VeryCoolSpouse would like one of the Rock Star games for Xmas. I know nothing about them. How many different types are on the market? Is one particularly better?
Most important: How many items besides the actual unit/console (guitar controller, drum set, etc.) do I need so that Xmas afternoon can be full of fun & games? We’ll also need to play bowling, tennis, and whatever else is available I’m sure. Is each a separate purchase?
Do you mean Rock Band?
Rockstar is a company that makes videogames.
With a Wii you should get Wii Sports, which has tennis, and baseball and bowling on it, included with the purchase of the Wii (at least when I got mine last year). Do you already have one? If not, you’d better get cracking.
Guitar Hero comes with one guitar. Your Wii Remote controller fits in the guitar. This is all you need to play the game in single player mode. Guitar Hero also has a 2 player mode, which would require the purchase of a second guitar, cost $15-60 depending where you buy it (I suggest amazon.com; they have a large selection of different bodies and colors).
Rock Band also comes with the guitar controller, drum controller, and microphone. It also comes with the USB hub you need to be able to make them work.
I haven’t played Rock Band myself, but I do own Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii. It’s a blast. Friends with Rock Band tell me it’s so similar to GH that MTV Games should prolly be sued for copyright infringement.
On this, Guitar Hero 1 and 2 and rockband 1 and 2 were all made by the same company: Harmonix. Harmonix left Activision after GH Aerosmith or whatever, and then Activision, retaining the rights to the GH name, gave the series over to Neversoft, who did GH 3 and GH World Tour. Rockband is better than GH in my opinion, though I’ve not played the wii version (I can’t imagine it being terribly different, though you don’t have access to a good deal of the downloadable content)
Rock Band has more depth (since you get to play all the instruments instead of just guitar and bass), but personally I find GH’s execution of the guitar bit to be vastly superior. Plus, the drum kit for Rock Band is virtually unplayable unless you have tiny tiny feet because your ankle will be ready to fall off after ten minutes of trying to hit the bass drum pedal.
If you’ve already got a PS2 or something you can get Guitar Hero 1 & 2 in a combo deal for $25 or so, and buy a couple guitars yourself. I strongly recommend it.
Guitar Hero has also been upgraded to a full band game with Guitar Hero: World Tour, which comes in two flavors: Guitar Kit (which is just the game and one guitar) and Band Kit (which is the game, two guitars, a microphone and a drumset).
As for which is better, I’d say check out the setlists for both and pick out which one has more songs you like.
Rock Band 2 (won’t be released until December)
Rock Band for the Wii sucks. Don’t get it. By contrast, Guitar Hero III is awesome on toast. I’ll let you know about Guitar Hero World Tour when my wife lets me buy it.
To be honest, the biggest difference between RB and GH from a game standpoint is that Guitar Hero has harder hard songs, and more really rocking guitar tracks. Whereas Rock Band has more tracks that rock in a generalized sense.
Just to contrast here I was much happier with the broader types of songs in Rock Band than I was with those in Guitar Hero. There’s nothing wrong with Rock Band on the Wii either; it lacks some of the pointless flash that the other platforms had for some reason (I suspect it was due to the release date to try to keep it six months apart from the sequel) but the actual game play works perfectly.
Also Rock Band was made by musicians and so, if you play any of those instruments, their game-counterparts are actually much closer to what you’d really play rather than in GH where there are all sorts of weird chords it makes you play simply to ramp up the difficulty but have no bearing on how you’d actually play the song. I used to be a drummer and I have a lot of friends who still play the guitar, and this used to piss them off to no end (in GH 3) whereas I always loved the Drum tracks in the original RB (haven’t played 2 yet, my apt is too small for such things)
The fact that downloadable songs on the Wii version were broken was a deal-breaker for me, especially with World Tour claiming they had the problem solved. (Admittedly, I’ve dropped cash on a buddy’s copy of XBox Rock Band to buy tracks)
Both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour have solved the DLC problem on the Wii. So on that front, they’re even.
I’d go with an Xbox 360 over a Wii, but different strokes for different folks.
I have both RB1/2 and GHWT. I MUCH prefer the former. RB is more fun, less repetitious, and easier to navigate. You can get the bundled set for about $180 or so which includes a guitar, drum set, and mike. You can then pick up another compatible guitar and you’re ready to roll for a whole band.
I would recomment Rock Band for the XBox360, and get a hard drive for your 360. Here’s why:
-Rock Band lets up to 4 players play at once, guitar, bass, drums, and vocals.
-XB360 or PS3 lets you download songs. The Wii version won’t let you do that. If I’m not mistaken, the Wii won’t let you customize characters either.
-XB360 has a good game library, with many older titles for $20 or so.
With a Wii, you’ll want to make sure you’re getting 2 nunchuks + 2 wiimotes. Read the fine print on the Wii console.
I strongly recommend the Nyko rechargeable battery and charger doodad. Otherwise you’ll be eating AA batteries like no tomorrow.
Where as I don’t like buying things without physical media so the track packs they offer for the Wii (and the PS2) which are essentially half-games at half the price are my preference.