"Keep on a rockin' me baby."

Jason's Score:

9.0

[Note: Unfortunately I only received the game alone and not the new instruments, so for now this will strictly be about the Rock Band 2 software. I will update my review as soon as I get my hands on them.]

Every so often a game will come along that I find very hard to review, because the more I write about it, the more I am reminded about how great it is and that makes me want to get up and play it, work be screwed.

That's Rock Band 2 in a nutshell for me.

It's true that overall Rock Band 2 isn't all that different than Rock Band 1. In fact, perhaps more cynical reviewers would say that some of its upgrades are things should have been there to begin with. Thankfully, I'm not a cynical reviewer, at least not today. To me Rock Band was a very good game to start with, but there are so many improvements to Rock Band 2, it's hard to pick which one I like the most.

Let's start with the World Tour mode, which is now the central mode of the game, regardless of whether you're playing RB2 with or without your pals. World Tour plays much as it did before. You start playing in just a few cities, at local dives. Play well to earn money, fans and stars. This will unlock new venues and cities. You can complete challenges to increase your fame. Take riskier challenges to gain more money or more fans (or lose fans, if you get booed offstage). Again you can play specific songs or mystery, custom or themed setlists (such as songs by Canadian performers).

What's different is that it's very easy and rewarding to progress in World Tour if you're playing alone, have friends, are online or offline, playing it hard or easy, or any combination thereof. Just about everything you do--from playing tour mode to trying out the separate Tour Challenge or Battle of the Bands modes--awards your band some combination of fans or money or both. Another nice thing is that your characters can be used for any instrument, so you no longer have to create a specific drummer, bassist, etc. if you're playing alone. If you feel like singing today instead of strumming, you can just pick that character, that activity, and off you go.

Then there's the songs, over 80 of them. All of them by the original artists, not cover bands. There are some great songs on this list, and a better overall variety. Some softer rock, speed metal, even something country-ish with the Allman Brothers. It's great. You can also rip all but three songs from Rock Band 1 to your hard drive, and all your old downloaded songs transfer too. It's true you have to pay five bucks to download and use the converter, but overall I'm pretty pleased with this set up. I'm even more pleased with the many sorting options, which makes it much easier to find a song. They've also all got the Rock Band Store's rankings, so you know if you're about to take a song that's hard on the drummer or not.

As with any collection of songs, there are bound to be songs you love and songs you hate, depending on your tastes. And funny, I've noticed that there are songs I like to listen to but hate to play (hello, "Let There Be Rock"!), and vice versa. So, I'm not going to join the "This song sucks, it shouldn't be on here" wars. I will however suggest that when it comes to mass appeal, the more mainstream the song, the better, especially for the singers. It's not that every song has to be a Top 10 hit from a mainstream artist, but how many people know the lyrics to "Livin' on a Prayer" versus the people who can sing along to "Night Lies"?

Overall though, I can't ding Rock Band 2 for a lack of mass appeal. It really is the ultimate party game and does an excellent job of going after both ends of the playing spectrum. For casual gamers who just want to goof around and pretend to be a rock star in their living room, there's a No Fail tag, so no matter how much you suck, the game goes on. I also find it useful for practicing on higher difficulties. A particularly cool touch for Rock Band fanatics who can gold star anything is that Harmonix is posting new challenges on a daily basis. As long as you're hooked up to Xbox Live, you will be presented with group and individual challenges, such as playing a set of 80s song for a high score, or trying to get the longest streak in a particular song. Getting ranked 5,673 overall is great way to remind you just how good some players are.

Graphics look about the same as they did before, but there are more clothing choices for your bandmates. There are some very cool backdrops for the songs though, like psychedelic and high tech music videos. As to the difficulty, I want to say that Rock Band 2 seems a touch easier to me, but maybe I've just picked up better skills since Rock Band 1 (unlikely, knowing me). I am better at the drums, which I used to have a complete mental block over. It helps that there is a drum trainer, which allows you to play various fills over and over, slowing them down and gradually building up skills. This is great, though the lousy drummer I am still says that the game has a funny idea of what makes "Easy" on drums.

As improved as RB2 is, minor annoyances still persists. Some features were cut from the game prior to launch, such as the ability to edit the stills you see between loads. Also, there's no Jukebox mode, which would have allowed you to just watch your band. It's true that you can turn on no Fail Mode and Performance Mode with the singer activated if you just want to watch your band, but it's kind of annoying to go through this set-up instead of a dedicated mode. One thing that sticks in my craw is that there often seems to be little rhyme or reason to the number of fans you are awarded or lose. I know the lower difficulty modes limit the number of fans you can win per performance so that you're encouraged to try the higher difficulty modes, but when you're used to getting 6000 fans a gig, and you're told that this upcoming challenge will give you double that and you still end up getting 6000 fans, something ain't right.

However, I can't complain too much. Rock Band 2 is inspiring, it's crowd pleasing and has made me excited about music again, which hasn't happened since the boy band era killed it dead. When you review games for a living, you get pretty jaded, so it takes a lot to get you pumped. But Rock Band 2 did it for me. I've even used it to hook non-gamer members of my family. Very few games have ever allowed me to do that. But now I am their pusher. First hit is free, kiddies. After that, you gotta pay.

I'll end off my review with some requests for Rock Band 3 (no asking for songs from obscure bands that only I listen to). How about:

- Always list the time for each song, so you can decide if you're ready for an eight minute workout for your fingers
- A dedicated mode for a person who wants to sing AND play an instrument. I know it can be done, but it would be great if the game could accommodate it better.
- A better stats page that keeps track of everything, from streaks to high scores
- Get a few oldies that are fun to play, like some Elvis, Beach Boys or The Beatles
- A better balance of male and female singers
- "Spinal Tap Mode," in which if the drummer fails the song, they die by mysterious choking on someone else's vomit.
- Please include the song "Increased Chances" by Chitlins, Whiskey and Skirt. Okay, I lied.

Pros

Cons

Bottom Line

Jason's Score:

9.0