Anyway, the classic alterna-rap turned out to be quite a challenge on Hard (all first round 1v1 matches were played on Hard), and TeamXbox's Andy Eddy coasted to an easy win, 117842 (93%) to 64538 (79%). (We suspect Andy's been in the front row of every Faith No More concert since '89.)
After uploading our first score, we readied up and were shown our second song: Nine Inch Nails' "The Hand That Feeds." This was the closest match of the day, with both players registering perfect 100%'s on Hard. In fact, it was just random Overdrive usage (that's Rock Band's version of Star Power) that determined the difference: GameSpy, 109060; TXB's 108441.
Probably the biggest challenge of Rock Band has been getting the hang of the drums. While it's not too hard to get the feel of hitting the four drum pads, the bass pedal will undoubtedly throw a lot of players off; if you were the kind of Guitar Hero player for whom the orange button was a major hurdle... well, the bass pedal is the new orange button.
Our drum 1v1 pitted our own Fargo against IGN's Tal Blevins, sitting in for a TXB squad short a few editors. The song: The Pixies' "Wave of Mutilation." This turned out to be an easy win for GameSpy, with a score of 61550 (96%) to 34400 (89%). Afterwards, Blevins questioned whether or not Fargo was actually the one rocking the drums. This was an absurd allegation. The following photographic evidence clearly confirms that Fargo was the one behind the second-place-overall finish:
Finally, the final match was set for lead guitar: Mountain's "Mississippi Queen." With a grand total of 269 notes on Hard, Sluggo was caught dozing off at times and coasted to a perfect 100%, winning the match over TXB's Will Tuttle, 57171 (100%) to 23091 (92%).
But then the big question: who won the match? With all teams being ranked by cumulative score, it wasn't entirely clear who'd racked up the overall total. But with the dust settled, the total scores came to GameSpy with 292k and TXB with 283k. As it turned out, both scores were pretty solid for the first round, with GameSpy sitting in 3rd place of 10 teams overall, with high scores for guitar and bass, and second place overall for drums. TXB also fared well, coming in 5th for the week. (You can see overall standings at the Scorehero minisite).
Unhappy with his team's performance, Sluggo could be seen storming GameSpy's halls after the match, demanding a new singer and threatening to form a new band. In fact, with band play just a week away, Sluggo could later be seen practicing with his new group, breaking a million points on several songs:
Will the GameSpy team prevail? Will rock glory be achieved? Will the new Fender Strats survive the tourney without Sluggo smashing them to pieces? Check back next week, as the continuing story of NinjaPlease! continues with Round Two of the Battle of the Bands and more on Rock Band's World Tour mode.
