Sex and Drugs Sold Separately

The missus and I have never been what one would call large-scale entertainers. Parties at our house are few and far between; our modest media room seating has rarely been strained—until last year, that is, when we found ourselves the host of biweekly Rock Band parties.

Since then, every other Saturday night our home is packed with rockers-in-waiting, champing at the bit for their turn at a microphone or faux instrument.

Suffice it to say, Rock Band 2 has been hotly awaited.

If you’ve never experienced Rock Band (or its spiritual forebears, the first two Guitar Hero games) the concept can be a little hard to grok.

At the heart of the experience is the guitar controller—a little plastic guitar with a strum-bar instead of strings and plastic buttons instead of frets. Hold the appropriate fret button and strum the bar at the right time as colorful notes flow down the screen and you’re rewarded with a guitar lick from a popular rock tune.

Add another guitar for the bass lines, plastic drums (which work much the same: beat the right plastic drum pad at the right time and the rock beat continues), and a really sophisticated karaoke element to the mix (think SingStar) and you’ve got Rock Band at its most basic.

Not only does this formula make for some really great (and oft-hilarious) social interaction, the addition of at least three new downloadable songs a week to the Rock Band library really gives the game legs. You almost have to wonder why a sequel was necessary in the first place.

But it’s a rock-game-eat-rock-game world out there, and with a new Guitar Hero game on the way, a Rock Band sequel was inevitable. (Interesting rock game trivia: Harmonix, makers of Rock Band and Rock Band 2, made the first two Guitar Hero games. Since they left the fold, the Guitar Hero series has been developed by Neversoft, makers of the Tony Hawk series).

Harmonix faced in interesting dilemma with this sequel, though: change the formula too much and the literally hundreds of songs bought and paid for by loyal fans of the first game might not work in the second; keep the game compatible with all that came before, though, and the second helping runs the risk of seeming like just more of the same.

Somehow they split the difference and ended up with an experience that’s both fresh and familiar. Not only are all of the downloadable songs from the first game integrated seamlessly into the gameplay of Rock Band 2, all of the songs from the original game disc can also be exported (for a mere five clams) and woven just as seamlessly into the sequel’s various modes of play. Incidentally, many of these modes have been updated, revamped, or scrapped and crafted anew—there are no solo tours anymore, for example, although the various challenges that now serve to unlock new songs can be played solo or as a band. And the new No Fail mode makes playing with the little ones (or the terminally rhythmically challenged) much less frustrating.

It should also be noted that the stock playlist this time around is perhaps the most well thought out of any music/rhythm game ever—a fact that a mere glance at the song titles might not convey. Every track, from Motörhead's "Ace of Spades" to the debut cut from the next Guns N' Roses album, seems to have been handpicked with band interaction in mind. And this time around there are no lame cover tunes; every one of the 86 songs is performed by the original artist, although the aforementioned “Ace of Spades” is a newly recorded version, and the guitar solo in the Allman Brothers Band’s “Ramblin’ Man” is from no version of the song I’ve ever heard.

As a whole, the set list is a great mix of all-time favorites (“White Wedding,” “Aqualung,” “Pinball Wizard,” “Psycho Killer”), great grunge anthems (“Man in the Box,” “Spoonman,” “Drain You”) and modern rock hits that are a blast to play even if us old fogies might not recognize them off the bat (“One Step Closer,” “Float On,” Chop Suey!” etc.).

And even though there may be a few songs here and there that aren’t to all tastes, there’s sure to be at least one song in the bunch that you’ve proclaimed as your favorite song, like, ever, no matter when you were born.

The gameplay and set lists aren’t the only things that have changed, though: the release of Rock Band 2 on the 360 (a month before its PS3 debut) is also accompanied by a new wireless guitar and drums.

In addition to cutting the cord, Harmonix has packed the new axe with a microphone and light sensor, making automatic lag calibration a snap. They’ve also added a spiffy new sunburst finish and a faux-rosewood fingerboard and satin-finish neck. The biggest change is in the less-mushy strum bar and the quieter fret buttons, though.

The drums have seen a much more radical makeover—at least in terms of functionality (aesthetically, they only got a new coat of grey paint and a shiny spot to aim at on the drum heads themselves). The drummer in your regular Rock Band ensemble will be happy to find that the drums are now register velocity, and pick up subtle rolls much better. And the metal-reinforced kick pedal ensures that you won't have to tiptoe on the bass beats anymore. Or, in the words of my wife, our resident Animal, “These things kick so much [gerund form expletive deleted][expletive noun deleted]!”

Let there be no doubt about it: Rock Band 2 is an amazing game, even if it’s more evolution than revolution. Old fans will be thrilled to find that their old favorite songs integrate perfectly into the new experience; newbies will be nearly overwhelmed by the massive catalog and the sheer musicality of it all (after all, Harmonix employees are all musicians themselves, a fact that gives their games a huge undeniable edge over the competition).

Granted, I would have loved to see a few more onscreen instruments—I am starting to get a weensy bit tired of seeing the same collection of Fender and Gretsch guitars around my avatar’s neck—and the one additional clothing store doesn’t add quite enough variety to the mix. But in the end, who really cares? These little extras are icing at best, and rarely noticed while actually playing the game.

Here’s hoping Harmonix takes the same approach when it comes time to release Rock Band 3 next year. As they say: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. All Harmonix really needs to do is keep tweaking the experience and keep signing up great new bands, and I imagine the Rock Band parties at the Burger Casa will keep on rolling for yet another year.

PRICE:
$59,99 (game only)
$189.99 (game with guitar, microphone, and drums)

CONTACT: RockBand2.com