Outstanding!
Regardless, the team behind the first two Guitar Hero games as well as the Karaoke Revolution series, has culled all of its technical knowledge to create a game that's a bonafide crowd-pleaser. Rock Band supports up to four players on different instruments. Vocals, guitar, bass, and drums are all of the components of any well-oiled machine, and even more so here. There's enough here for anyone to jump in and play for fun, but enough depth to keep even the most hardcore gamers going for, well, as long as there are new challenges popping up on a weekly basis.
If you can't play Guitar Hero to save your life, but you're not completely tone-deaf, you can take the lead as a vocalist. If you've cleared virtual concert halls at Karaoke Revolution, but you can hit notes like your fingers are possessed, there's a role for you. Rock Band is the combination of both of Harmonix's successful titles, plus perks that wouldn't have been possible without the technical abilities of this generation's hardware.
If you've ever played Karoake Revolution, Harmonix's scrolling text and pitch-based scoring should feel familiar. Our central gripe with the engine, however, is that songs don't account for gender in vocals; some women can't hit Kurt Cobain's gravelly lows just as sure as some men can't quite hit proper falsettos. It's not the best karaoke engine on the market, but it's sufficient alongside the rest of Rock Band's offerings. Guitar Hero vets will undoubtedly adapt to Rock Band's scrolling notes like a goldfish to new water.
The real challenge is learning the drums, which consist of four drum pads and a kick pedal. A set of Ludwig wooden drum sticks are also included. You'll need the tutorial; for non-musicians, it's similar to playing guitar, but is just alien enough to require a little practice before you channel your inner Bonham. The PS3 version of Rock Band sells as a $170 bundle consisting of a USB microphone, drum kit, and one wireless guitar; the wireless feature is exclusive to the console and utilizes a wireless dongle, similar to Guitar Hero III's setup.
The guitar, which is modeled after a Fender Stratocaster, touts some new features that we haven't seen in guitar controllers before, such as a knob to tweak your guitar's sound effects and smaller fret buttons for children or gamers with smaller hands. It lacks the heft of Guitar Hero III's Les Paul, but after using both instruments on each respective game, we've got to give the fidelity edge to the Fender. We've found that after hours of play on both games, the Fender feels more reliable for hitting long strings of notes than Red Octane's Les Paul controller, although the neck is a little flimsier.
