Game Details

ESRB Rating: 

T (Teen (13+))

Number of Players: 

3-4

Introduction

The popular Rock Band rhythm game has been out for several months. While the PS3 and Xbox have had multi-player online capabilties for a while, the Wii version lagged behind until now. Rock Band 2 for the Wii retains all the great features of the original Rock Band (special edition) like a wide variety of songs, allowing the family to play cooperatively play together, and excellent graphics. The latest version is online capable.

Setup

The game comes with a drum set, a standard five button guitar, and microphone to round out the instrument set. When we got the box home, we immediately set to the task of setting it up. I have to admire the company for their packaging. It certainly is industrious. It was a bit like one of those puzzles where you cannot take one thing out before removing a series of others in the exact right order. In some cases I couldn’t determine the order and had to destroy the carton to get at the guitar, or drums. Having already setup and played Guitar Hero III, I assumed the Wii remotes would integrate in to the instruments. Not so, Rock Band 2 has built in controllers, which I consider an advantage over Guitar Hero. The difficulty we had with Rock Band 2 was with the USB hub and plugging in the various components to it. Normally, electronic gizmoes and games have plenty of instructions in multiple languages. Rock Band 2 had minimal instructions how to put some of the items together, but not the electronics setup. We were left to fend for ourselves. I’d like to think this was a packaging oversight rather than the fact that I’m getting old and modern technology is starting to confound me.

Once the electronics were setup it took a bit longer to configure the characters and develop a band. Most of that time was my 13 year old daughter choosing a hair style and telling me how dumb my avatar name was.

We also spent a few minutes reviewing some of the training videos to get comfortable with the drums. This proved valuable for getting started quickly.

Modes

Rock Band 2 includes the same Quickplay modes as its predecessor. Quickplay allows you to play 1 song or set, which progressively gets harder as you gain experience, Tug of War, and Score Duel (see our review of Rock Band Special Edition for more details.) Tour mode allows you select between local tour, which is you and your partners on the same system going from venue to venue, or online tour that lets you connect to other Wii systems via the built-in wireless Internet connection.

Online competition

As a test, Dale and I setup an online session to play a few songs. Setting up the connection had to be done from within Rock Band despite the Wii having it’s own system to system network connectivity. Game play was pretty seamless for the three song set we played, however we lacked a way to talk to each other between songs or sets without the use of a traditional phone. While the songs are in play, the singer is not heard on the other system (thankfully) but the characters and their actions are replicated on both sides. It would be nice if the microphone could double as a means to talk to the other system when not in “song mode”.

The stuff I like

Nice graphics. The characters are believable without being distracting. The game play is smooth. We found the different venues in different cities a nice touch over the straight list of other music games. When you first start the game there are a couple cities with a couple venues and each has a list of three or four songs. The more you play, the more songs, venues, and cities open up. Lots of classic rock and more contemporary hits like including AC/DC’s “Let there be rock”, Avenged Sevenfold “Almost Easy”, Blondie “One way or another”, Linkin Park “One step closer”, and dozens more. You can download even more online for 200 points (2 dollars US) each, many of which are from Boston’s first album and Rush’s “Moving Pictures”. I downloaded “Tom Sawyer” and found it very challenging.

One other feature I really enjoy is the “solo” keys on the guitar. These are a duplicate set of buttons on the neck of the guitar, closer to the body. They are closer spaced together than the ones at the end which make it easier for kids, and people like me with small hands, to play with more accuracy. I wasn’t aware of the solo keys at first and had a hard time doing many of the combinations, but once I started using the smaller set, I had a much easier time. Having been a solid “easy” player on Guitar Hero III, I found “Easy” to be flat-out boring on Rock Band 2 and immediately jumped to Medium.

The microphone was about the most forgiving instrument of the three standard pieces. Even the most off-key person who cannot get to “American Idol” tryouts should be able to master this on easy. We haven’t figured out why the microphone has a 10 foot cord on it when you need to be 3 feet away to see the tiny words on the screen.

While the setup wasn’t the easiest, I really enjoy playing Rock Band 2. The game is entertaining, has good graphics, and keeps us busy trying new songs and instruments for hours. This is a great way to have fun as a group or individually, locally, or across the Internet.