Rock Band (Special Edition) (Xbox 360, 2007)

"Makes you want to have a real band"
Rock Band is certainly my game of the year, and for many reasons, but the simple fact of the matter is that no other music game allows you to rock out with this many people in the comfort of your home (or dorm) and have so much fun. In fact, few games offer so engrossing, addictive, an experience.

The Band World Tour mode, where you'll be spending most of your time, allows you and your friends (I hope you have friends who want to play - shouldn't be TOO difficult to find them) not just to play a few songs, but to really feel like you've created a band. You don't just have a band name - you back it up with a logo (created by combining pieces of art done by professional artists, which is pretty sweet), and you really form a band personality by customizing your individual characters. I probably have more than my share of fun customizing my characters, picking the right clothing combinations, hair, and so forth - but there are a lot of options to choose from, with every piece of clothing coming in quite a few colors, which gives you a lot of options overall. That's something you really do more when you're the only person playing the game, since your bandmates are going to want to play music, not watch you pick out a pants color.

The word "immersive" is cliche but also an uncannily accurate way to describe this game. When you're sitting there rocking out on your instrument of choice, it's really easy to get into the game. The game rewards you in little ways, like the "Authentic Strummer" bonus for the bassist if he only strums upward (like with real bass). Bashing on the drums is a blast (and really hard!), and guitar gets a lot of attention (as it should) but bass and vocals are just as fun. Depending on the personalities of your friend group, it may turn out that everyone has an instrument of choice, but people will still want to branch out regularly. Being able to get additional energy while in overdrive is a great, too - as is being able to save a failing band member. The game does a great job of making you feel like when you're doing well, you're REALLY doing well. Activating star power in tandem with your bandmates to get a massive bandwide multiplier going is a great, great feeling.

The problems? Well, there are a couple: the peripherals each have their problems. The bass pedal on our drums broke, and the guitar's strum bar, while feeling really easy and natural to strum, isn't so good for fast sequences of sequential notes. And the effects switch is kind of right in the way of the whammy bar, so you'll probably smash it and then distract yourself by trying to switch it back. But the guitar looks really great, and once you get used to it, you'll really like it. The microphone looks pretty similar to a recording mic but the lack of buttons is annoying because you have to keep a controller handy. (Personally, I think you should at least be able to say "OK", "Back", "Up", and "Down" into it for basic menu control.) Oh yeah, and the drum pads can be kind of loud sometimes, so people might get mad at you for playing late at night.

Another problem is in the readability of the notes. It's not that they're rectangular - you get used to that - but the fretboards are translucent and the background sometimes makes it hard to see the notes. Adding to this is the neat pattern you get when you go into Star Po-- I mean, Overdrive, and you'll definitely be seeing phantom notes