Deja Fu

I wasn’t going to purchase Rock Band when it was announced. I already had Guitar Hero II and I knew GHIII was going to be released at the same time, so I figured I’d put my money behind it. Not one of my better decisions. Rock Band just kicks the ever-living crap out of Guitar Hero. Harmonix (the original creators of Guitar Hero) has managed to take the genre to a new height while also creating one of the best multi-player games. Ever.

Where GH allowed you and a friend to rock together, Rock Band allows you and three friends to form your own virtual band - one singer, one drummer, a lead guitarist and a bass guitarist. So far it’s just been Morgan and I, but that will be changing soon. However, even with just the two of us, being able to play something other than a guitar part is exhilarating.

Gameplay is derived from the classic Guitar Hero formula. The drums are set up much like the guitar, with an additional layer - an orange line represents the kick pedal for the bass drum. Singing is pitch-dependent and the game scrolls the song’s words by on the screen, along with the duration each one should last. You can get star power, now called Overdrive, and they’ve made it so each player can do it independently. It serves more functions than just score now. If another player is playing so badly they fail the song, you can use the Overdrive to pull them back in. You can even form a virtual band over the Internet if you just don’t have that many people around to come over.

In all, it’s been a blast and I suspect it will continue to be so for quite some time. With new songs being released every week on XBox Live and even talk of downloadable albums, Rock Band turned out to be a nice way to start the new year.

-K