Rock Bland

Having grown bored with Guitar Hero III in just a few days, I'm hesitant to spend 200 dollars on Rock Band. Fortunately, my good friend Meager has no such reservation. And when he extended the invitation to Thanksgiving dinner at his place, I eagerly drove across town, Spear's pumpkin pie in hand, for a chance to rock out.

What makes Rock band different was obvious the moment I set foot inside his house. The plastic drum kit in the living room. And drumming is fun. On easy. Harder than that and you'll want to save it for actual drummers or to teach a lesson to annoying know-it-alls who think any idiot can play the drums. The same goes for singing. You'll probably be able to make it through any song on easy even if you've never so much as sung along with the radio in the car before. Start upping the difficulty and prepare to have your bandmates "save" you.

That's another new feature. If one member of your band fails a song, it isn't over. Someone else can bring them back using their Star Power (called "Overdrive" here). Make sure your guitarist and bassist save it to help the drummer and singer out. Also new, at least if you've never played a video game before in your life, is the character creation feature. Why this hasn't been standard since Guitar Hero 1, I haven't the slightest idea.

That pretty much does it for the new, which leaves us with the old: guitar and bass. The new Fender Stratocaster controller is way prettier than anything ever made for any of the Guitar Hero games, but the flat buttons and stiff strum bar might make for a difficult period of adjustment. Grab your trusty Guitar Hero X-Plorer controller and someone can join in on bass, just like they've been able to do since GHII.

What made Guitar Hero so great is that it took 6 (or 4) string and 22 frets and simplified them down to 5 buttons so that anyone could pretend they were a rock star. Drumming and singing in Rock Band, particularily at the higher levels, isn't a video game. It's drumming and singing. If you've got four people together who are that musically inclined, why not just start a real rock band?

Maybe I'm just burned out after 3 Guitar Hero games (II, Rocks the 80's and III) in the span of a year, but I see no reason to own my own copy of Rock Band. I will, however, gladly accept any invitations to sit in on bass for an evening.