Ready to rock!

Our collection of fake plastic instruments has exploded recently on account of the release of two big games I've been waiting for. The first is Rock Band which has finally reached our shores after being released in America over a year ago, even spawning a sequel which we won't see down under till next year most likely (grr). The second game was Guitar Hero 4: World Tour, the next progression in the series which introduces some interesting new additions.

I remember saying the first time I saw Guitar Freaks and Drum Mania connected in an arcade that a full band music game would be absolutely brilliant. Rock Band came out last year and aimed to give us exactly that experience. Assuming you get the full pack and an extra guitar, you and three friends can make up a band complement of vocalist, guitarist, bassist and drummer. Of course the game can be played solo using any of the instruments but it really shines when playing through a song that everyone knows and loves. *cough* Living on a Prayer perhaps.

Not wanting to lose out to their music game rivals, the developers behind Guitar Hero decided to follow in Rock Band's foot steps and released a full band experience with their latest offering as well. After much consideration I decided I absolutely needed both games to provide the largest set list possible. I'd picked up Rock Band and a guitar last week, followed that up with the Rock Band drums for the weekend and finally received my pre-ordered full instrument pack of Guitar Hero 4, with yet another set of drums, a second guitar and a karaoke like microphone.

Now fully equipped we just needed two friends to rock out with so Kath and Andrew were happy to oblige (even though they were supposed to be packing for a very exciting trip to Europe on Monday). It's amazing how much fun the games are even though our fingers and throats are now fairly sore from the long play session. The biggest surprise was how fun the singing turned out to be as the general consensus initially was it would be too embarrassing to have a good time. Thankfully the microphone volume is configurable so the vocalist can hide behind the audio of the original artist need not feel quite so self conscious (unless they try to free style eh Kath?).



While I enjoy both games, I can't help but feel that Rock Band is a slightly better package overall. Once Rock Band 2 comes out to bring the full set list close to 200 songs (replacing quite a few offerings from Guitar Hero 4 in fact) I'd say that will be the party game of choice. It's nice to have options though.