It’s the ultimate party game. Not Charades, not even Kings — I’m talking about Rock Band. Last Christmas, Harmonix Music Systems (co-creators of the ubiquitous Guitar Hero series) released Rock Band for Xbox 360, PlayStation and eventually the Nintendo Wii. Despite the expensive controllers and add-ons, the game became wildly popular for its multiplayer ease, taking the concepts from Guitar Hero and applying them to a band setting. Harmonix released Rock Band 2 for the Xbox 360 Sept. 14.
For those who have never played Rock Band before, allow us to explain it to you. Rock Band allows its players to live out their rock ‘n roll fantasies by making a virtual band, taking it on tour and rocking out in front of a virtual audience. The game supports up to four players, each playing a different musical instrument. There are two possible slots for guitar and bass, which operate like Guitar Hero games. There is a drum controller that has four heads and a bass drum pedal with each piece color coordinated, like the guitar controllers, and the object is to hit the correct button in rhythm with the drumbeat of the song. Additionally, a vocalist can sing along.
The same basic gameplay applies to both Rock Band and its sequel, so there are only a few reasons to justify the purchase of this new title. The most important is the new songs. The song selection on Rock Band 2 consists of 84 songs, ranging from Beck to Megadeth to Duran Duran. Every song is the master recording, meaning that the original artist sings it (unlike the first Rock Band, which had a mix of covers and master tracks). Our favorites include Pearl Jam’s “Alive,” Jethro Tull’s “Aqualung” and Modest Mouse’s “Float On.”
One of the great new features that Rock Band 2 offers is the ability to transfer songs from the first Rock Band. For $4.99, anyone who has owns both games can download a license to copy all of the songs onto the Xbox 360 or other game system. This way, you can play almost all of the songs on the original Rock Band on Rock Band 2 without changing discs. For some reason, there are three songs that cannot be transferred — Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and Iron Maiden’s “Run to the Hills.”
Along with the import feature, Rock Band 2 has made improvements to other areas, such as making the multiplayer option easier to operate across all gameplay modes. In the first Rock Band, there were some weird design choices in the creation of World Tour mode that demanded a frontman to always be signed in, as well as more than one player to be playing at all times. Rock Band 2 has eliminated these problems, allowing anyone to play World Tour with as many players as they want. The game even grants the ability to grab some outside talent via Xbox Live — in case you want to have a full band but do not have enough people to do so. Also, if you already have all of the controllers from the first Rock Band, there is no need to buy new equipment, but the new stuff is supposed to be more durable and responsive.
Overall, Rock Band 2 feels like a big patch for the first Rock Band, but is still worth the $60 price tag for the extra songs and the streamlined game modes.
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