Leveling Down

Will this three pieced singer be gracing my TV screen next month?

Every bone in my alternative, grunge-loving, rock and roll body (aka my childhood) finds the upcoming casual-friendly Lego Rock Band and Band Hero games kind of gross. Taylor Swift? Janet Jackson? BRYAN ADAMS? These are the artists being rolled out for Lego Rock Band (Harmonix) and Band Hero (Activision) in the two companies’ latest attempt to cash in on the music game craze. Yet, the older, more mature, and lamer side of me is intrigued by both these games.

Harmonix’s game I’m sure will be made with the high standards all the Rock Band games have had (although I’m not sure how Lego David Bowie and Lego Iggy Pop are going to look different), and there are a lot of catchy tunes on there, including the aforementioned Bryan Adams “Summer of 69′”, Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin”, and the one song I would like to play: Europe’s “The Final Countdown”. Band Hero counters with The Mighty Mighty Bosstones’ “The Impression that I Get”, Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting”, and the CTY classic “American Pie”, by Don McLean.

These games and their tracklists present me with two dilemmas:

1) I would feel like a corporate sellout playing these songs. At the same time, pop songs are so catchy and they seem like they would be genuinely fun to play, especially with friends or my wife.

2) I really shouldn’t be spending any more money on music games. There are tracks on both discs that I would love to try out, but I can’t shell out $120 on more music games, especially when I’m still planning on picking up Guitar Hero 5 eventually! This is getting out of hand.

In the end, I’m not sure what I’m going to do. I don’t even need reviews, I’m pretty sure both games will be much of the same. If I had tweenage kids it probably would be a no-brainer, and I think a lot of families will have fun with these games, but as a solo act…I might have to pass………or not. Bah!

The Beatles’ dreamscapes are a real visual treat

The day The Beatles: Rock Band reached my door, I finished the first half of the game before my wife even got home, took her to dinner, and then finished the rest of the game (netting me the “Day Tripper” achievement in about 6 hours of real time, 3 hours of game time). That fact proves both that I am a dork and that for all intents and purposes Beatles is a pretty short game. But some of its features manage to make up a great deal of the slack left by its short playlist (44 songs in all).

First and foremost, I should state that I’m a huge Beatles fan. Even the game’s intro (which is a beautifully rendered CG imagining of the foursome) got me incredibly pumped to play the game - I wanted to jump straight into quickplay and jam to all those songs. Instead, I chose to do the responsible thing and get into story mode, which basically takes you chronologically through the Beatles history, regardless of difficulty. It’s not a big deal though, since Beatles songs are inherently pretty easy (though I have much more respect for Ringo Starr after playing his drum parts), and you can change difficulty at anytime without restarting. The story mode is kind of like a history lesson in the Beatles; for those who are more musically inclined, you can really see the evolution of the Beatles music without any direct comments on the matter. It’s as much an homage to the group as it is a game, and some of the graphical decisions Harmonix made for the backgrounds are amazing (especially after the Beatles get in the studio and get away from all the screaming girls). It’s actually pretty cool, but as I said before, it only takes about three hours.

Playing Beatles songs is actually a lot of fun, even if people don’t know the songs (which is common in this day and age, sadly), since the tunes are generally pretty simple and people can sing along. I had people over the other night and planned to only play one song to show my gamer friend, but then everyone else wanted to play so we ended up going through the “greatest hits” on the album. I even tried to explain the virtues of “I am the Walrus”, although I think it fell upon deaf ears. Since the difficulty level is generally easier people seem to enjoy themselves more since they can up the difficulty.

Really, The Beatles: Rock Band succeeds because it is so accessible. You can either get into the game because the difficulty is easier, or because you like the Beatles, or even just because you want to see all the crazy stuff that goes on in the background. Yes, there aren’t enough songs and some glaring omissions (Let it Be, Across the Universe, Help!, etc.) which will probably (hopefully) end up being DLC, and the gameplay isn’t that difficult (though the achievements are no sure bet). Harmonies are a lot of fun to sing, but only for people who are really into music. At the same time, I think Beatles Rock Band is kind of like the Wii Sports of music games, it appeals to a wide audience and is as fun to watch as it is to play. Well, maybe not AS fun, but it’s good enough. I personally really appreciate the game because it reminds me why I fell in love with the Beatles all those long years ago, and it’s given me a chance to walk around singing Beatles songs in my head eight days a week. I can’t see how any band specific games will ever hold up to the Beatles experience – just like the Beatles in the 60s, The Beatles: Rock Band ends up being larger than life in the world of music games. Good luck, Van Halen.

Yesterday (9/9/09) was not only the debut of Beatles: Rock Band, it was also the 10 year anniversary of the release of the Sega Dreamcast, which debuted back on 9/9/99. Many people wax nostalgic over the Dreamcast, and wish it hadn’t failed as it did, including some of my closest friends. Unfortunately, the Dreamcast’s hey-day was during a time that I took a break from gaming, namely, college. I really only spent time in college playing Frequency and Amplitude so unfortunately I can’t comment on how great the Dreamcast was.

All the buzz I’ve seen about the Dreamcast this past week made me think about which past console I miss the most. After some deliberation, I finally settled on the Super Nintendo. I think I’ve recounted elsewhere that I was so excited to get the console that I blew its power supply (American SNES used in HK), but after that the SNES brought me nothing but happiness. Final Fantasy IV, VI, Chrono Trigger, NHL 94, Super Mario World, Earthbound, Super Metroid, F-Zero, the original Super Mario Kart, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past….what a lineup.

The SNES was the console that took games to another level of depth, coinciding with my hitting adolescence and thus being able to appreciate that depth. At the same time, a lot of those games had that addictive gameplay that would keep my friends and me up until the sun rose racing in Kart, beating the crap out of each other in Street Fighter, and one-timing in NHL 94. One of my eternal regrets is getting rid of my Super Nintendo and not storing it in a box somewhere, which is why I gladly pay Nintendo money on the Virtual Console for the re-releases. Nothing will top all the memories I made with my friends way back when on that box.

So to end this post: Dreamcast lovers, my heart bleeds for you, but Super Nintendo, you’re my numba one!

Being recently married and a person who is obsessed with music games, I made a conscious decision this year to only buy one of the two major music games (Guitar Hero 5 and Beatles: Rock Band) at full retail price. I even backed off on that when Best Buy announced their BOGO half off promotion last week. I decided to preorder Beatles: Rock Band since I love the Beatles and trust Harmonix over Neversoft, but now that reviews are coming out for GH5 I’m beginning to regret my choice.

All the reviews that are coming out for Guitar Hero 5 make me wish I had the game RIGHT NOW. It seems like the game is now much more user friendly, you can start playing songs from the main menu, drop in/drop out, change difficulty on the fly, and play with any combination of instruments that you want. Anyway, it sounds like a lot of innovation, and I’m a bit sad to be missing out on it. What’s really great is all the songs are unlocked out of the box: no codes or anything.

I guess I’ll have to wait another week for Beatles and hope it is just as good. What I prefer about Guitar Hero is the level of difficulty, which I doubt will be present in the Beatles, so I’ll just have to hope the song list and quality makes up for the difference. I guess this only a temporary lament, since I’ll probably pick up GH5 when there’s a price drop, but I’m big on instant gratification so I’ll have to learn to wait. BAH!

The other day my wife and I had about 20 minutes to kill before we had to go out and she asked if I wanted to play a few songs in Rock Band to kill the time. For some reason, I hesitated to take her up on her offer, which is crazy because a) how often is she going to SUGGEST we play video games together, and b) I’m supposed to be a huge music game fan. That got me thinking, have music games possibly reached their saturation point?

Adding fuel to my speculative fire is the news that came out while I was away, namely, that Guitar Hero and Rock Band sales are both down (34 and 67 percent, respectively). Even though Rock Band didn’t have a new game this year, perhaps in this down economy people aren’t as willing to shell out the money for all these plastic instruments.

Personally, I’m not as excited anymore about Rock Band Beatles and Guitar Hero 5, which seems strange to me considering the amount of time I’ve put into Guitar Hero 2, World Tour, and Rock Band 1 & 2. I wonder if I’m going to put as much time into those games as I have in previous iterations. Or maybe DJ Hero is going to be the next big thing, it certainly looks interesting. Regardless, it’ll be interesting to see what happens to music games in the next year or so.

Am I alone in this, or do others feel the same way?

I recently picked up both the Rock Band 2 drumset and the Madcatz portable drum kit for good deals ($45 for the Rockband 2 kit, and $20 for the portable drum kit). Of course, my wife is going to kill me, but I’m risking it to give you readers the heads up on how they are! I originally had the Rock Band 1 drumset, and since getting these new kits, I’ve already sold it, but I will be often comparing these new kits I got with the original. Read on for my thoughts.

More »

Fallout 3’s Operation Anchorage – really worth $10?

cmfl3x asked me a little while back if I was looking forward to the Fallout 3 downloadable content. He seemed pretty excited about it and I felt bad telling him but no, I didn’t share in his excitement. In fact, while there are games I may fully enjoy, like Ninja Gaiden II or Fallout 3, I’ll never buy their DLC. To this day, I have not paid for downloadable content for any traditional game, and I don’t plan on ever doing so. Why? Because I don’t believe in what it stands for. Obviously if downloadable content is free, such as Burnout Paradise’s motorcycles and whatnot, or BioShock’s extra plasmids, then sure – it is always welcome. It’s when it starts getting charged for that it gets on my nerves.

I actually wrote up an entire article just knocking on it, but then felt it may come off as too much of a rant so I held off. I figure that if I could turn it into a discussion topic with cmfl3x, it’d be a little more civil.

More »

Is this the final round for Guitar Hero and Rock Band, or just this 3-part feature?

So I’ve come to the end of our look at Guitar Hero and Rock Band. We’ve taken a side by side look at Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 in Part 2 of this series. In Part 1, I wrote about some of the best innovations in last year’s music genre releases. With Guitar Hero: Metallica and the Harmonix Beatles project right around the corner, there is a lot to look forward to for music game fans this year. I’m not sure, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Activision put out another Guitar Hero game this year.

So where can the music game genre go from here? The great thing about having two horses in the race now is that they keep trying to out-do each other. Here in Part 3, I’ve listed my top 5 questions concerning things I hope to see in music games in the future.

More »

Note: this article is not about Street Fighter.

So in Part 1 of our Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 comparison, we took a look at some of the better innovations the two franchises have made in the music genre. Hopefully those innovations will continue to push the music genre in a good direction moving forward, but what’s important here and now is how these games stack up against one another. Who will emerge victorious?

More »

Are Rock Band and Guitar Hero destined to go down in history like Ryu and Ken?

Obviously, a lot has been written in the debate between Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Everyone wants to know: Which game is better, Guitar Hero or Rock Band? As a huge music game fan, I thought I’d throw my 2 cents into the ring. I’ll try not to rehash things that have been said previously and take an objective look at the two franchises that hopefully will help you decide which to purchase if you’re on a tight budget.

Personally, I love both the finger numbing difficulty in Guitar Hero and the party oriented nature of Rock Band, so I hope this feature will be a relatively objective look at the two. This will be a three part series comparing and contrasting the two franchises. Part 1 will take a brief look at the history of the war between Guitar Hero and Rock Band and some of the best new ideas the most recent games, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2, have brought to the table. Part 2 will compare and contrast the two games in some key areas, including the all important content library. Finally, Part 3 will contain a wish list of what I hope to see from Rock Band and Guitar Hero in the future. Hit the jump for Part 1!

More »