Rock Band

What could be more fun than hanging out with good mates, singing songs into brightly coloured microphones and fighting over big plastic guitars? Why, if you threw in drum pads! With the arrival of both Singstar and Guitar Hero, thousands of gamers have transformed overnight into budding musicians, eager to show off their (drunken) talent at the drop of a party hat.

The days of mere microphone medleys or lonely guitar riffs are almost over though, with the impending arrival of Rock Band. Rock Band will allow gamers to perform music from the world’s biggest rock artists with their friends as a virtual band using drum, bass/lead guitar and microphone peripherals, in addition to offering online connectivity.

Players will be able to create and fully customise characters and band logos to take their unique look and sound online, for better or worse. Hardcore musicians and/or fans may also be pleased to see that the guitar is a 3/4 Fender Stratocaster replica. Very fancy!

“Harmonix was founded to create new ways for everyone to experience the pleasure and satisfaction that comes from playing music. Our work on Guitar Hero was an instrumental step toward that goal,” stated Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix. “But Rock Band is Harmonix’s most ambitious project to date, and it will take music gameplay to an entirely new level. MTV has given us the freedom and the resources to really swing for the fences and make the game we’ve always wanted to make.”

Unfortunately New Zealand isn’t expected to get Rock Band on the 360 and PS3 until late January 2008, so we’ll probably amuse ourselves with Guitar Hero 3 over the Christmas season. Although the track list sports some interesting songs, the lack of anything decidedly new will see Generation Short-Attention-Span pass in favour of hitting things with drum sticks. Wireless drum sticks, of course. Beat that Guitar Hero!

Keep it locked to NZGamer for coverage of these two much-hyped games.

A musical war is brewing. Which side are you on?