While Sideswipe happily sits between Rock Band and Guitar Hero. I am committed to Rock Band. Why have I switched to Rock Band when I have played Guitar Hero for much longer? Not only do I prefer the look and feel of Rock Band, but because I am sick of being ripped off. While both try to tempt you to spend all your money the best they can, Rock Band doesn’t try to punish you for supporting their series.

Look at the two latest versions of the series (Rock Band 2 & Guitar Hero World Tour) and they are almost the same game. Guitar Hero are now blatantly copying what Rock Band have done and just repackaged it in there own look and feel. Both are now full band games (2 Guitars, Drums, Mic). What more can be said? for all intents and purposes they are the same game. The only thing that is different is how they behave and how they respond to you.

This is where Rock Band takes the lead.

Tracks

I’m not going to go back over Sideswipes review of these. Of the two games Rock Band definitely has the better selection of tracks with the game. Plus the buying of tracks is much fairer in Rock Band. In Guitar Hero you have to buy tracks in packs of three. Normally you get one great track, plus two crap tracks. But you have to pay for all three, Yay! thanks Guitar Hero, that’s just how I have always wanted it.

Rock Band however is much better. You can buy the tracks individually, listen to previews to decide if you like it, or save some money and buy a pack or a whole Album. That’s great if you want all the tracks, but you are not forced into buying music you don’t want.

But what if you have already bought tracks? This is the main reason I have Rock Band 2. When I started it up, not only do I see all the tracks that come with the game. But all the tracks I have bought for Rock Band 1. All available for me straight away. For a small fee you can also export all the game tracks from Rock Band 1 and import them into Rock Band 2. Fantastic! Yes you have to pay a small fee, that is annoying, but at least it is small.

Guitar Hero however does not want you play music you have already bought. Well, if you want to buy it again for the latest version then you can have it. Otherwise you are going to have to keep changing games. I have bought some tracks for Guitar Hero 2. But I might as well have throw my money away as I doubt I will ever go back to it. This is very annoying.. there are some really good tracks on GH2 & 3, but when friends come round, I don’t want to have to keep changing games.

Look and Feel

Of the two games I prefer the look and feel of Rock Band. This is very much a personal taste. I have no real reason for it other than I just like what Rock Band has done. As you would expect these have been touched up in the latest version of the Rock Band series.

But more noticeable area the changes to menus and related graphics. The menus have all been improved, making them easier to use and navigate. The song selection screen for example is now more of a straight list with album art and difficulty information on the left. Sorting is of course still available. Holding down the yellow key now lets you quickly skip through the list, which is a nice feature.

Another new touch is on the song select screen. You can now make your own set list. Pick up to 6 songs and you can play them as a set without having to back to the song select screen. Great fun!

Difficulty

The basic game remains the same. It is nice to see the layout of game staying unchanged when you are actually playing a track. It is simple, well laid out, and easy to understand. Unlike when I recently played Guitar Hero 3. Their current layout is confusing and just not as crisp.

Harmonix are redressing the issue of the difficulty of the songs. On Rock Band 1 I can play the majority of the songs on Hard mode (not all mind) but at least a large proportion. In Rock Band 2 however it is an entirely different story. The first few times I tried I could not manage a single song on hard. It might be that I need a little practice to get back into it. I can play any song in the game on medium and get a good score, but anything above that is now an up-hill struggle for me. This is a really good thing. I spent well over an hour last night just trying to master “Spirt in the Sky” on hard. The first solo on that is a lot of fun. But no matter how many times I tried it, I was just not fast enough, or my “stupid fingers” would just not do as they were told.

This is where Rock Band wins again. They have added a cheat mode that stops you from dropping out of a song you can’t play. You can’t actually play the game in that mode (it disables the saves). Buts its just what you want when you have a few friends over, or your kids want to join in.

Song Choice

This is one of the disappointing aspects of the game for me. There are a massive number of Metal tracks with the game. While I have nothing against Metal (some times) it is just no fun to play. Just mashing the fret bar and missing a ton of notes because they are moving so fast, or just randomly changing keys without a real melody to follow is not my idea of a good time.

There are however some stand out tracks (this entirely depends on your taste). As I have mentioned “Spirt in the Sky” but others like “Pinball Wizard“, “Kids in America“, “Eye of the Tiger“, “American Woman“, “Bad Reputation“, “Lump“, even the prog-rock classic “Anyway you want it” is a lot of fun. But I would have liked to have seen a few more tracks that actually challenge you to play as opposed to just mash.

But of course you can download to your own taste, and pulling the songs from the first game is also handy.

Where to next?

So where next for the series?

I think Jazz Flute is seriously under rated, and I would like to see that incorporated into the game. Especially with flame effect.

Conclusion

This is a good continuation of the series. Harmonix have done a lot of work tightening this game, and it shows.

If you love playing this type of game, this is worth getting. If you don’t have one yet, get Rock Band. It is just more fun than Guitar Hero. If you are sitting on the fence, or already have Rock Band 1. Its your call! It is much the same as before. If you see some tracks you like then get it. Otherwise just stick with what you have.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 8th, 2008 at 4:19 am and is filed under Music, Video Games. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.