Rock Band:Crack::RoboNixon:Crackhead

Rock Band for the Xbox 360 arrived last Wednesday. Any moment of free time has been spent punishing the drums, tearing up guitar solos, or groovin' on the bass. This game is out of control.

If you are familiar with the Guitar Hero games, then Rock Band will seem like a natural progression to you: Rather than using only a  guitar-simulating controller to simulate playing... the guitar, in Rock Band you have the addition of vocals on a mic, and drums on... these drums:

So with three of your friends you can form a band and go on "tour" around the world, racking up "Star" points, trying to lure a manager, an audio guy, bodyguards and so on while earning a van, tour bus, and the like, while unlocking new songs and venues.

And it is awesome. 

Playing a hard song with three of your buddies is an amazing kind of gameplay. Rather than playing against each other, or together against a common enemy, in this there is no defeating anything -- rather, it is playing music together. When someone misses a note, their instrument drops out of the song. When you all play in sync, hitting all your notes, the amount of points you can get is endless.

Rock Band is the opposite of Grand Theft Auto IV. Where that has an open-environment, and you can do as you please, when you please, capping bitches or stealing cars, Rock Band is much more about progressing naturally through the songs, defeating them one by one (or two+ at a time during "sets") with no bitch-capping or car-stealing. 

RoboRoommate v. 1 and myself play constantly, and even RoboGirlfriend -- an anti-gamer if there ever was one -- has jumped in and figured out the bass and sings along with the best of them.

Sticking points are small, but existent: you can definitely get Rock Band'd out, and the learning curve is pretty steep. Those of you out there without rhythm -- I'm looking at you. Drums are the hardest to pick up, with bass (or vocals, depending on your personal singing ability) at the easier end of the scale.

Otherwise, the game is hella-fun (yeah, I said it), and even though it can cost you $120-160, it's well worth the money. Go get Rock Band, and you too can create your characters, create a band, and rock your way across the globe.

-RoboNixon

ps. The character and band creators are loads of fun. My drum avatar is from the Netherlands, is named Jann, and you use money from gigs to dress him up. The two bands "Jann" is in are KITTEN and PINOT FILM NOIR. Using the character creator, RoboRoommate v.1 made a pretty dead-on young-Bruce Springsteen. So there are plenty of options for those stylists of you out there.