Ever heard of a little game called Guitar Hero? If so, you might also have noticed that after its mind blowing success the company behind it Harmonix Music Systems released an expanded version of the game called Rock Band. The game’s latest installment (Rock Band 3) hit stands in 2010 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Nintendo DS.
Similar to its predecessors, Rock Band 3 gives you special instrument-like controllers that mimic drums, vocals, keyboard, lead and bass guitar to bring you closer to the music. Rock Band 3 featured an 83-song set list, and by 2012 it supported around 4000 songs.
Even though Rock Band 2 was criticized for lack of innovation, the latest version of Harmonix’s master game has brought noticeable improvements to the table promising to widely expand you and your pseudo band-mates’ experience. It has been called the greatest rhythm game ever made… even though it’s probably the only rhythm game people know.
One big addition to the latest installment is a new instrument: the keyboard. It can be used in a traditional fashion, or you can clip on a guitar strap and rock away with it as a keytar. It features 25 full-sized black and white keys and it’s even MIDI compatible, which effectively allows it to be used outside the game. You can play the basic mode, where you just use five keys (green, red, yellow, blue and orange) that are next to each other, but truth be told I don’t really think it’s worth it. The “Pro” mode on the other hand is where you get your money’s worth. Using all of the 25 keys may not be as easy at first, but it is definitely more satisfying and you can immediately play songs in a note-for-note style.
The “Pro” mode isn’t exclusive to the keyboard. It is in fact one of the staple ambitions of Rock Band 3 to help aspiring musicians with their transformation from gamer to real-life instrumentalist. So much so, that I would almost recommend you to spend a little more money and get the real thing instead. The somewhat expensive Pro Mustang Guitar has over 100 buttons that correspond to the strings and frets on a real guitar. It’s definitely a challenge to pick up, even though the bars and numbers on the screen tell you exactly how to play each chord.
Finally, we’re getting to my favourite part: the drums. The “Pro” mode allows you to add a second pedal that can be assigned as a hi-hat pedal or a second bass drum, and up to 3 additional cymbals. If you’re a drummer like me, this is a much welcomed addition. It is probably the easiest of the “Pro” instruments, too.
All of the “Pro” mode instruments are meant to bridge the gap between playing a real musical instrument and a game controller. With different levels of difficulty and the ability to play with “Basic” players in any mode of the game (including Practice Mode, where you can literally slow things down) I feel like it’s a worthwhile investment if you have the cash to spend.
Rock Band 3 may focus on the new toys, but it’s still a lot of fun with the old instruments. Simply put, the more you put into it, the more you get out of it. In many ways it is the climax of Harmonix’s years of development that provides you with a great way to go through your baby steps before graduating to the real thing.
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It’s a nice game. My favorite musical instrument is the Drum . So, i like this game a lot.
I love music and my favourite instrument is the drum. Thanks for sharing this interesting post.
Drum thrills me. I love to play the drum in my free time.
Thanks for your great information.
Whilst I loved Guitar Hero, I could never quite get into Rock Band the same.
I love this game, my brother plays the bass and I play the drums
Thanks for this post and thank you for featuring Rock Band 3. It really is a cool game! And if you have an electronic drum set, you can actually connect it your Playstation or Xbox and combine practicing with gaming 😉 How the two can be connected is explained in here:
This was always my favorite rock band game! Pro Mode is the best, all that Double bass! 🙂
This game seems a lot better than the older ones. They were just the same and rather lame I guess on the drums. I play drums so the newer innovation on them sounds way more desirable than playing a small kit.