Closing Comments
Rock Band is a great game. The presentation elements are top-notch and take music games to a new level; consider the bar raised. Though there are three separate solo careers, Rock Band is best experienced with a group of friends. The only major concerns are with the hardware. The guitar is inferior to other versions on the market and it seems likely that before Rock Band II arrives, many will have broken their drum kits (how long can you beat that thing before it dies?). Still, this is an excellent game overall. Anyone who invests the extra money to purchase some of the stellar downloadable content is certain to be playing Rock Band well into next year. Heck, you can tell by the mammoth size of this review just how much there is to say about Rock Band. Without question, Rock Band is one of the must-have games of the year.
10 Presentation
8.0 Graphics
9.0 Sound
9.0 Gameplay
9.5 Lasting Appeal
9.4 Overall
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.
Think I'm gonna stick to real instruments, myself...
Is it worth the $160 or should I wait until next year for the individual stuff?
Edit: 40+ venues? Holy.....
Have an Electric Guitar and just a pair of drumsticks. I would just want it for the Drums. I'll think about this. But I would like Sing Star too. :o
Well its better than GH3 and for only 70 dollars more its worth it over GH3!
i can't wait for this game, i do play real guitar, real drums, real bass, i'm a great singer(so the drunken people at the bars i play at claim), and I can even play banjo, ukulele, violin, and i'm great at piano...
real instruments are much better than these, but with the games like this it does give you a chance to play with your friends who arent good with instruments, and it can be more competitive and actually give you a goal to accomplish(beating the song 100%) Sure, there's the same goals with real instruments, but if you're using your guitar with alot of distortion you dont know if you hit the chord right or not =P