Occasionally here at Player2.net.au we will play something that deserves your attention but probably doesn’t need a full review written for it. Be it DLC for the latest AAA title, a little indie game or even an Android/iOS title. We play these titles for a blockbusting amount of time (2 – 5 hours) and report back to you the reader on what we found. So grab your popcorn and settle in for the latest episode of Blockbuster Gaming.
Blockbuster Gaming – Rockband 4
Who would have thought in the year 2015 that we would have not one but two new plastic instrument based music games released. After the world got sick of them 4 or so years ago I thought that perhaps we had seen the last of them but it wasn’t to be. The two big names in the genre are both back and after Guitar Hero saw the release of Guitar Hero Live it was Rockband’s chance to get back into the action with Rockband 4.
When Rockband 4 was announced I was incredibly excited. You see unlike Guitar Hero all of the previous songs I had collected (both disc based and DLC) would work with the latest iteration of the franchise. The other big thing was that old instruments would also work too, all be it with an adaptor on the Xbox One. Having spent quite a few dollars on these songs and instruments over the years I was more than happy to see that money wasn’t wasted but this also created a massive problem for me. You see Australia received the royal screw job from Rockband Distributor Mad Catz. In Australia it is currently impossible to purchase the Xbox One version of the game at a physical store (all my previously purchased songs were on the 360, hence the need for the X1 version) and therefore it is impossible to buy the instrument adaptor. If I wanted to buy it I would have to buy it with a guitar at the insane price of $250 or at the even more mental price of $500 for the entire band kit. PS4 owners are a little luckier as their system doesn’t need an adaptor for the the old instruments but the insane prices for bundles still existed. So in the end I went the import route which cost me about $110 with the adaptor.
So I finally had the game but was it worth the effort? Well yes I believe it was. The new Rockband is essentially more of the same but I am pretty happy with that. The career mode is structured in a similar way to Rockband 3 and the party mode is just as fun as ever. The track list is stronger than that of Guitar Hero Live, but perhaps not as strong as earlier versions of the game. This of course is lessened by the fact that I could play all of the songs from the past editions. The biggest edition of the game is the new Freestyle Solo system which allowed me to basically go nuts in the solo sections and have it still sound cool. It is a nice edition but one that purists may be annoyed with, luckily for them they can turn it off in the options.
In all, despite the trouble I had getting my hands on it Rockband 4 is a lot of fun. To be fair it is the same type of fun I have had previously but really I wasn’t expecting, or wanting, anything else. The old equation “Rockband + Friends + Booze = A Great Night” still rings true and as far as I am concerned that is all the game needs to make it a must buy.
Matt Hewson
