IGN writes: "Rock Band is arriving in stores on November 20. Along with a guitar, mic, and drum kit, the $169.99 package includes 58 songs (45 licensed tracks, and 13 more that are unlockable)".
TheGamer Writes "Harmonix has proven plenty of times it can make Rock Band work without instruments."
I mean, yeah, but was anyone saying otherwise? The fact is people liked the plastic instruments rather than pressing buttons on a controller. They enjoyed the simulated experience.
"Work"? No, but to be good? It's absolutely necessary. Not having the accessories is like playing a lightgun shooter with an analog stick sure it works, but one experience is completely unique and fun as hell, and other is torture trying to make do playing in a way it was never meant to be played
I think CHEAP plastic instruments is THE reason why the instrument-genre ‘died’.
People invested in buying the game AND the peripherals, so the guitar, the dj-set, the drum, whatever, and the experience was absolutely fantastic. Great fun, great music, etc.
But then the instruments would break. A button would stop working, or your hits wouldn’t register, and that kind of hardware failure would end in you not being able to play the game as intended, and thus you not getting the scores you deserve.
So, now you had a great game, but a broken instrument, and nobody is gonna buy a new plastic instrument every 3-6 months in order to keep playing the game.
A solution would have been to release better quality instruments (obviously), at a slightly higher price, so you could have kept the new games coming and the genre alive, but sadly, that didn’t happen.
Bust a Groove, Gitaroo Man and Parrapa the Rappa were such good games. Neither needed any extra peripherals
Player 2's long-form feature about kids and video games continues with a look at introducing toddlers to games for the first time.
Music rhythm games dominated the video game market in the mid-2000s. Unfortunately, the genre would fall from grace shortly after finding success.
More like faded away than failed. Failed implies it was new and didnt take off... that is not the case. Rhythm games were hugely popular but the lights dimmed and the show is over.
You would think the current situation would cause a resurgence but im actually seeing more people picking up real instruments and learning to play. My son is one who started out on GH and now he plays real guitar.
I lost interest when they stopped allowing you to use the controller to play with, just couldn't get into playing with the guitar.
Not the sole reason, but over saturation by Activision releasing 5 GH games in one year, charging full price for all of them while only Metallica and GH5 were worth it.
I dont think these games failed at all. People aren't going to keep buying games and peripherals over and over. All songs need to work on either rockband or guitar hero thru updates. Guitar hero live was actually good but rockband with all its songs and same equipment killed it.
I'm sure part of the reason they faded away, at least over the long term, was that you couldn't download them digitally.
Great number of masters compared to covers, and awesome selections! Master tracks of Won't Get Fooled Again, Don't Fear The Reaper and Foreplay/Long Time will be so great to play.
All the good vastly outweighs any bad.
I was scanning the track list and wasn't very happy with most of the older tracks, but my God, when I got to the 2000s and my eyes laid to rest on 'Welcome Home' by Coheed and Cambria, I nearly fell out of my seat! I TOTALLY suggested that song back when they were taking suggestions on their website and I am absolutely THRILLED to see that song in there! (I also suggested 'Deadbolt' by Thrice, which if anyone else has heard, they know why it would be awesome to play in a Rock Band/Guitar Hero game!)
Guitar-yes
Bass-Yes
Drums-Yes
Mic-HELL NO. I really have no desire to hear any of my friends sing. :)
Know what would be cool though? A Xylophone!
When I look at the songs that are going to be available there are maybe 6 that I don't know and every other song I love. Then there's all the downloadable content that'll be offered as well. RB is gonna rock!
There are Definately some great bands in there like The Ramones and RHCP that make the lineup worthwhile, but they could have included tracks from some more definite 90's groups like Pearl Jam and Social Distortion. Of course instead they got to put in crappy bubble-gum pop rock like Fallout Boy (they stole that from The Simpsons BTW).
In Bloom is a great Nirvana track (great track to try and play to and rock out to when you're drunk or something) I personally hoped that another great Nirvana track like "Aneurysm" or "Return of the Rat" would have made it in there.