High Tech Household

Plastic guitars? Drums taking up the living room? Is a band video game a good family game night activity? Read on for a his-and-hers review by my wife and me of Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band.

He Said

Full disclosure: I’m a Beatles fanatic. I didn’t really realize this, though, until I started to talk to friends in college about music. I found that some of them hadn’t actually heard all of Sgt. Pepper’s, and some didn’t hold Revolver as the pinnacle of pop music. I had trouble understanding this. I had thought those were settled questions.

I’m a Beatles fanatic because I was weaned on them. My father’s extended family, of about 50 people or so, are all Beatles fanatics. At family weddings, there is always at least some period when Rocky Raccoon must be played, and all the assembled sing every single word, including all the “doot-da-doos”. I’ve been told that’s it’s a little unnerving from an outsider’s perspective.

So yeah, big Beatles fan here.

That all being said, before a few weeks ago, I had never seriously played any of the guitar/band rhythm games (Guitar Hero and/or Rock Band). The few times I had tried, I was discouraged pretty quickly, and I usually found the track selections to be a bit cheesy.

But then The Beatles: Rock Band was announced. As stated above, I adore the music, so I was very intrigued. Then the price hit me. $250 USD for the whole bundle with drums, mic, mic stand, and guitar. Fortunately, lately both the Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour bundles (both with guitar, mic and drums and fully compatible) are easily found for $100 lately. Then The Beatles is just $60 for the game by itself. Still a substantial chunk, but also substantially less than $250. And there’s the bonus of getting a whole other game as well.

My wife had no objection (“You’re spending your own money..”), so, on the advice of a coworker that the games are fun even solo, I took the plunge. My wife promised to give it a try with me, but she expected not to be too impressed by it. She likes the Beatles fine, but is not a fanatic by any means.

A couple of hours of Rock Band 2 later, and we had our in-game band rolling. We were both much looking forward to The Beatles: Rock Band.

She said

I made it very clear when Brian was admiring the Rock Band 2 kit that he’d be a solo performer. I distinctly remember saying “You’re on your own there.”  The pop culture references surrounding the instruments that aren’t quite instruments was enough to make me, an actual musician, head for the hills. “Why don’t you just learn to play a real guitar?”   Well, it’s been three weeks since the guitar and plastic drum set have set up residence in our home, and I’ll openly admit that I’m a changed lady.

What I initially was afraid of was the novelty factor of RB2 wearing off– as it did for us with DDR and its successors. I didn’t want to shell out hundreds of dollars for something that would be fun once or twice only to end up collecting dust and taking up space in our family room. What I’ve found with RB2, much to my surprise, is that the simple plot is compelling, comfortably challenging in nature, and a great pick-up game when you have a few minutes or an hour to spare.  I was impressed with the variety of songs available to play and the option to purchase individual songs. Our first duet was Modest Mouse’s “Float On”– by the end of the song, I realized my foot was keeping rhythm, and I really felt like I was playing an instrument.  Granted, as a non-guitar player, I know it’s not the same experience, but the actual gameplay really did feel musical. I attempted the drums on a few songs as well, and while the rhythms were fun, I found the noise of the plastic drum heads a little less enjoyable for me than the guitar. That worked out, of course, as Brian seemed much more comfortable with the drumsticks while I strummed away with lead guitar. We both attempted the vocals to a few songs, which was surprisingly challenging given the need to match pitch and lyrics while providing an occasional tambourine or cowbell backup by thwacking the microphone.

I’ll leave the technical details to my husband on this one, but as far as aesthetics go, I was thoroughly impressed, from the RB2 guitar, to the options for personalization within the game. I can compare RB2 with Guitar Hero after playing one of their models last week while on vacation; though I’ll admit that an arcade-style version of Guitar Hero isn’t a completely fair comparison, I could definitely tell the difference between the guitars.  While I found the brightly colored tabs on GH much easier to use, the more subtle color bands on RB2′s guitar made the instrument seem less childish and more like a guitar. The visuals of the game were quite fun. Brian and I each created a character for use in the story mode; by adjusting everything from the amount and color of facial hair to my general performance attitude (myself, punk, and Brian a rocker), the game felt really personalized. In addition, by successfully playing songs, you earn money that can be spent on upgraded guitars, clothing, and transportation during gameplay. The final element in the storyline mode which makes it truly a fun and personalized experience is that your newly created band picks its hometown from a select list. We chose to be based out of Chicago (our real home town), which made playing in various venues (that really exist!) a fun and realistic experience.  In addition, there are “local artists” set lists of songs for lesser-known bands in your selected hometown.

Beatles Rock Band, a recent release, appeared to me to be a streamlined and more focused version of what I enjoyed in RB2.  Though I wouldn’t consider myself a huge Beatles fan like my husband, I definitely enjoyed the musical gameplay presented in chronological order.  Instead of earning money for embellishing your character, you unlock various group photos of the band and Beatles history memorabilia, and of course, more songs to play. I’d say this aspect of the game is strictly tailored to Beatles fans, as I didn’t find it nearly as exciting as my husband did. Similarly, since you’re actually playing as the Beatles, there isn’t that option for tailoring your character. In fact, you’re really experiencing a fairly linear plot with little personalization. I’d say this is a drawback when comparing it to RB2, but I think the point of the game is more about a tribute to the Beatles than anything individualistic.  However, I think my opinion of the Easter eggs and prizes would be very different if the game was Billy Joel: Rock Band.  Still, for a game that offers so much variety in how you play, the plot seems strikingly too limited. I could see myself playing through once, then shelving BRB until friends and family came over to join in. RB2, however, I think has much more potential for replaying through with a different hometown, characters, and challenges.

My overall opinion? Rock Band is well worth the money for musicians and non-musicians alike. I could definitely see myself playing this solo, though I think I’ll always have a willing drummer nearby.  Beatles Rock Band, on the other hand, would be great for parties and a game for the Beatles fanatic. If I were to purchase one, it would definitely be RB2. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a gig to play at the Palace Hotel Ballroom.

He said some more

Rock Band 2 comes with over 80 songs, and on whatever platform, you can download more songs, whether they’re whole albums (for instance, Pearl Jam just released their latest album for download on Rock Band), or individual tracks. All the music in the game tends to lean in the direction of hard rock, but there is a bit more variety in the downloadable tracks, which include classic rock as well as country.

The Beatles: Rock Band on the other hand, only has 40 or so songs, and only Beatles songs, as opposed to Guitar Hero: Metallica, for instance, which includes several songs from artists that inspired the band. The upshot to the paucity of tracks in BRB is that several complete Beatles albums will be released for download soon. Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Rubber Soul will be released in October, November and December, respectively.

As far as downloabable tracks, the PS3 and Xbox 360 both handle this much better than the Wii. With Rock Band 2, both the PS3 and 360 can import the tracks from previous games in the series, or from track pack discs purchased at retail. There is no such option with the Wii, even if you have a large SD card. Overall, both the PS3 and 360 versions of seem to be the premier platforms, but which each iteration, the Wii comes closer to feature parity.

As for graphical presentation, this is definitely a game that works much better on a wide screen TV, and the bigger the better. Each player must watch a relatively tight region of the screen, and a wide screen display gives everyone a lot more breathing room. Also, having a large display lets every see the screen fine at a reasonable distance from the television.

As you would expect, the PS3 and 360 versions of these games look much better than the Wii version, but that’s not to say the Wii games looks bad. On the contrary, we’ve been playing on the Wii, and have no complaints whatsoever with the visuals. The Beatles: Rock Band, in particular, might be one of the best looking Wii games ever. In the original Rock Band, the Wii version only displayed a video for your band playing rather than your actual avatars like the other two did, but that shortcoming has been remedied in Rock Band 2.

A Few Notes on Hardware Compatibility

If you’ve got any of these games already (any Guitar Hero or Rock Band installment), or think you might want to pick up more, it would be wise to familiarize yourself with which instruments are compatible with which games. Generally, the more recent instruments work with all the more recent games, but the farther back you go with either side of the equation, the sketchier compatibility becomes. There are quite a few games and instrument combinations to wrap your mind around. Thankfully, there are a few guides online for this question:

Harmonix (developers of Rock Band) compatibility list: Rock Band Instrument Compatibility

It’s tougher to find one place where Neversoft (current developers of the Guitar Hero series) maintains a list of peripheral compatibility. I was able to find this matrix from Joystiq, though.