Strap on your best rock clothes, because it’s time to start a band. Rock Band takes rhythm games to the next level by combining the best of the best. Singing, guitar, drums and bass; it’s all there. Whether you want to rock online or offline, the choice is yours. Harmonix has a real winner on it’s hands. Here is a breakdown of some of the facets of Rock Band for the PS3:

Presentation and Graphics: It’s a rhythm game, so graphics aren’t the biggest factor here. But Rock Band does a good job anyway. You can customize your character’s appearance, which is a nice addition for the genre. During the course of play, you unlock new wardrobe items and guitars, or you can buy them in the in-game store with the money you earn from playing gigs. The band playing behind the notes on the screen looks pretty darn good, despite the fact you hardly see it while playing. The notes displayed on the screen are rectangles, which is change from the more familiar circles of Guitar Hero games. Notes that are available as hammer ons and pull offs are smaller than typical notes, which are fairly easy to see. No graphical slowdown was observed in either offline or online play with one to four players. 4.5 of 5

Sound and Music: It’s a music game, so the sound better be on point. In Rock Band, it definitely is. The track list for the game is made up of some of the greatest rock hits of all time, which provides a great experience. Just like Rock Band, you only hear your instrument if you’re hitting the notes. So if your drummer fails out during band play, you won’t hear the back beat. What intrigued me the most was each track has it’s own crowd backing. You’ll hear the crowd singing along to big parts of the song. The best, in my opinion, is the crowd screaming the chorus to Wanted Dead of Alive by Bon Jovi. Does it get any better? 5 of 5

Gameplay: Harmonix has been doing a great job with guitar gameplay for years, so it’s only fitting the that Rock Band hits the nail on the head. Guitar works just like Guitar Hero, as you would expect. It’s a bit easier than Guitar Hero III in that there isn’t an insane note placement in all songs. However, it’s a tiny bit harder as the window to hit each note is smaller in Rock Band than Guitar Hero III. Singing works exactly like SingStar in that you need to be on time and on pitch with each word of the song. There is an arrow which displays your pitch so you know if you need to raise or lower your voice. Drums work surprisingly like real life, and as such are the hardest part of the game. Not many people realize how hard it is to play drums, but there is a big challenge involved. You’ll definitely want to start out on Easy if you’ve never played percussion before. But once you get the hang of it, the drum portion of Rock Band is a ton of fun. Melding all the elements together is a blast, especially with a lot of friends together in your living room. 5 of 5

Multiplayer: Multiplayer is what Rock Band is all about. Sure, you can go through solo careers for each instrument, but the real fun comes in when you get three friends to join you and create your own band. You can go through Band World Tour, where you start from nothing and work your way up to fame and fortune. Solo Career is fun, but the Band World Tour is the bread and butter of the game. Going online, you can play solo in Tug of War or Score Duel against other players with the same instrument, or you do Band Quick Play where you find up to 3 other friends and rock out until your heart’s content. The only downside to the multiplayer in the game is that you can’t play Band World Tour online. A lot of times it’s hard to find 2-3 friends to play at the same time at home, so having the ability to create a band online and going through World Tour with friends anywhere in the world would have made the game even that much better. 4.5 of 5

Lasting Appeal: With the MTV brand behind the game, there is a huge source of downloadable content available and coming soon. Individual songs, track packs, and soon full albums will be available to download for anywhere from $0.99 to $2.99 a track. Most songs end up being $1.99 each, which is a very fair price considering the amount of work that needs to go into each song. With MTV, EA and Harmonix intent on releasing new content almost weekly, the game will continue to take up a lot of your time for the greater part of the next year. 5 of 5

Final Word: If you’ve been a Guitar Hero fan for the past few years, going to Rock Band is the natural progression. Saving up $170 for the game is a must for fans of the genre. The only real issues that users are seeing now are the somewhat broken guitars (which EA and Harmonix are replacing) and the fact you can’t buy extra guitars to complete your band (which will be resolved in February when separate peripherals are released). Taking everything into account, this is one of the most fun gaming experiences you will have. Sell something if you have to, but definitely buy this game.

Overall: 4.75 of 5

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