artists from around the globe adding their songs to Rock Band’s increasing list of downloadable content. Each track can be purchased for 80-160MS Points, while a song pack will set you back 440-800MS Points, whole albums can also be purchased for 1200MS Points. Once bought, the track or tracks are added to your playlist for Solo, Band Tour modes as well as Quick Play. The seamless integration of the marketplace within the game is a joy to behold and makes previewing and purchasing additional tracks a breeze, some might even say a little too easy. Your bank account better be ready for this!

Whether you settle for Rock Band’s original Solo Tour tracks or download tracks more suited to your tastes, there is nothing better than strumming, beating or singing along to favourite tunes…Well there is, and that is forming a band and performing together with your friends! Either in the same room or over Xbox LIVE, Rock Band has you well and truly covered here. Four options are available to your band members, whether it’s your best friends, work colleagues, brother or sisters, or dare I say it…mums or dads. Band Quickplay lets you and up to 3 other “band members” jump into any track you choose. Tug of War pits you against one other band member, in what is basically a battle of who can ultimately win-over the crowd. Score Duel is just that, a battle between two of the same instruments and who can rack-up the highest score. But it is the Band World Tour that shines. Band World Tour lets you and your collaborative peers progress from seedy dives through to crowded stadiums, as you work your way up the ladder, from unknowns to rock legends! Instead of playing single tracks and selecting another in World Tour you begin to do full sets of 2 or more tracks, just like a proper gig. Do well and more venues are unlocked and you are assigned a manager. With a substantial fan base you soon begin to unlock some wheels which will let your band tour nationally, then later internationally with the aid of your very own band plane. Playing in the Band World Tour gives you a much more sense of progression and the feeling of being in a band, more so than in the Solo Tour. It is a shame you are forced to play with others in this mode, when they could have easily used the same mechanism in the Solo Tour, which has much less substance. If you have some friends over, or have online chums that also have the game, or you feel confident in showing your skills in front of some complete strangers over LIVE, Rock Band’s World Tour mode will reward you in (…the ace of…) spades.

Rock Band’s longevity will last as long as it has support for it. Over the past months we have already seen weekly downloadable track updates. We’ve seen bands such as Motley Crue sell their latest single five times more through Rock Band than downloaded through iTunes. This will no doubt open the eyes of a many label executives, and hopefully we will see a wider track base of artists in its store. With its slick presentation, solid and intuitive peripherals, various tracks of both default and downloadable content, EA has itself another winning franchise on its hands. As long as they continue to support this franchise and not cut out its early adopters with future sequels, I can see Rock Band being a fierce competitor to its rivals in this genre.

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Anthony Barker

Anthony is the designer, developer and owner of Console Monster. In his spare time, Anthony is a keen gamer who enjoys playing mostly First-Person Shooters and Racing games. When he is not developing games or tweaking this site, Anthony likes to be on the slopes snowboarding or hurtling down off-road tracks on his mountain bike.

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