Customer Reviews

Wii Rock Band Special Edition

5 star:		(108)
4 star:		(62)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(15)
1 star:		(10)

 

 

Although I've been a heavy shopper of Amazon for years, I've written very few reviews - mostly due to laziness. But after playing with Rock Band for just over a week, and noticing a lot of the negative reviews, mostly due to comparisons to versions of the same game on other platforms, i felt i really ought to provide some of my feedback.

I don't own an XBOX or a PS3. I wish i did - but.. i'm too cheap, and my kids are still too young (3 and 7) for the type of games that are popular on those systems. I've settled for the Wii. Although we've been quite happy with Wii Sports, none of the other games have really kept our interest beyond a couple of days. (granted, i've only attempted to purchase games that would appeal to both my 7 year old and all the adults around - that's pretty hard to do)... until now. Rock Band has to be one of the best "team" oriented games I've played in a long time. Its a game that has kept friends of ours over very late trying to pass the various songs. More importantly, its a game that both my 7 year old and I can play together at the same time. (she sings, and i'd play the drums..).. And to be able to complete a song together is really cool.. Its "team" oriented because you're only as good as your weakest band member.. and when the weak band member falls behind, the best band member has the ability to "save" him/her..otherwise, the team falls..

Since I've never played the Xbox or ps3 version, i have no idea what i'm missing.. but what i do get, i absolutely love! So, if you are a single console owner like myself, i think this game is a must have - its the best party game since Wii Sports.

I only hope that the equipment stays functioning for a long time as we've given it a good workout so far..

I'm a musician in my early 40's, so Rock Band for the Wii was a no-brainer... when my daughter asked for it for her birthday, I couldn't help but get it for her (despite the somewhat daunting price for a "video game"). She'd been playing Guitar Hero every since she got the Wii for Christmas and I knew she'd get our money's worth out of it, regardless, with the guitar-playing aspect alone.

First, the equipment is top-notch and the reason for the price, thus, becomes obvious. We had no problems with the equipment whatsoever... everything just worked. The strum-bar on the guitar is the only thing that feels a bit "fragile", but it seems to work fine and seems to be holding up. The Guitar Hero strum-bar seems more rugged but also works a bit differently, with a noticable "click" when you use it... so this is potentially just paranoia on my part. If you're used to the Guitar Hero (Wii) guitar, you'll know what I mean when you try the Rock Band guitar.

The gameplay is excellent. I've played real-live guitar, bass and sang in bands for over 25 years now (geezzz, I'm not really THAT old) and I've actually played real drums before. The Rock Band drums, although different in size and placement than an actual drum set, feel very good and respond nicely to being played correctly to the beat/notes of the song, etc. I was suprised at how well playing the drums matches up with the song correctly in the game as you play right on the beat... and it certainly gives me my "drum fix" without getting too hard if I don't want it to be. Playing the drums in Rock Band definitely give you a good feel of what it is really like to sit behind a drum set and play an actual drum beat... mechanically (the coordination of your hands and kick drum foot) and spatially (the movement between drums). As a result, you'll find that playing the drums feels a lot more "real" than playing the guitar does. However, there's nothing wrong with the guitar play in Rock Band, and it is almost identical to Guitar Hero gameplay. The singing via the mic is great... everyone wants to be a singer! You have to try to sing on pitch and articulate the lyrics correctly to get the best scores, but you don't have to be very close to perfect except in the harder difficulty modes. I was pleasantly surprised at how well the mic and singing part of the game works. The mic also doubles as a tambourine or cowbell during non-vocal parts of the songs - which you have to tap along on the mic according to the beats that come up where the singers words are usually displayed (i.e. in most cases, you don't sit around doing nothing while the rest of the band is jamming through a solo part or whatever - you have to keep on jamming too!).

The difficulty is very well done... "Easy" mode is truly easy regardless of instrument. The "Medium" mode is good for those who've played this kind of game... I played the entire game on Medium (guitar) from the get-go and did pretty well, despite my limited knowledge of many of the songs and lack of any extended practice with Guitar Hero. My daughter has been working on guitar parts in "Hard" mode (she's already surpassed me) and it's definitely "hard", using all 5 buttons on the guitar with only 4 fingers to press them, and there are some fast phrases with multiple simultaneous notes and tricky patterns. This is true of Hard mode for guitar, bass and drums. I've been playing the drums on Hard difficulty... it can be really tough, just like the real songs, which have some incredible drum parts and can be truly difficult. "Expert" mode is just that... it's EXTREMEMLY hard. You'll have to practice extensively to have any chance of completely a song on "Expert". For singing, the difficulty setting controls how accurate you have to be with articulation and pitch. If you can sing, and you know the song well, it's actually going to be easy for you to score well even at Hard difficulty.

The difficulty makes sense for the drums and vocals. At the harder difficulty settings, you have to play/sing more of what the real band plays/sings in the real songs. For the guitar parts, it really just gets into trickier patterns of button presses (with two or three-button simultaneous presses being more common), with strumming rhythms that tend to match more closely to the song. But that's not a limitation of Rock Band in particular, it's a limitation of playing guitar with 5 buttons - it's just doesn't capture the feel of a true guitar with 20+ frets and 6 strings. Despite that fact, the guitar/bass gameplay in Rock Band is still a lot of fun.

The best thing about the game difficulty: each player in a band can choose their own difficulty independently of the rest of the players (in multiplayer mode). I can play drums on Hard mode while my wife sings on Easy mode and my daughter plays Bass on Medium. We can do well TOGETHER, at our own maximum skill level for each song to test ourselves. If one player has trouble and fails, the other players can "save" the failed player and bring them back in. It's a very ingenious feature to keep with the "having fun together" spirit of the game! And that's what you'd expect for a Wii game in general - keep everyone playing together and having fun.

Also, I feel that these games, in general, are a good learning tool for music skills. They require different levels of coordination and rhythm, and a keen sense of rhythm and timing. If your kids like these games and excel at them, it's quite possible that they could have the mentality, endurance and basic skill set needed to take on a real instrument and take their musicianship to the next level.

So that's the good stuff... the game is definitely FUN, the hardware works well, and you can feel like a real drummer and singer if you get into it on the harder modes. It's a blast playing it with the whole family, going on a simulated "rock and roll tour" together.

The main let-down for me is the song selection. I'm not sure why some of the songs were chosen... they're either somewhat obscure, or B-sides, or just downright off the wall. I can say that I've *heard* many of them on the radio or whatever, but for a game with a limited song list (63 in this game), they should be choosing songs from the "cream of the crop" of rock and roll which have undisputed popularity. There's no Led Zepellin, Beatles, Doors, AC/DC, Cream, Def Leppard, Santana, ZZ Top, Allman Brothers, Journey... instead there's some pretty obscure stuff like Nine Inch Nails, Maps, Radiohead, Weezer, The Killers, etc. Also, the song choices for the bands that are popular is lacking in particular cases. I realize they can't please everyone, but there should be a base-line that is "popular classic rock hits" in my opinion. Get a list of "Top 100 Rock Songs Of All Time" or similar and use that as a basis. Save the other genres for add-on packs for the specific genres... different "flavors" of "rock and roll", etc.

Don't get me wrong, it can still be a lot of fun to play the songs you don't know on the various instruments, and likely, the kids aren't quite as "biased" as their parents might be about the song content, but it's not very fun to sing songs you don't know. If you just plain don't LIKE a song, you still have to play through it successfully to unlock the rest of the songs. Some of the obscure ones can contain some "raw" lyrics that you might not know about because you've never heard the songs... so keep that in mind when evaluating the game for the kids. They might have added a feature to "lock out" songs so you don't have to play them (or if you wanted to censor them for your kids), but they probably figured the ones they chose are pretty "tame"... and they are for the most-part.

Another let-down is the omission of the capability to buy the songs you WANT online with the Wii version.

Maybe that will change eventually, but the game is so fun, it's really only the song selection that's holding it back from being truly GREAT for me, which is why I only gave it 4 stars overall.

The "Track Pack 1" product is also somewhat of a let-down for the same reason. There are 20 songs for $30, and many are just "obscure" (Who cares about another obscure "Weezer" song anyway?). Also, for some reason, it's a separate disc that is essentially a new game with only 20 songs to play, completely separate from the original game, rather than what you'd expect - 20 new tracks to add into the original game so that you can perform from a repertoire of 83 songs instead of 63.

Rock Band for Wii overall is a fun game, but if you also own one of the other consoles this game comes out on, I would recommend getting it for that system. It's not that the one for Wii isn't fun, but it doesn't include some things that the other console releases have. Here are some of the pros and cons.

PROS:
*Rock Band has a great variety of songs
*It has four instruments, allowing for the whole family to play.
*It has a great variety of old and newer songs, so some older people might enjoy the selection.
*The guitar is wireless, giving you more room to "rock"
*The instruments are very durable
*The guitar's strumming bar is smoother and makes much less noise than the Guitar Hero guitar.

CONS:
*The game is very hard to calibrate with your TV, so the picture is usually very delayed which can be very annoying
*The tour (campaign) mode is very dull, unlike the other console releases where you choose your venue and tour the world.
*You cannot buy guitars, songs, characters, costumes, or anything else in this game. There is not even a Guitar Shop, nor do you earn money in Tour mode (unlike the Xbox 360 and Playstation versions).
*You cannot change your guitars or characters, and you cannot change between different venues in any modes (unlike the Xbox 360 and Playstation versions).
*The drum set is very loud and annoying, causing it to drown out the music (can be changed if you buy the drum dampers which apparently make the drums softer when you hit them).
*You cannot download songs online, unlike the other releases.

Overall, Rock Band for Wii is recommended if you don't own an Xbox 360 or Playstation, but if you do, I would recommend not buying the Wii version.

If you're looking for an excellent pick up and play solo experience that gets even better with friends, look no further than Rock Band. You don't have to have any prior experience with any of the instruments to be able to rock out to a very strong and varied set list for hours on end. From 70s garage punk to contemporary industrial, this game will let you sing, drum, or strum your way to the top. And trust me, the experience gets exponentially better the more people you have playing along.

While my rating for this game looks at it as simply the game itself, there are some drastic differences from the other versions of Rock Band that a potential buyer should be aware of to make an informed decision on which version to get:

1) This game comes with the newer, updated, and more sturdy instruments than the other versions originally shipped with. The best part about this is that the Wii drums have softer pads and end up playing much quieter than the XBOX 360 version I've played this game on. It can still create some good noise if you hit it hard enough, but it's not going to cause any noise complaints.
2) This version is more similar to the stripped down PS2 version. That means no online play. That means no songs to be downloaded. That means no tour the world career mode (progression is instead done linearly much like Guitar Hero). You also will not be able to customize what your band looks like, but instead will see FMVs in the background while you play songs (much like DDR).

If point #2 is a concern, and you have a PS3 or a 360 as well as a Wii, I would high suggest that you pick up one of those versions. However, point #2 does not cut into the greatest strength of the game: the core gameplay:

Playing Guitar: If you have played any Guitar Hero game, you will be right at home. The Rock Band guitar feels sturdy when in hand, and has two different sets of keys for you to play on (the smaller ones towards the bottom of the neck are meant for solos). Personally, I find these keys fine, though people who prefer the Guitar Hero III controller will be disappointed to learn that it doesn't work with this game. However, it is truly wireless and comes with three AAA batteries right out of the box. After playing Guitar Hero III through Hard, I had no problem picking this up and going right to it, though I will say that Guitar Hero is far more forgiving on the timing of when you strum notes. However, if you're just starting out, easy mode is far more forgiving, or you can take it a step further...

Playing Bass: In earlier levels and with newcomers to the game, I would suggest that they take up playing bass. As it focuses more on sticking with the rhythm, it tends not to be as complex. Just so you know, the bass is played with the same guitar as the guitar itself, so if you want to have 4 people playing you'll need to either pick up another Rock Band guitar or have a friend bring one over. Later in the game, bass gets far more complicated and interesting, but it is a great lead in for beginners or non-gamers if they're too shy to...

Sing Along: Nothing quite says "Great for a party" like being able to watch someone make a fool out of him or herself by blaring along to a familiar or famous tune. This game will work with any USB mic that works for another Wii game (as of this writing), but keep in mind that it does come with one in the box. On easier difficulties, it focuses on you just being able to keep up with the rhythm of the words, but in later difficulties it requires you to hold onto the pitch as well (Boston still makes my throat hurt!). You can't be shy or timid though...if you don't project your voice into the mic it will not pick it up and you will fail.

Laying the Beat: To be honest, this is the portion of the game that I was most excited about (and if you get the special edition, the part that requires the most assembly and takes up most of the box space). The drumming tutorial was very helpful for getting started, and while the included sticks may be too small for some people, any set of drumsticks will work. The pads are very sensitive, and as long as you keep your foot down on the foot pedal instead of raising it back up between uses, your ankle will be fine. Most songs give you moments to beat into the drum like crazy, which is a bonus for when the rest of your band is trying to be as precise as possible in the middle of a song.

In the end, I would recommend this product tremendously if you only have a Wii. If you have a PS3 or a 360, the other features and single player mode are worth having, but if you don't you won't be totally missing out; the game play is incredibly satisfying. The cooperative modes clearly demonstrate that Harmonix thought out what would go into each different instrument for each song, and will also be the major draw for if you have other people over to play the game. Furthermore, you get the same songs as the PS3 and 360 plus five bonus track that those systems would have to download. And if you really like the game? In July the first track pack will be released for the Wii and PS2 and it will include 20 of the most popular songs from the downloadable content.

Yes, there are some features missing. Yes, this version could be considered stripped down. Even so, it is still one of the best single player and multiplayer experiences to be had on the Wii, and it is easily the best music, rhythm, karaoke, etc (sorry if I'm missing a genre!) game on the Wii. Rock Band is well worth the price of admission.

I first bought Rock Band for my PS2, knowing that it didn't support player customization, custom setlists, DLC, or online play. Didn't matter... the core of the game is so strong that you quickly forget the smaller feature set. I bought a PS3 just so I could enjoy the "full" Rock Band experience. Tonight I played Wii Rock Band at a friend's house and guess what? It's still a GREAT GAME. Anyone who did a modicum of research knew well in advance that the Wii version was more or less a port of the PS2 version. Don't penalize the game for your lack of research. Do you spend $[...] on other items before researching your purchase?

Our family hasn't played rock band on any other platform than the Wii, so we really don't have anything other platform to compare it to. Now, having said that, we are having a blast with it. However, we wish we would have waited for a few months for the Guitar Hero World Tour - Band Kit to come out and compared the two. We like the music scores better for Guitar Hero than the ones that came with Rock Band. It would also be nice to see if multiple guitars can be used with the new Guitar Hero Band Kit that is coming out, as it doesn't seem like multiple guitars can be used with Rock Band... or at least we haven't figured out a way to do this yet. Don't get me wrong... Rock Band is a lot of fun. But, after seeing the previews for the other, I wish we would have waited a few months.

This is the first review I have written for Amazon, and I wanted to write this to help ensure that people who buy Rock Band for Wii, know that they are getting something that is still fun to play, but something that is vastly inferior to other versions of Rock Band.

My husband and I loved playing Rock Band at our friend's house; even our 4 year old daughter got into it, creating a character with her name that looked frighteningly like a teenage version of her to jam on the screen while she danced and sang along. Needless to say, were very excited to hear that Rock Band was coming out for Wii, and we even pre-ordered a copy.

However, once we got the game set up, we were disheartened to discover that one of the most fun aspects for us, the character creation portion, was not a part of this version of the game. We had done some research prior to our purchase, so we were not expecting on-line play and knew that (at least for now) there would be no songs to download, and we were ok with that. However, the lack of character creation and individualization in game play was a shock--it seems like something that would play very well to the Wii audience, and was an exciting and fun part of the game that will be sorely missed.

The game itself is still fun to play, but if you have played on another system, you WILL be disappointed, even if you don't care about the on-line features.

Like many others who have purchased Rock Band for Wii, I am very disappointed that the Wii version does not offer 'Character Customization' and song downloads. This was a big surprise considering the Wii is a system that takes pride in customization. I'm not saying that the Rock Band for Wii is not fun, because it certainly is. However, if I would have known what I know now in advance, I would not have purchased the game and would have waited for a full featured version to come out.

I got Rockband today and I totally love it! If you like music, you'll love rockband! It allows you to unlock your inner rockstar wannabe. Plus, you can play with friends...You can play with several people, which is the fun of it! The music is pretty good too. Some people are whining because it doesn't have the customizable characters, but if you are more into music and having fun, then the fact that you can't give your singer a mohawk doesn't really matter. I played guitar hero for the music and for the fun of it and I never wasted my time giving my character new bra-tops.
Bottom line: Rockband is a ton of fun..If you are more into music than playing Barbie with a character, then you'll enjoy Rockband!

My first exposure to Rock Band was on the PS3, at a large party with friends. I ended up hogging the drums all evening. Having just got the Wii version today, I was sucked in again, and played for hours. Although the Wii version admittedly has fewer features than the PS3 version (see reviews above), I frankly don't care that much. It's so easy to get immersed in the gameplay anyway, and it's multiplied greatly if you are playing with friends or family to back you up on the other instruments and vocals. My only complaint is that it seemed more difficult to get the timing exactly on the money on the Wii than on the PS3. I'm not sure if this is an issue with my specific TV and receiver as yet, so I reserve judgment. (There is an option in the game to adjust the delay between video and audio based on your TV time, but it's not very fine grained). That being said, I HIGHLY recommend Rock Band.