Amazon.com: Wii Rock Band 2 Special Edition: Nintendo Wii: Video Games

61 Reviews

5 star:		(48)
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4.7 out of 5 stars (61 customer reviews)

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51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars RB2 on the Wii delivers! Best game on Wii so far IMHO., December 18, 2008

By	A. Jefferson (Long Beach, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

I managed to get my hands on Rock Band 2 a bit early, and spent the entirety of the evening playing. What a drastic improvement over Rock Band 1 on the Wii! This is identical to the Xbox 360/ PS3 versions of the game, and I was even more impressed than I anticipated. I was having a blast before I even had a chance to play a single note: The character creator tool was a welcome bonus! You create a band and members, and then you hit the road. It was a really satisfying experience! This is really the first time that a Wii game has been truly competitive with other Next-Gen console games.

The World Tour mode is now available locally or online, and there are also challenges and battle-of-the-bands. There was a "Wii pre-release" battle available for the select few who managed to snag the game early, and I was able to compete head to head with other bands (there were only 3 other bands online since the game was not yet available @ most stores).
There are sure to be plenty of lengthy reviews, so I will just note some of my observations:

*Band Members - once you create your band-mates using the Character Creator, when you play a gig, there they are! I knew this feature was present, but I had no idea how exciting it would be the first time my character (who happens to look JUST LIKE ME!) appeared on stage! It was really satisfying! This feature was really well done. My first order of business was to create characters for my wife and all our friends. Whenever they come over and play from now on, they can use their characters. Also, these characters can be moved around, dropped etc. Also, whenever you select a character to play a gig with your band, they get a "cut", earning that character money which can be used to buy clothes, accessories, instruments, etc. Of course, my wife blew all her money on some designer jeans, some pink driving gloves, and some shoes before she even played one gig! Typical... =)

*Online - Some of the online features haven't been enabled yet, but I was able to play in the online battle of the bands. I was playing during a weather storm, and my internet connection was suffering. I had a hard time checking my email from my computer in fact! But, much to my surprise, the game chugged along, and I didn't see any problems with the online interface. The whole game is played "connected", so you don't have to keep logging on and off if you switch between local and online play. The interface was really polished and well done, unlike other Wii games that seem to tack on the online portion after the fact. A+++.

*Updated instruments - The new guitar and drum look and feel really good. The drums are sturdier, and also the pads are quieter. Other than that, not much of a change here, but I had no complaints about the previous generation of instruments.

*Music - This game seems to have a much more varied mix of music. Much like when I began playing RB1, I only knew a handful of the songs that I initially was able to play. A few of the songs that I initially played were somewhat familiar, but some were way off the radar for me. Still, what I have heard so far is great! As you may already know, there is a Music Store built in the game where you can use Wii points on your system to buy new songs, so there will be no shortage of great music to be played! I was also surprised to see that details about the band and even album art appear on the song selection screen. The interface is really clean and polished; it really doesn't feel like a "game" at all. There is really no end to this games replay value. There are already close to 500 songs available in the DLC catalog (and all of this will come to the Wii shortly), and new songs are added weekly. Guitar Hero: World Tour can't even begin to compete in this area!!!

Do yourself a favor and go buy this game. I loved RB1 on the Wii, and really didn't think I was missing out on much... as it turns out, the additional features in RB2 are really astounding! The solid gameplay of Rock Band 1 is there... the great music game is completely intact. RB2 adds the "Band" experience: Touring, Band-mate selection, losing fans if you quit a "set" prematurely, battle of the bands, never-ending amounts of fresh content to play, expansive leaderboards and band data, even the ability to order posters and figurines of your band!!! Rock Band 2 for the Wii delivers!!

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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New to Rockband, December 22, 2008

By	P. M. Campisi (Sunnyvale, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars

Rhythm type games never interested me much, until now. I played guitar hero way back and was left unimpressed so I never thought much of checking the progress in this genre. For Christmas, I received Rock Band 2 for the Wii as a gift and immediately loved it.

Overall, all the instruments are easy to play and are fun. The freestyle, training, and solo mode allow to progress at your own pace. (Currently, I'm terrible but am improving). Challenge and band tour mode prove more difficult as your progress.

As mentioned previously, I don't have experience with RB1, GH, or GHWT so I cannot compare but I'm totally thrilled at how much fun my entire family is having playing this TOGETHER.

The only possible downsides I can see are:
1) At the time of this review, the Rock Band store for the wii is not up yet - so I cannot download the free songs or buy any new ones. According to Harmonix, it will be up soon.
2) The memory on the Wii is limited so downloading a lot of songs can be a problem so buy an SD card if you plan to purchase new songs. I wish I knew how much each song and it's data took up on my SD card. I can't test yet since the wii RB store isn't open yet.
3) It's pretty costly, but at least the quality of the instruments feels good.

I highly recommend Rock Band 2, it's a blast.

Edit after playing for 2 weeks:
I'm still playing every day and loving it.

For those interested about the instruments and playing:
Drums - To me, the drum set looks a little kid-like but it's durable and I haven't had any problems. The included drum & fill trainers help you get the beats down so you can move to the harder levels. I love that you can move the bpm up and down to further test yourself. I find the drums are the hardest of the 3 to play as you need to learn limb independence, but they are also the most fun IMHO. In my family "band", I'm the drummer 90% of the time.

Guitar/Bass - Nice looking guitar. Plays great. Easiest of the 3 to learn. Look into learning different strum techniques and moving your hand up and down the neck of the guitar on harder difficulty levels.

Vocals - Well, I'm not a singer but after spending a couple days learning how to match my pitch/tone with the indicator, I can generally do OK. I think I've become a slightly better singer too, because I'm better able to slowly shift between the tones.

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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Silence is Deafening!, December 21, 2008

By	James Michael Bone "WiiBaron" (Glendale AZ) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars

Ahhh the sweet sound of nothing!!! Finally, a "band" game where the instruments Don't make more sound than the songs do (at apt. dwelling reasonably volumed levels). These guitars are nearly silent when being played. And the drums are 50% quieter. In addition, the between song cut scenes aren't amped up sooo ridiculiously loud (like another "band" games' are) that you are always reaching for the volume control. The new instruments are upgraded very nicely. The guitars even have a photocell & mic built in to sync up with your TV when you calibrate. They look nicer with a 2-tone wood neck/head and the whammy bar is better at not sagging down. And did I mention they were soooo quiet? This actually creates a small problem of not sometimes knowing if you pushed the button or not. The new drum set is improved nicely too. The pedal has a metal plate added and the crossbar is more tighter fitting for less noise. The pads sound simular to RB1 drums with the silencer pads added, so that cuts the noise down as well. I have bought the add-on cymbals (2 set) and they aren't so quiet, but when you have them plugged in, you can still hit the regular pad also (so you can have 2 yellows or 2 greens) that you can have a choice of which to hit, so worth $20 extra. They are now wireless (3 batteries and a dongle) and are black/silver instead of white. It seems a mic is a mic is a mic, but cant they make it wireless? You can be on the internet in a subway for pete's sake!!! So now for the actual game itself: 4 out of 5. The "TOUR" (which you must do to open all songs) is maddeningly repetitive. I have played some songs 6 or 7 times because they are part of the "gig" you are playing. This is the only flaw I can find in this game. I just want to play each song once to open, and quickplay my life away! Of course song selection is personal, so no complaints here. There will be DLC, so that shouldnt be an issue with anyone. (it is not active as of this review) The game also keeps lists of 100s of scores so you can go look to see how you stack up with other wifi players. After 3 days of playing, I am very happy with 90% of this game. And I cant wait till Xmas to have a 4 man band (WIIBARON) rock out in peace and reletive QUIET! BEST BAND GAME YET . 3/13/09 UPDATE: After 3 months of ROCKIN', I am happy to say that I am 90% thrilled with the game/experience/fun that is RB2. (or GH:WT) The drum hardware had issues, but I cannibalized RB1 set and all's well. Guitars are still awesomely quiet, and durable too. It was very hard for me to get game/instuments synched-up, but once I finally got it bliss was achieved. Being able to download is better than sliced bread and I have 20 songs so far. Eventually, they say the entire 500+ catalogue will be available so I better stock up on Wii points and SD cards! This game (&gh:wt) are the most fun (by yourself or with friends) ever invented. And only 6 months (9/9) till The Beatles version cometh! Can't Wait.....