Rock Band vs Guitar Hero

Fall, 2005. I'm a senior in college, splittin' a room with J, livin' with the guys in Milbrook. Kros mentions he got some really frickin lame sounding game about a guitar-ddr crossover with a plastic guitar. A few weeks later, we have Guitar Hero 1 in our common room and are rocking out on a regular basis. Now, almost 3 years later, GH3 is out, as is Rock Band, GH3's prime competitor in the fake-plastic-instrument-video-game-whynotspendyourtimelearningarealinstrumentinsteadofwastingallthistimeonfakeinstruments-market.
So here it is. Guitar Hero versus Rock Band. The final say. The winner is... Rock Band, by a landslide.




I was hesitant at first about Rock Band. I was a loyal GH fan, and vocals/drums seemed kinda dumb. BUT, like with GH 3 years ago, I was wrong. Rock Band is superior to Guitar Hero in every single way.

1. Drums/vocals. This adds a whole new fun element in the game. At first I was timid about singing, but no longer. It's a lot of fun. Who cares if you have an awful singing voice. Your friends will be too glued into hitting the right notes on their instruments to notice. And drums, although difficult, is also very fun. If you have 4 ppl playing GH, you gotta alternate songs. Rock Band is great for groups of friends-maybe one of the best hang-out-and-play-with-friends games of all time for any system.

2. The Campaign. I'll admit I'm not familiar with GH3's campaign mode, and comparing RB to GH1 would be unfair. So I'll just rave about RB. The "World Tour" starts in just a few cities, and as things progress, you can unlock new cities and bigger venues. Also, in venues you have options to play single songs, or sets. And there are challenges and stuff along the way, and new things can be unlocked, like a sound guy, PR firm, etc. Very addicting and fun to play.

3. The guitar gameplay. Of all things, GH should have a better guitar... I mean it's called GUITAR HERO. You'd expect the guitar and bass to be better. Although almost a tie, I give the slight edge to RB, because in GH, when you get "starpower," the colors turn blue and I would always miss a note as I switched to starpower because the colors go away. In RB, the colors stay, so I can safely deploy "overdrive" and keep my streak going!

4. Last, but not least, the songs, man! We keep unlocking new songs, and they keep rocking. Electric version! Reptillia! (although GH3 has this too) Don't Fear the Reaper! (VERY fun to sing) The Who, The Rolling Stones, BOSTON!! Bowie, Black Sabbath, (early) Weezer! The songs are great, and more can be downloaded.

Rock Band simply rocks. So go get Rock Band, or be like me, and bum off of a friend who has it. Why waste your time with a "real" instrument when you could be earning virtual fans, traveling all over the world with your band, and having a great time?