ButtonBandits.com

This title has been hotly anticipated by the ButtonBandits crew, so when it finally got arrived after it’s long journey from the US of A everyone was hyped to play it straight away. Putting together the drums was straight forward taking only a few minutes so we were straight into the game and playing in no time. Unfortunately the problems started occurring pretty much straight away. 

Put simply the Rock Band guitar is not as good as any of the previous guitar hero controllers. The primary reason being the strum bar does not click and is instead “mushy”. This causes problems when trying play the same note over and over again in very quick succession as the bar doesn’t centre quick enough. This has the effect in sections requiring very quick strums of the same note over and over again of the guitar rather than the player causing notes to be missed. Even our best guitar player had problems getting a perfect score because of this “feature”. That said you do eventually get used to it but there’s always the thought that had you been using the Guitar Hero 3 guitar you wouldn’t have missed as many notes.

The Drums are perfect to use and easily the games main attraction with everyone wanting to be the drummer over the guitar or mic. The drum pads and kick pedal work really well. In a involving song on medium difficulty or higher you really feel like yor playing the drum part of the song rather than a plastic instrument. The drum sticks are also good quality and make a satisfying sound when hit together rather than on the drums. The drums aren’t without their technical faults either though. The noise coming off the pads when hit is very high pitched and loud. This might not be a problem if you live in a detached house, but for everyone else it means you can’t really play the game without your neighbours hearing unless you make a conscious effort to only lightly hit the pads. This then has the effect of spoiling the game though as you consciously try not to get too into the song and carried away. We have purchased some gum rubber pads that stick onto the pads but this hasn’t dampened the sound enough so as not to be a noise nuisance to neighbours. The next step is to dampen the drum sticks as well as the pads and hope this has the required effect.

The microphone, well whats there to say? It’s a microphone that does it’s job, looks pretty cool and has a decent amount of weight to it to make it feel well made and realistic.

Lets put these peripheral issues to one side and take a look at the game itself. As a party game this is without a doubt one of the best multiplayer experiences you can have on a games console. Everyone wants to play and carry on playing. It’s not like the usual scenario where non games players have to be forced to have a go, people are genuinely interested when seeing it in action. If pubs were to install the game in place of karaoke I’m sure it would be very popular.

The game modes available too are very good. Quick play is available for party style play, but the band world tour option is where the game really shines. Me and Frosty have been slowly working our way through this game mode with myself on the drums, with Frosty playing the guitar and the singing at the same time. This is the primary game mode with you playing gigs in small venues working your way up to large stadiums as the game progresses. To get there you have to complete various challenges along the way such as playing monster 18 track gigs, where you have to complete all 18 songs in a row to complete that particular “stage”.

After the great multiplayer experience the single player feels like a bit of a let down with no proper world tour mode available, simply the same routine thats used in guitar hero where basically all your doing is working your way down a track list with no real story wrapped around it.  It plays as though it’s just practice for when you get back to multiplayer and the world tour mode. That’s not to say it’s a poor game in single player, it’s just as good if not better than the Guitar Hero games, but after how much fun there is to be had in the multiplayer, playing solo just can’t compete.

The tracks available in the game work really well, personally I think the track listing is much better than what is available in Guitar Hero 3. Some songs are more fun to play on one particular instrument, eg one may have lots of involed pieces on the guitar but have very little for the drummer to do. With many more tracks available for download from the music store, their is sure to be something that appeals to everyone who wants to play. 

Overall this is the most enjoyable multiplayer experience you will ever experienced in a video game. On that basis, assuming you can afford it then this is a definite purchase. In terms of solo play it’s still good but not a patch on the multiplayer experience, so you really do have to weigh up the cost of it all if your only going to be playing solo. I’m not sure its worth £180 as a solo game when it comes out in the UK in May, but if your sure your going to be able to regularly play multiplayer or you can afford it regardless then go for it.

8/10