 A parent/20+ year drummer's persective |
| Review Date: December 26, 2007 |
| Reviewer: J. Welle, over the hills and through the woods |
Seems I'm the first to review this on Amazon for the PS2 version. I read all the reviews for PS3, and there are minimal differences (character customization and online playing) that are absent for the PS2 version. I can't really say those are a big deal to me, and I was really skeptical about this product. I haven't played Guitar Hero, so I can't make a comparison of the two.
What I can say is this game is a BLAST to play. I read some reviews where people who are drummers (or are the girlfriends of drummers) are complaining about the quality of the drumset. Considering a high quality digital drumkit (Roland for example) is going to run you from $3,000 to $5,000, what do you expect for $170 (it ALSO includes a WIRELESS guitar controller plus the video game)? I am actually impressed with the kit, it seems durable so far (and I've laid in to the thing when getting in to a song), and I'm very surprised by the action of the drum pedal. It's not a TAMA or DW pro-pedal, but it's got great action "considering".
I would recommend buying a real pair of drumsticks (at a comfortable size for your playing). Not only are the included sticks smaller (kid sized), but they're very roughly finished and you're guaranteed to get nice and blistered real quick-like playing with the low grade sticks included. Personal recommendation for brand would be Vick Firth (or Promark) for sticks (just my opinion, there are others out there). Another "comfort" item (if you choose to put money in to this game) is a drum throne. You'll be in pain much less, and can play for longer.
As for the guitar, it feels great. I've always wanted to learn or play real guitar, and this doesn't replace the 6 string, but it does teach great coordination for your fretting (left) and strumming (right) hands. Playing along to the game on guitar is fun for me, because it's a different role than "beat keeper", and you feel like you're really jamming the tune.
Another advantage of the game... if you learn to play the drumkit on this ... the transition to a real kit will be minimal (much more comfortable for sure). Something to be cognizant of (for the drumkit) is the playing surfaces. They are hard, and playing for extended periods on this (especially for us 30+ year olds) can lead to some forearm/wrist pain. The reason being is when you strike a hard rubber pad with a stick, there's no "give" to the surface you're hitting. The game tutorial recommends holding the sticks loosely, and it's important you do this not only to have the speed to play the game, but also to keep the impact of your striking a hard surface from being sent back up the stick right in to your wrist/arms.
The other thing I like about this game is the collaborative playing. My 15 year old daughter (who mainly likes hip/hop) and I have a ball playing this. We hooked it up and were jamming for 3 hours. The only reason we stopped was from fatigue. We've always played video games, but most are "versus", and it's really cool to be jamming a tune with your kid. We haven't explored the vocal aspect of the game yet, but we'll get there. She loves the game and has been sitting with the controller going over the songs just to learn them (something cute about seeing your daughter jamming "Mississippi Queen" with you). If we have company, I can still see this being tons of fun.
For parents on the fence about buying their child a drumset... I see this as a perfect testing ground and reasonably priced. Most "kid sets" are absolute garbage, and if your daughter/son doesn't pursue it further, then you're stuck with a junk drumset you've paid $200-400 for, and you'll get half that amount (if it's in good shape) if you sell it. For what you get in this game... it's a great starter for drums, it'll teach them how coordinate all the limbs, and if they outgrow it and want a real kit, well ... you've still got a fun video game for the family to play. The fact you can play this with headphones is a big bonus, since real drum sets don't have volume buttons! |
Harmonix Delivers another Slam Dunk
|
| Review Date: November 20, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Lisa Shea, |
Let me first admit that I'm a Guitar Hero fan. I adore playing all of the Guitar Hero games, and we have multiple guitars in the house (for multiple platforms) so that we can jam together. When Harmonix turned over Guitar Hero III to another company, I was really curious what they would choose to do next. I am THRILLED with the result - Rock Band, which combines together all the fun of singing karaoke, playing guitar (lead and bass) plus DRUMS!!!
My boyfriend is in several bands, and he plays lead guitar, bass guitar and drums. I love to sing. So we have played many, many games in all of these genres (including the Donkey Kong Konga game which is surprisingly fun). We were quite interested to see how the Harmonix guys would merge these variety of instruments into a single game.
First, the instruments. The guitar is FAR better than the guitars previously released for Guitar Hero. The buttons are "full fret" making the much easier to press. You don't have that annoying ridge line. You get TWO sets of buttons in fact - one for easier guitar solo play. You have sound settings. I can't say enough about this guitar. The only thing it lacks is stickers :) Really, couldn't they include a sticker set or two, to customize the thing? A minor flaw :)
The drum set is REALLY cool. It comes with a stand and it has a very nice feel to it. My boyfriend complained a bit about the wood sticks not being smooth, but heck, you're not paying for high quality sticks here.
There is a four-plug USB hub so you can actually plug all these items into your XBox 360 :) And there's a few headset adaptors, and a microphone. We already had several of these.
Now for gameplay. The graphics are visually lovely, although really, with up to four people playing and singing, the background stuff is pretty meaningless. The screen is taken up by all of the progress bars and alert bars and so on. I do have to comment that the customization for your characters is AWESOME. You customize their style of movement (punk, rock, etc), their facial look, hair style, eye color and much more. Plus you can buy all sorts of great outfits in the store. Never mind equipment. They really went overboard in this area.
I found when I played an instrument whose track was on the far left (the lead guitar, for example) that I could easily see the "overall progress" bar showing how everyone in the band was doing. I could see that the drum guy was doing poorly and slipping down into the red. However, when *I* was playing the drums - and the visual for my drum track was on the far right - I had NO idea how well or poorly I was doing. That overall band progress display was on the far left (past the other instruments' tracks) and there was no way to watch both my own drum note list and see how I was doing at the same time. So you almost need to designate whoever is playing in that far left track as the "band alert person" to yell out if someone is doing not so well.
The band works as a unit. If for example the drums are doing poorly, but the guitarist is doing well, the guitarist can use their energy the rev up the crowd which helps everyone in the band. So the guitarist can save the drummer, for example. On the other hand, if the drummer is really bad, after a few failures, the crowd gives up. You can't have the remaining players try to play the song out.
Which brings up one of my only complaints about the game. Let's say you start a band "Asia" with the leader being a drummer. Now any time Asia wants to continue on their career, the drummer MUST BE PLAYING. In real life, band members change positions sometimes. You have a drummer who also likes to sing. But here, if you have a position set as the leader, the game can't be played (with that band and the songs it's unlocked) without that instrument being played. We found that really annoying. You should be able to say that person X now wants to play instrument Y and keep going.
Now, interestingly, my boyfriend plays the drums. He found the drum pads AWFUL to use and thought they were broken. We swapped off and he took over guitar while I played with the drums. I did a 100% performance. So it's something about the way you hit them. I *think* they have to be hit pretty close to dead center, with a sharp rap. I'm not a drummer so undoubtedly I'm not hitting them "technically right" but I am able to sail through many songs on easy with 100%. So it's a matter of getting used to how they work.
The vocal / mike track is much like any karaoke game, and you "yell" to activate overdrive. It's a lot of fun. I did try several songs with a mike stand setup so I could play guitar and sing at the same time. It was a lot of fun - but part of the mike track is "cowbells" where you're supposed to thwap the microphone in time to the beat. Unfortunately if you're busy playing the guitar or drums you no longer can thwap the microphone. I tried yelling "POP" and it worked about half the time, if I used a very snappy sound to my POP. Still, it's a shame you can't sing and play because of this.
The songs in this list are GREAT. I really love some of them, and there were few that I simply didn't like at all. It's cool that they have multiple venues per location, instead of the Guitar Hero games where there was just "one Boston" and so on. You have to actually earn a Van or Bus or whatever to move on to a new city. You actually build up a fan base as you go, and lose it if you do poorly. That is all very cool. On the down side, the progression of songs is rather odd. You can play 2 songs you like in Boston, and then go to Chicago and play the exact two songs again to earn more stars there. The songs seem to unlock slowly. I'm also not overly fond of several modes where you have no idea what songs are coming up until 2 seconds before the songs begin.
They do have a training mode and solo mode, but really you figure the great appeal of this game is to play with your friends, using the various instruments. So we found that interface - where you are stuck with a single leader, and it is very much one-person-one-instrument oriented, to be a bit frustrating. Sure, I love playing drums - but I love playing guitar too! Sometimes I love to sing. It didn't seem like it should be THAT bad to let a person switch instruments once you'd unlocked a bunch of venues and songs.
Finally, I really like that right from the start you have access to all difficulty modes, and can set them by person. So if you have a really great guitarist in your family, and someone who is perhaps younger or just getting started, the great guitarist can set themselves to difficult and the younger person can set to easy and both can have a really fun, challenging time.
I am really looking forward to new song downloads too, and imagine that could make this game last years and years and be just as much fun.
Highly, highly recommended if you can get your hands on this thing. We were there right when the store opened to get our hands on ours, and it sold out immediately. Well worth tracking down!! Note that I have photos of the instruments on my website and am happy to answer any other questions you guys have about this game. |
Are you ready to rock?!
|
| Review Date: November 21, 2007 |
| Reviewer: M. B Cole, Las Vegas, NV |
When I first heard that Harmonix was creating Rock Band, I thought to myself, "Guitar Hero Remix". Until I heard about the mic and then the sweet drum set. So I was amped for this to come out. Then GH3 came out and all I could think of was "Dang...Rock Band better be awesome cause I just can not put GH3 down". Then I hit up my local Best Buy with a mock set-up of RB..and once I hit those sticks on those drum pads..I was in heaven. I was already going to buy RB, but now I HAD to have it.
I bought it the day it came out as soooon as my local Target opened up. Went straight home (with Kane & Lynch also...which at this time hasnt been played..heh) and began opening it up. After a few minutes of setting up (drums take a few parts to put together..nothing hard though..no tools), I was ready to go.
I started off with the drums (like probably most people). I'm gonna have to say..they are a lot tougher than I thought they were gonna be. I've never played drums in my life so it's gonna take a little time to get used to them. When I tried them at Best Buy...they had a demo that didnt include the base pedal. Well now I have to worry about stepping on that, while also worrying about where I'm slamming my two sticks at also. Sounds easy right? I really dont think so..least not yet..lol. By no means am I dogging this part though. I can see that this will be a lot of fun, especially when you start playing on Hard. On Easy the beats are so slow that I really do not feel like a rocker... I feel more like I'm some slow drummer in some jazz band. But I know it's like that to get people like myself accustomed to this new piece of equipment.
Secondly, I grabbed the new guitar. I put it on Medium and began playing a bunch of songs. I looovveee this guitar. The top fret buttons feel so good. One the edge of the green button and the orange button, there is a lift about half an inch high. So when you start playing on Hard or Expert and you start moving up and down the fret buttons trying to hit every button, you won't get lost cause you'll bump into those lifts. Definitely helps out. Also at the bottom you have 5 more fret buttons with the same color. Once a 'solo' appears on screen (the background will be a shade of blue) you can use these buttons and not even have to strum. Just hit the buttons once the button appears on the line. So much fun and you feel like even more of a rocker. The selector on the guitar has a bunch of sound effects that you can do on the fly. Pretty cool I guess, but I swear I cant hear a difference. Not saying it's not there, but I just havent heard the difference yet. The ONLY gripe I have about the guitar is the Whammy Bar. Its so dang long and almost gets in the way of my strummer. It looks very good, but I'm just not diggin it. It's not crazy bad where you would hate the guitar, but I would have liked it just a bit shorter. One last thing about the guitar. My roommate is insanely good at Guitar Hero and he is in absolute love with this new guitar and the new way it plays out on Rock Band. He doesnt even want to look at the GH guitars anymore..lol. He has issues with the whammy also though.
The Mic is next. I've never played a karaoke game before on any system. I never really cared for it (even though I do like Karaoke sometimes...when I'm drinking). I also didnt really know how it worked. Well before I stopped playing RB for a while, I decided to try it out. HOOKED. Seriously hooked on this part of the game right now. I was laughing at first while singing cause it was just funny to me, but then I really started getting into it. Then my roommate wanted to join in with the guitar. So we picked Creep and aced the crap out of it. Next thing you know we had Mississippi Queen playing and then I'm standing up and just rockin the mic. Right then I could just TELL this was going to be a very fun party game. I'm getting off track here. Ok, back on. When you sing you have to keep the pitch or tone of your voice on track with the line that shows on the screen. There is an arrow that will let you know if you are to high or to low. When it's time for your 'energy' meter (star power), you can just make any noise or statement you want to to activate it. I just usually hold out the note of the last word longer than usual to activate it...or scream ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?! (cause it always gets a laugh..lol). The only thing I dont care for is that you have to tap the mic on certain parts to make a tambourine sound or a cow bell sound. It's not bad if you are JUST singing, but I can see how that would be crap if you were playing a guitar or drum also. It doesnt HURT you if you miss those beats, but you dont get extra points. So far I love the mic, but probably cause I've never played those Karaoke games before like I said.
Although the 360 version isnt wireless cause of Microsofts greedy self (they use a proprietary wireless that they charge companies to use and Harmonix didnt want to pay for it so they could keep the PS3 and the 360 versions the same price), it's not TOOOO bad. The wires are a lot longer than the GH guitar wires. Plus the 4 port USB that comes with the game is a godsend for this game (make sure you have one more outlet for the USB plug). Hopefully they'll make some wireless stuff later.
When you start your career, you'll get to start customizing your guy or gal you want to use. Lot of different things you can do also...I was very surprised. If you ever played any of the Def Jam fighting games, then you might think back to those games like I did. Faces, Rock Styles (fighting styles on Def Jam), Hair, Height, Color, Rings, Bracelets, Pants, Shoes, Shirts, Tattoos. It's crazy. Lots of items to choose from the start and more and more as you get farther into the game. I unlocked 5 things in 5 songs I believe. I cant talk much about career mode since I stopped after my first 5 songs since I had to get ready for work. What I played though was really fun and what I've read and seen on videos (mainly from the rockbands website) its seems like it's going to be a blast.
I still love Guitar Hero. 1, 2 and 3. Not 80's, but whatever. I'm still gonna play them because of certain songs. But I think Rock Band has become my new favorite. Especially since once in a while, we have a good group of people show up to just drink and play GH. I think Rock Band is gonna replace that thanks to the 4 player support, GREAT song list, and more than just a guitar or two to play with. Actually I know it is..lol.
While you are reading this... I'm pretty sure I'm playing Rock Band. =D
***UPDATE for 22 Nov 07.***
2 more gripes about this game.
1. Harmonix seemed to use a LOT of constant repetitious notes..for example..you have to hit the blue button say...6 times in a row..then the red..6 times in a row..then back to blue..6 times in a row...then yellow..six times in a row...and on and on. I dont mind this on some songs...but I'm just saying they used it a lot this time around. Even my roommate was getting aggravated with it.
2. I believe my guitar is starting to act up like others that I have read. My strum bar after only a day is getting less responsive on the down strokes. I'm missing notes for no reason. I started using the up stroke instead and now I'm hitting ever note. I'm gonna send a request for a new guitar soon. Usually I'm not a victim of the faulty hardware that many people come across (I've never even seen a red ring of death in person on the 360...knock on wood), but this time I think I am. *sigh*
Cool stuff I like though since I first posted.
1. I figured out how to use the Guitar sound effects switch. Gotta be using star power (energy..whatever). Very fun!
2. Love how the star power adds up even while you are using it. Huge improvement over GH's.
Thats it for now.
LOVE this game...really I do. Just wish the guitar didnt start messing up. =(
***UPDATE for 23 Nov 07.***
2 really cool new things I like.
1. I REALLY love how when you are doing good during a song...the crowd starts to sing along with the song. WOW! That made me feel more like I was there than GH ever did. Very cool feature.
2. During Thanksgiving...I took my game over to a friends house. We had enough people to put a 4 player group together. Talk about A LOT of fun. 2 people never even touched GH before. Yet they had a blast playing all three instruments. The one girl I was playing with who I would have thought would've been on the mic more since she likes karaoke STOLE the drum set almost the whole time..she loved it. It was a lot of fun watching her beat the crap out of the set..lol. I was on mic most of the time since most were scared of it. Sometimes other people took the mic over, and even though they were sometimes bad..it was never embarrassing. Most of the time the other people were to engaged into their own playing or either it was so bad that it wasnt embarrassing, but just down right funny.
I had way to much fun with that game this Thanksgiving. Like I said way earlier..I knew this would be a great party game. We didnt even think about putting GH in. |
Two Words for Fun:
|
| Review Date: November 21, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Jodie Muramoto, Phoenix, AZ United States |
Rock Band.
It all started 8 years ago when I was introduced to Guitar Freaks at Gameworks in Tempe, AZ. The idea of playing a musical instrument as part of video game was addictive. Granted, the songs were original and limited, and the game bundle (offered only for the PS1 in Japan) was expensive, but Konami had the right idea.
Enter Guitar Hero. The original PS2 version, released two years ago, took the Guitar Freaks ingenuity and turned it into a product that appealed to the American audience. Those of us who had spent hundreds of dollars at Gameworks pounding songs on Guitar Freaks knew exactly what to do with the guitar and how to read the screen. I snagged one the week it came out and played to my heart's content. With subsequent releases of GHII and Rock of the 80's, I had enough music to last me for a couple of years. Last year Guitar Hero II became the high-demand Christmas item to give, breaking out of the die-hard "gamer" audience and into the average household (a feat very rarely accomplished by developers who publish games that require a unique controller).
Harmonix, the developer for Rock Band, has their experience with successful rhythm-based games. Frequency, Amplitude, Karaoke Revolution and Guitar Hero all won the hearts of audiences and game reviewers. With the success of these games, their partnership with MTV Music to create Rock Band is ingenious and exciting. Who else would be better suited than MTV to convince musicians and music publishers to contribute to this project? And what more brilliant way could any band market themselves? They provide a single hit recording which is then mass distributed through a video game then played over and over by the fans that made the song a hit to begin with - no musician or band can go wrong.
And what about the game itself? Addictive. Energetic. Hypnotic. Entertaining. Fun.
Here are some real issues: price. The special edition bundle complete with the game, drum set, wireless guitar/bass and microphone is retailing for $169.99. It's expensive and a lot of money to spend on one video game. The nice thing is the guitar controller can be used to play Guitar Hero; however, it is still a lot of money for one game.
Another issue: system calibration. Some HD televisions and HD sound systems are causing a slight delay in game play, the source of a lot of frustration. There is a very limited and weak calibration setting in the game but it doesn't solve all the problems.
Another issue: the controllers themselves. Last night I spent many hours acquainting myself with the drum kit and got frustrated when cymbal crashes did not land correct. A successful hit has to be nearly dead center of the pad itself and that is not realistic when landing a cymbal crash. It is also frustrating that the pads do not react very well to snare rolls, a necessity in a drummer's repertoire. Anybody with actual drumming experience will find this process frustrating and will probably run back to their real drums for solace and comfort ("I can play drums, I can!").
However, all games face issues and luckily with time they can be fixed. Eventually, the price in the game will fall, great for those on budgets. System calibration will improve as game updates are pushed through online (a wonderful yet tedious aspect of the PS3/XBOX 360). The controllers themselves will improve with further technology and once third party developers get the thumbs up from Sony/Microsoft, they will come out with all sorts of accessories and equipment that will enhance and improve game play.
I can't wait.
Complaints aside (come on - we all have them), this game is everything fun. It is innovative and creative and never-ending. Tired of guitar? Try vocals. Beat the drums? Try bass. And the best part - find a band online or invite friends and have a ball. You will, you will spend hours and hours escaping into the great fantasy of being in a rock band. Guitar Hero put an air guitar in our hands, Rock Band gives you the rest. Expensive, yes. System bugs, yes. Controller delay, yes.
Worth it all, absolutely. And if you're still unsure, check out any big-box electronics store or video game retailer and play the demo. Better yet, check out the local video game retailer for Rock Band competitions (they do have them) and try it for yourself. You will love it. |
Worth the wait....
|
| Review Date: December 30, 2007 |
| Reviewer: S. Aldrich, Cypress, TX |
We originally ordered this from Amazon around Nov 2007, but Amazon cancelled the order canceled shortly afterwards because of product shortages. And yet local retailers continued to get them in very short supply. So we took to checking local retailers each morning to see if they had a new shipment for most of December until we finally got lucky.
We've had a blast with it thank goodness, since after waiting this long, my kids' expectations were VERY high. Three instruments come in the box: guitar, drums and microphone. The game comes with a USB splitter that allows you to connect up to 4 instruments at once into the USB port on the PS2. We *WERE* able to use the guitar we have for Guitar Hero (a Red Octane wireless version for PS2) with this game, giving us a band of lead guitar, bass, drums and microphone. I like that we can keep switching around and try the different instruments. It gives you a lot of different perspectives on the same song!
Guitar:
The guitar is excellent. We've been using a Red Octane PS2 wireless Guitar with the Guitar Hero 1-3 games, and while good, aren't as good as the one that came with Rock Band (RB). The new RB one has an extra set of buttons farther up the neck for solos and there are NOT ridges (fret bars) between the keys on this one as there were on the GH guitar. This makes it easier to slide fingers along the buttons with this guitar than it was with the GH guitar, making it easier for the fast sections.
The songs are orchestrated a little more easily, I normally play GH at a "hard" level and get 3-5 stars there... on Rock Band I was able to sight read and get most songs at 5 stars on my first try, so I think they are easier in general.
Drums:
My kids LOVE the drums, and they take some coordination to play. Since I'm not a drummer, it's hard to add a lot here. The height is very quick and easy to adjust which is nice when there are dramatic differences int eh height of the players. The sticks that come with the set are fairly low end wooden ones... we use better ones we already had from a music store with nylon tips that are more solid and feel better. The heads on the drums are very solid feeling and have some give. They don't bounce like real drum heads, but are close enough for us non drummers to get a feel for it. The overall set is a little rickety -- the vertical bars that hold up the heads look like they are just plastic pipe and they will rock back and forth a little. That doesn't really affect the play, but it doesn't have a solid feel unfortunately.
Microphone:
A mic comes in the box and it seems to also be nice and solid. We also have the mics from the SingStar series, and these are shorter than those. We haven't checked to see if they are interchangable yet. The ones with Rock Band have longer cords which is nice -- you can spread out a little more. Some songs also allow you to use the mic like a tambourine and the singer's part (between phrases) sometimes shows a rhythm the singer uses to tap out a tambourine part.
Bass:
A bass does *NOT* come with this game. However, like the GH series, you can select whether the guitar you hook up plays a guitar part or a bass part. So if you hook up the guitar that comes with Rock Band and then another guitar that you already have, you can have one person take the guitar part and the other take the bass. This is about the same in RB as in GH, and as noted the tracks in RB are easier in my opinion.
Overall, an excellent effort and I look forward to being able to get the inevitable add on song packs. Just like GH came out with an "Encore: the 80's" product, I would LOVE to see add on disks for RB. If anyone from the RB team is listening, I'd love to see "genre disks" in particular, like Country hits, Hip Hop hits, best of an era, etc. |
|
No details are available for this product
No video reviews found for this product.
No customer reviews were found for this product.
