Rock Band 3 Review

[KillerOfCereal]

I’ve never been so in love with a music game like I have with Rock Band 3. Most music games have something about them that I don’t like. Such as, bad songs, unappealing graphics, or it’s just not fun to play. Rock Band 3 has something that I have always been wishing to happen in a very long time. The ability to choose on how you want to play the game just amazes me. You have the option to play all the songs immediately or take it slow and complete road challenges with a customizable band! If you don’t like playing by yourself you can invite friends to join and make the game even more fun. Rock Band 3 is a game I will never sell and recommend everyone to buy.

Band Customization/Character Customization: The first thing I did in RB 3 was customize my band so I didn’t have to look too generic to other people. I started with the band name, “The Trolls”. When I entered the name I received a message saying that the band name was already in use, but I could keep it if I didn’t want to create an original one. So to make an even simpler name, I named them “Troll”. I didn’t get the message so off I went to customizing the band logo. I started with a lightning bolt and managed to screw it up somehow because I began warping it and got lost trying to put it to its original state. While trying to put it back to what it was I saw an option to add text to my little creation.

I wanted to create something simple and related to the band name and that’s when I created the word “Troll”, but with various types of font. It is sort of a pain to read but it seemed to define the meaning of my band name. Something was missing in my band after that and I knew what it was. “I need a band leader.” I mumbled. Customizing a character was a little confusing at first because I thought you could only choose outfits and nothing else. With that in my head and with me wanting me to seem normal, I created my character to look like a Floridian! A V-Neck t-shirt, jeans, and some very generic shoes seemed appropriate. Thank goodness I looked closely and saw that I could change my band leader to how I wanted him to be. There was a large selection of clothing items I could add to him that I knew I wouldn’t be able to make up my mind, so I took the cheap (not really) way out. I bought an 80 Microsoft Point Bob Marley T-Shirt for my rocker. I slapped on some torn up bathing shorts and some checkered slip-ons and BAM, I was almost ready to hit the stage. Last thing I needed to do was to customize my instrument of choice. Knowing that I would sing, the first thing I changed was the microphone. I really didn’t change much because I wanted it to seem like the Rock Band microphone I was already using, but there was a large variety of microphones to choose from. Some unique and cool looking, and others that made me wonder who would use something like that. Now I was ready! I decided not to add anything else since I wanted my rocker to resemble me just a little, so no tattoos/face paint/accessories for me.

Road Challenge Mode/Playing with friends: I began my career with a little help from my friends…well friend actually. I got Rebel Rouser to join my band because we both purchased the game recently and reaching to stardom with friends was way cooler than being forever alone. I guess you can say “our” band now because I refuse to continue the story if Rebel isn’t playing. We’ve made it too far for me just to abandon him. Road Challenges are a pretty fun way to gain fans, the way to rank up, telling you to play certain songs as if you were actually at a concert. It’s a fun way to gain groupies especially with friends, though playing with a friend is a lot tougher than you would by yourself. When you start a road challenge alone, your objective is to five star the song. It’s different with a buddy though. Yes you still have to make stars to complete the song, but the true way to win the audience’s hearts is to achieve five spades. This requires a lot of coordination and timing to get the maximum amount. If you’re singing while another is playing guitar, you have it easy because all you need to do is just play, but if one of you is playing bass and the other is playing guitar then you really need plan things. To gain the spades, you have to both use overdrive (Star Power as I like to call it) and not miss any notes while in overdrive. You can five star the song with a friend, but let me tell you, without enough spades, you won’t make it very far. So if you know you won’t do great with strings/buttons and someone else, practicing your stage voice is the way to go. Another tip is to play with someone who isn’t aggressive and not in an “In it to win it” mentality.

Songs and Quickplay: The songs are just truly amazing. I was reacquainted with songs I forgot existed and acquainted with songs that I could listen to all day. So far my favorite songs to play are Space Oddity and Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots. Those two songs always cheer me up and put me in a very, very mellow mood. You can play those songs in quickplay along with other great 60’s, 80’s, 90’s, and 00’s. A really sweet feature I noticed in quickplay was to create a setlist. I made one that is titled “Chill” and consists of 3 songs Imagine, Space Oddity, and Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots. Who could’ve imagined!? Playing any song with every instrument is the best feeling I have ever had playing a music based game.


Instruments and Training: As many of you have heard, you can play Rock Band 3 with a larger variety of instruments (Guitar, Bass, Keyboard, Microphone, Drums). This may not seem anything new, but what they did just amazes me. You now have an option to play real guitar, drums, and keys! I’ve played the Fender guitar one time for Rock Band 3 and had the hardest time. Thinking that I would never get anywhere with it, I decided to buy the Keyboard. Since I was being pretty arrogant I thought that I would ace it because of my knowledge of playing a piano. I learned something that day. I learned that I couldn’t sight read to save my life and playing with one hand doesn’t help all too much. So when I failed Imagine I thought that I might hit the tutorials to see how a pro does it. Not only has the tutorial changed my keyboard playing skills, it changed how I play the piano all together. This has been the first music game that taught me how to play things how they’re supposed to be played. They give really nice tips and tricks on how to hit sharps and flats while playing regular notes with your thumb. Stuff I would never have guessed were taught to me from a video game. Those who say that video games never teach you anything, I will say one thing to you. You’re wrong.

Rock Band 3 is a game that I would recommend everybody to try because of the low price and how awesome it is. I never really encountered a big problem, except when singing and you know that you hit those notes dead on but the game won’t admit it. Other than that I’m just awestruck on how a music game can be one of my most played games.

Overall Rating:

9.5/10

[all else failed]

For this genre this is the best. Kinda like Madden for football.

[xXHorrorHippoXx]

I wouldnt give it anywhere near a 9.5/10, and this is coming from probobly the number 1 Rockband/Guitar Hero player on this site (other than KillerDemonX and ThisIsTheEnd21).

Ya, its fun, but they took out competitive play, and the setlist is dreadful. All I play are my thousand downloaded songs.