Rock Band...the ultimate party game?

My roommate picked up Rock Band for the X Box 360 over the weekend. And all I have to say is "wow!"

I have to admit, when I first heard the concept for this game, I thought it sounded kind of silly. It just seemed like yet another one of those music games that have been the fad lately. And there was no way I anyone was going to get me to sing. Boy how wrong I was.

It even took me quite some time to get into Guitar Hero. I never played 1. I played 2 briefly, and even a little bit of Rock the 80's when my brother got it. I didn't really get into the game until my roommate bought Guitar Hero 3. I finally picked up the game for real, started playing co-op, and actually had a blast. And the more I played, the better I got.

So then, we pick up Rock Band for the first time Saturday night. And we were up until 4:30 am playing that damn game! No lie. I'm pretty sure we rocked out for a solid 6 hours, or so!

After playing Guitar Hero, picking up guitar or bass in Rock Band is a walk in the park. It's an easy starting point. But where it really starts getting interesting is the drumming and the singing. The drumming can be quite rough at first, especially for someone like me who has no rhythm. But the more you do it, the better you get. And boy, does it feel kind of cool when you get to those awesome drum pounding moments, even if the only noise you;'re really making is a bunch of clanking on the drum peripheral that came with the game.

And the singing...wow, the singing. I finally mustered up the nerve to belt out "In Bloom" by Nirvana, and after that I was hooked. You don't even have to sing good, you just have to get the pitch close enough to the actual pitch of the song. Which really isn't that hard if you know how the song goes. Singing a song that you don't know is where it gets difficult, because even though it displays the words, you're screwed if you don't know just how to sing those words.

Singing has now become my favorite part of the game. It's just a blast. And, for those of you really worried about sounding dumb, the one thing I noticed is that everyone playing is so concentrated on playing their own instrument, no one really cares how your singing sounds. Because you're working as a team to pass that song. But, there will always be some laughs. That's the fun of it. So I suggest just sucking it up and grabbing that mike! It's like the craziest karaoke party you'll ever be a part of!

The variety of this game is what I like. If you get bored of playing the guitar after 3 songs, you can sing. If your voice starts to crack from trying to sing like Bono, grab the drum sticks and see if you can match Dave Grohl.

After experiencing Rock Band, and having that variety, I have to say that Guitar Hero doesn't even sound as cool any more. I mean, I'm sure it's still great. But now I'm always going to get bored of strumming, and want to sing, dammit!

If you have $200 and cool friends who don't mind looking like asses to have some fun, go buy this game. You'll love it.

Now I just need to get some pictures to post of us rocking out. Or maybe a video. Hmmm...