Let’s see here: We currently have Rock Band 2, Band Hero, Guitar Hero 5, and Glee Karaoke for the Wii. We used to have Rock Band and four other Karaoke Revolution games for the PS2 as well before we sold it all to buy the Wii. So it’s pretty easy to see that our family enjoys music simulation games.
What’s annoying is that whenever someone wants to, say, sing “Don’t Rain On My Parade” (Glee Karaoke), followed by playing guitar for “Pinball Wizard” (RB2), with a bass encore for “You Belong With Me” (BH), and finishing with drums for “Kryptonite” (GH5), we would have to cycle through 4 discs.
I wish there was some sort of umbrella application that would recognize any music simulation program and allow quick switching between different games. And while I’m wishing for the stars, I’d want this application to also allow any number of different combinations of people to do whatever song is selected. If I want four singers wailing “Pinball Wizard”, then dammit, let me have it! If I want four drums doing “Bad Romance”, then why stop me? Heck, I want four singers *and *four drummers!
Sheesh. I might be willing to buy more music games if song access was simpler and faster.
Probably. My wife and daughter are singing specialists, though, and singing is kind of Rock Band’s weakness. Its are chosen primarily for guitar and drum challenges. Rock Band Beatles was a little better, but the interface was still confusing - “Which arrow am I? Which color line am I supposed to be singing?” are common questions when we play. I haven’t checked out Rock Band 3, which is supposed to have a similar singing system, but does it work with older tracks? In other words, would we be able to have multiple singers belting out “Foreplay/Longtime”?
Band Hero/Guitar Hero 5… they only have little hard to see dots to indicate whether your singing on key. Awful.
Personally, I really like the Karaoke Revolution pitch meter. Yes, it’s similar to Rock Band’s, but it’s better at helping me find the right pitch. Also, you can do duets in KR… which is nice when you want to sing, say, “Don’t You Want Me Baby”.
Ultrastar Deluxe works as kind of an umbrella karaoke game, but it uses Sing Star’s static pitch detecting method, which means you don’t know what your pitch was until after you sang.
I’ve thought about Frets of Fire, but it seems like it’s just a Rock Band/Guitar Hero clone and has the same singing weaknesses.
You could buy a honkin’ big SD card and import all of RB2 into RB3. I think you need at least…4GB? 2GB?
I have a 2GB card but it’s 100% full of RB downloads, so if I want to put as many songs as possible on RB3, I have to get a new card.
Of course, Nintendo hasn’t officially licensed any cards bigger than 2GB yet (they licensed some SanDisk cards) but they say on the Wii FAQ that you can use up to 32GB.