Rock Band: Day 1 Impressions

Just finished my first night of Rock Band play. I'm finding myself immediately enamored with the game. Where Guitar Hero III delivered most of what I suspected (turned up to 11, natch) Rock Band constantly surprises. For example, the cities and venues that you play depend on what you select as your character's home town. As a goof I created a French guitarist named Patrice -- a bare-chested dude with Ziggy's mullet in black and day-glow pink stretch pants with yellow skeleton legs on the fronts. All my other characters had been from Los Angeles and played up and down the coast for the first several levels. Patrice kicked off in the Paris sewers, complete with skulls embedded in the walls, then struck out to Amsterdam and parts European for his first tour.

There are little touches everywhere. One of the venues in California is a skating rink. Your band plays in front of the classic arcade games. I fairly swooned. At the end of "Paranoid" the game goes all psychedelic, with mirrored split-screen effects and crazy colors, just like an old Sabbath video. Singers get some percussion to keep them busy during guitar solos and extended musical bridges -- you tap the microphone like a tambourine, or in the case of "Don't Fear the Reaper," a cowbell. I wish I could have a dime for every time that SNL sketch is going to be referenced in reviews in the weeks to come.

There's something about the game that's very appealing to my wife. It could just be the inclusion of singing -- she's already making noised about joining me one of these days. I had to beg her to play bass when I was reviewing Guitar Hero II and she's volunteering, bemoaning in fact that I'll be playing this with my guy friends and that she'll miss out on the fun. So Alexis made a character -- a gal with blue and white dreads. We learned that her name "Skank" was considered inappropriate for online play. I guess the ska-favored dance move gets thrown out with the bathwater in this case.

I suspect the main reason that she's into Rock Band is that it has a more co-operative feel that Guitar Hero ever did. The game was about grandstanding and Rock Band feels like a party game. Also, the game's styling feels more inclusive. The character customization is going to win over lots of girls -- especially after Guitar Hero whored up Judy Nails and kicked Pandora to the curb.

For the kids scoring at home:

• I played the drum career on easy. It's already tough, but I'm excited about learning this because I genuinely feel like I'm learning to play drums. Because, honestly, this is me.
• I stopped playing drums around 8PM for fear of annoying my downstairs neighbor.
• I played the vocal career on medium. I can see singing equaling drumming in difficulty. Hitting those notes gets hard, especially on later songs where you come in on a really high note or hit a high note between a series of low ones.
• It's cool that some songs, such as "Sabotage," don't judge you on nailing the notes. You can just friggin scream if you feel like it.
• Like everybody says, guitar feels a little easier. I think, though, that this is a product of song selection as much as difficulty in the note charts. The earlier tunes just aren't as wanky or thrashy as the songs in Guitar Hero.
• Harmonix's taste in music from the '00s is merely okay. I'm not really digging OK Go and the newer stuff from Nine Inch Nails, The Strokes, etc. I'll make a post soon with my suggestions for awesome, rocking, hipster-friendly new tunes