FIrst Article

Rock Band VS Guitar Hero: A Battle of Rhythmic Gaming
By Ryan Bissonnette

Over the past decade, the video game industry has seen more and more rhythm based games being created that appeal to wide-ranges of audiences. The pioneer of this unique genre was a company known as Konami, but they have been left behind in the dust in the new millennium as video game goliaths, Harmonix and Neversoft square off against each other for dominance in the highly acclaimed genre. These two companies both produce quality games and have been for many years now. Since the new fad of this generation seems to be impersonating ones favorite rock bands, dominating the rhythm based video games market is key to the companies’ success.

Harmonix has been creating rhythm based games ever since it started. They are the creators of such games as Karaoke Revolution, Amplitude, Guitar Hero 1 and 2, and Rock Band 1 and 2. For their latest project, Rock Band, Harmonix decided to take a different approach and revolutionize the genre forever. For the first time ever, they merged a guitar game, a drum game, and a singing game into one to create a full-band experience that had never been seen before. This first project, known as Rock Band, dominated the market and never ceased to amaze the audiences with a track list with bands ranging from The Strokes, Coheed and Cambria, and Jet to The Who, Black Sabbath, and The Rolling Stones. To expand their already enormous catalog of 54 tracks, Harmonix decided to issue weekly downloadable content through the Xbox Live Marketplace and PSN Store that has never failed to deliver for over a year now. On September 14, 2008, Harmonix released their second installment in the Rock Band series and decided to stick with the formula of the original; why fix what wasn’t broken? Though there were few changes to the actual game play, the interface of the game was much cleaner and easier to use. The new installment’s soundtrack was not only the most widely ranged one to ever appear in a music game, but it was also the largest. It started with 84 songs in all with bands ranging from Dinosaur Jr, Rise Against, and Lacuna Coil, to Bob Dylan, Journey, and Jethro Tull. To ensure that the gamers money wasn’t wasted on obsolete downloadable content from the first game, all downloadable tracks as well as all of the tracks from the first version, were all transferable to Rock Band 2, making the library of songs able to choose from start at about 300 songs upon release. Harmonix has promised over 500 tracks to choose from by Holiday this year. If that’s not enough to get you excited, then I don’t know what will.

Neversoft is one of the most well-known developers in the video game business, but not for their rhythm based games. They were creators of the Tony Hawk series which has been going on since the mid 90s. Their first attempt at a rhythm game was Guitar Hero 3. They obtained the Guitar Hero rights after Harmonix moved on to Rock Band. The game consisted of 80 tracks that are indeed very good, but don’t range throughout the history of rock very much. Most tracks are from the pat decade from bands like Avenged Sevenfold, AFI, Social Distortion, and The Strokes. Many experts say that the guitar charts the player is required to play are mostly over-done and not realistic whatsoever but many fans say that is why they enjoy Guitar Hero over Rock Band; it is more difficult. It really doesn’t take an expert to notice the huge difficulty gap from Rock Band to Guitar Hero. While Rock Band does have some difficult songs Like Green Grass and High Tides and Train Kept A’ Rollin, Guitar Hero featured tracks like One by Metallica, Raining Blood by Slayer, Cliffs Of Dover by Eric Johnson, and the dreaded Through the Fire and Flames by Dragonforce. This October, the next installment in the series, Guitar Hero: World Tour is going to be released and will be taking a whole new approach to the series. Now, just like Rock Band, the game will feature drums and singing but where it ahs Rock Band beat, is a full-fledged music studio where gamers can create their own songs and distribute them across the network to other players. The track list consists of 80 songs as well and contains hits like Beat It by Michael Jackson, Crazy Train by Ozzy Osborne, and About a Girl by Nirvana. Neversoft has promised to release downloadable content for the game but an actual schedule has yet to be decided on. On launch day, Metallica’s new album, Death Magnetic, will be available for download as a whole. The future of the Guitar Hero franchise looks promising.

Deciding on which game to buy between Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour is more or less a matter of company preference. Loyal Guitar Hero 3 fans will be purchasing Guitar Hero World Tour and those who stuck with Rock Band instead of Guitar Hero 3 will likely be buying Rock Band 2. Some pros of Rock Band 2 are: a huge library of songs that will consist of over 500 tracks by the holiday, a smooth and ascetically pleasing heads-up-display, a good balance of difficulty and enjoyment, and an in-depth career mode. Some cons include: virtually no change between Rock Band 1 and 2, can sometimes be too easy, and the equipment is somewhat faulty. Some pros for Guitar Hero World tour are: dynamic music studio mode and character creation, huge evolution from the previous generation to the current one. Some cons are: a sloppy interface, it can sometimes be too difficult; the music studio is way too complicated for most gamers to fully understand. The two games are both fantastic and are both worth a look, but everyone will end up with a favorite, and the winner of this battle means the domination of the rhythm gaming market.