Rock Band Rules!
(”The King is Dead, Long Live the King!“)
Rock Band is out. I have purchased it, which is a given if you know me or read this blog regularly. As I realize there are some people who read this who don’t know what Rock Band is, I’ll explain: Guitar Hero was a game that let you play (by hitting 5 buttons on the neck) a 2/3-sized guitar along to mainly cover versions of guitar-driven songs. It was fantastic. Truly. Rock Band, on the other hand, is nothing short of revelatory. Not only can you play the guitar, but you can play drums (it comes with a 4 pad electronic drum set) and sing (comes with a microphone).
Unfortunately I only had time to play two songs tonight, which is killing me. Eileen (girlfriend) played drums and I sung. We chose that combo because it’s going to be challenging for both of us. She’s never drummed (I was one of those drummer band geeks in high school) and I can’t sing. Imagine a wounded panther bellowing its death screams as it sinks in an eternal pit of Jello pudding and you have the idea. Under normal circumstances I spare my fellow man the horror of my voice lifted in song but Rock Band kicks so much ass that I don’t feel bad about inflicting my cracking cry upon Eileen and Nixon (dog).
Guitar Hero transformed the experience of hitting buttons rhythmically (something I’m fairly good at) into the feeling of being Eddie Van Halen or Stevie Vai. Rock Band goes you one better. Not only can pretend to be Eddie or Stevie, but you can actually be Neal Peart (drummer for Rush) or Kurt Cobain (lead singer for Nirvana). While the guitar parts are purely game-like (insofar as they are nothing like really playing the guitar), the drumming and singing are, on the harder levels, virtually exactly like really doing those things.
Rock Band is the greatest educational game ever created. Guitar Hero is dead to me. Long Live Rock Band!
7 comments
Comments feed for this article
November 21st, 2007 at 12:56 am
Pingback from Learn Guitar » Le Roi Est Mort, Vive Le Roi!
November 21st, 2007 at 9:44 pm
Pentharian
Well…crap.
And I was having fun on GHIII. It’s too bad there’s not rock band for Wii.
How do you like Galaxy, by the way?
November 21st, 2007 at 11:27 pm
Acrune
So, when can we expect videos of you two playing this to appear on youtube?
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:42 am
Matt
Mario Galaxy absolutely rocks.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:34 am
Jeff Freeman
Actually?
Oh, I get it… because you drum and sing, whereas you only pretend at playing guitar…
Is guitar that much harder than drumming, or could this eventually progress to musical instrument lessons disguised as video games?
I’d love that.
Do you have to sing right? I mean, does it comprehend and provide feedback for that sort of thing?
Just what are the game mechanics, if any?
Punt me to google if you don’t feel like answering, but you sound pretty jazzed about it.
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:44 am
Matt
Guitar is harder than drumming in the sense of the UI. Think of a drumset: There’s a fairly small number of discrete inputs available. You strike the snare or you don’t (which isn’t quite right, since you can strike it with varying force, and closer or nearer to the center of the snare/cymbal/tom/whatever).
Rock Band gives us 4 drum pads plus a bass drum pedal, and you are very literally drumming.
The Guitar, on the other hand, doesn’t mimic real guitar playing much. You do learn rhythmic strumming but the fingering on the fretboard is nothing like actually playing guitar.
Yeah, you do have to sing right. It’s fairly sensitive to pitch and you get immediate feedback on whether you’re above or below the desired pitch on any individual note phrase. How sensitive it is, and how many intra-phrase pitch changes it requires, depends on your difficulty level. I play on expert (highest level) on guitar but only medium-level (2 below expert) vocally.
I tell you what is awesome: Singing away or playing the guitar and looking over to see someone drumming away. It carries the wish-fulfillment to a new level.
November 24th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Richter
I’ve torn into the gooey goodness of Rock Band as well. I got the bundle, so I could try out all the parts. So far, the guitar part seems pretty solid, though maybe a bit easier than Guitar Hero, so far. The drumming part is awesome, and somewhat realistic, and the vocals are a blast.
Had any problems with your equipment yet? I don’t especially like this guitar, and went out and bought a GH 3 wireless guitar, because it has a satisfying click whenever I strum (not the sound, the actual feeling of knowing you’ve pushed it in the required amount). Oh, and because my guitar has already gone kaput on me, the strum bar no longer works 100% of the time.
Perhaps we’ll battle online someday!