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{{otheruses4|the video game series|first video game of the series|Rock Band (video game)|the type of musical group|Rock band}}
{{otheruses4|the video game series|first video game of the series|Rock Band (video game)|the type of musical group|Rock band}}
{{Infobox VG series
{{Infobox VG series

Revision as of 22:20, 25 January 2009

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This article is about the video game series. For first video game of the series, see Rock Band (video game). For the type of musical group, see Rock band.
Rock Band
Genre(s)Music video game
Developer(s)Harmonix Music Systems
Publisher(s)MTV Games
First releaseRock Band
November 20, 2007
Latest releaseRock Band 2
September 14, 2008

Rock Band is a series of music video games developed by Harmonix Music Systems and MTV Games, and distributed by Electronic Arts for the PlayStation 2 and 3, Xbox 360, and Wii game consoles. The series expands upon Harmonix's earlier work on the Guitar Hero series, and allows for up to four players to virtually perform rock music songs on lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, and vocals using special controllers modeled after musical instruments.

The first game in the series, Rock Band, was released in 2007 shortly after Harmonix was acquired by MTV Games, and its sequel Rock Band 2 was released in 2008. Harmonix has also regularly provided downloadable content, in the form of additional downloadable songs on a weekly basis through the game consoles' network services; to date, over 500 songs are available between those on the game discs and through downloadable content. Harmonix has also created standalone Track Packs that either contain a selection of downloadable content, or a selection of band-specific songs. To date, over 7 million copies of Rock Band titles have been sold[1] and over 30 million songs have been downloaded.[2]

History

Harmonix Music Systems previously developed several music-based games, including Frequency, Amplitude, and the Karaoke Revolution series. Harmonix was approached by RedOctane to help develop Guitar Hero, a music video game similar to Konami's GuitarFreaks in that a special guitar-shaped controller was used to mimic the playing of lead guitar to several rock tracks. Guitar Hero proved to be a surprise success, and led to the development of a full sequel, Guitar Hero II, and an expansion title, Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s.

In 2006, both Harmonix and RedOctane were bought separately, by MTV Games and Activision respectively. RedOctane continued to develop the Guitar Hero series, bringing Neversoft on board for development duties. According to Harmonix Vice President of Product Development, Greg LoPiccolo, the Harmonix team had already envisioned the possibility of different instruments before they were completed with the Guitar Hero series.[3] Rock Band took twenty months and approximately US$200 million to develop. Harmonix was able to use MTV's music licensing abilities to secure the licensing rights for the music in the game. Rock Band was praised by critics and was highly successful, leading to the release of a sequel, Rock Band 2 less than a year later.

On June 2, 2008, Harmonix announced that it had begun co-developing a Japanese version of Rock Band with Q Entertainment for exclusive release in Japan on the PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. According to Harmonix, Rock Band: Japan will be "the first US-originated rock music game to be heavily localized for the Japanese market".[4] A release date has not yet been announced. While the game mechanics are expected to remain the same as Rock Band, the game will be localized and its soundtrack will include songs by popular Japanese artists,[5] such as X Japan.[6]

In October 2008, Harmonix, along with MTV Games, announced an exclusive agreement with Apple Corps, Ltd. to produce a standalone title, tentatively titled The Beatles, based on the Rock Band premise and featuring the music of The Beatles. The game is expected to be released in late 2009, will feature a visual and musical history of the Beatles, and will include the United Kingdom-released versions of songs from their albums Please Please Me through Abbey Road. Harmonix stated, despite building on the Rock Band gameplay, this will not be a Rock Band branded title, and that the songs will not be available as downloadable content for the Rock Band series.[7] The agreement has been in discussion for more than 17 months.[8] In part due to ongoing development of The Beatles, Harmonix announced that Rock Band 3 will break the "annual release cycle" and will not be released in 2009.[9]

Industry rumors report that Traveller's Tales, developers of the various Lego-themed video game titles such as Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga, will release a Lego-themed Rock Band game in 2009.[10]

Gameplay

See also: Common gameplay elements in the Guitar Hero series and Gameplay in the Karaoke Revolution series

The Rock Band games are score-based music video games that combine elements of two of Harmonix' previous efforts: Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution, allowing up to four players to play on lead and bass guitar, drums, and vocals. Players must play these instruments in time with musical "notes" as they scroll towards them on the screen.

Rock Band titles' gameplay and on-screen interface use a combination of elements from Guitar Hero and Karaoke Revolution.[11] Rock Band has up to three tracks of vertically scrolling colored music notes, one section each for lead guitar, drums, and bass.[11] The colored notes on-screen correspond to buttons on the guitar and drum peripherals.[11] Along the top of the screen is the vocals display, which scrolls horizontally, similar to Karaoke Revolution. The lyrics display beneath green bars, which represent the pitch of the individual vocal elements.[11] If any part is not being played, its interface does not appear on-screen. The remainder of the screen is used to display the band's virtual characters as they perform in concert.

A screenshot of Rock Band: each instrument is represented by a different interface: bass guitar (left), drums (middle), lead guitar (right), vocals (top).

During cooperative play as a band, all players earn points towards a common score, though score multipliers and "Overdrive" (the equivalent of Guitar Hero's "Star Power") are tracked separately for each player.[11] The bass guitar player's multiplier can reach as high as 6x (compared to a 4x multiplier for the other players) and achieve "Bass Groove".[12] Overdrive is collected during select portions of a song by successfully playing all white notes within that section (guitar and bass players can also use the guitar controller's whammy bar to extract Overdrive from white sustained notes).[13] Once the Energy Meter is filled halfway, players can deploy their Overdrive, resulting in the "Band Meter" (which tracks how well each player is doing) changing more dramatically. This allows players to strategically use Overdrive to raise the Band Meter and pass portions of a song they otherwise might have failed. Overdrive can be used to activate score multipliers, which vary based on a player's note streak. In solo play, deploying Overdrive doubles the player's score multiplier. However, in band play, activating Overdrive instead increases the score multiplier of the entire band by two. Additionally, players can deploy Overdrive independently of each other (Guitar Hero games require players in Co-Operative mode to deploy Star Power simultaneously), as well as collect additional Overdrive while it is deployed and draining (Guitar Hero games hide additional Star Power sections while Star Power is activated).[13]

Each band member can choose the difficulty at which they play (spanning Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert). If a player does not play well enough and falls to the bottom of the Band Meter, they will fail out of the song and their instrument will be muted from the audio mix. However, any active player can activate their Overdrive to bring failed players back into the song,[11] "saving" the band member. However, a band member can only be saved twice; after the third failure, they cannot be brought back for that song. Failed players continuously drag the band's Band Meter down until they are saved. If the player is not saved before the Band Meter reaches the bottom, the band fails the song. Special portions of songs are labeled as "Unison Phrases," which reward the band with a score and Overdrive bonus if each player can play their parts perfectly during the phrase. Select songs end with a special "Big Rock Ending," which gives the players a chance to improvise and earn extra points. If each player successfully plays the final notes of the song following the freestyle portion of the "Big Rock Ending," the band earns all of the "Big Rock Ending" points. Otherwise, the bonus is lost.

Instruments

An on-the-spot group plays Rock Band 2 during the 2008 Penny Arcade Expo

Rock Band features instrument controllers designed for the game. However, Harmonix and other companies have attempted to provide compatibility between competing instrument controllers and music games, allowing Rock Band to be playable without use of specific controllers.

The guitar controller for Rock Band, modeled after a Fender Stratocaster, is used for lead guitar and bass guitar gameplay. It has several features akin to Guitar Hero's controller, as it features five colored fret buttons on the neck of the guitar (which correspond to on-screen notes), a strum bar, and a whammy bar. To use the guitar controller, players must hold the fret button that corresponds to the scrolling colored note on-screen while simultaneously pushing the strum bar. In addition, five smaller fret buttons are located further down on the neck. These buttons can be used to play all notes in guitar solos (denoted by the note track turning blue) as hammer-ons and pull-offs, without strumming.[11] A special effects switch can be used to toggle between five different guitar effects during solos and Overdrive periods (none, wah-wah, flange, chorus, and echo for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions; none, doubler, slap back echo, medium echo, and long echo for PlayStation 2, and none, flange, slap back echo, chorus, and echo for the Wii version[14]). Overdrive for guitarists can be deployed by holding the controller in a vertical position or pressing the "Select/Back" button. The controller is offered in both wired and wireless versions. Rock Band games allow players to apply a "Lefty Flip" setting, supporting left-handed guitar players. The second version of the controller, distributed with Rock Band 2, introduced quieter fret buttons, a more reliable strum bar, and optical sensor/microphone to help the player calibrate the video and audio output from their television/stereo system's setup.

The Rock Band drum controller, featuring four pads and a bass pedal

The drum set for Rock Band features four rubber drum pads and a bass pedal. The pads have colored rings around the edges that correspond to the notes on-screen. These pads represent a snare drum, toms, and cymbals. The pedal represents the bass drum, with on-screen notes represented as orange horizontal lines. To use the drum controller, players must strike the pads with drum sticks and/or press the bass pedal in time with the scrolling notes on-screen. Drummers can improvise in special "freestyle drum fill" sections of songs, indicated by the columns for each note turning a solid color. The four pads will commonly change functionality to represent other drums, depending on the requirements of a song. The default pad order can be reversed using the "Lefty Flip" option in the game. The legs of the drum peripheral can adjust in height or be detached if the player wishes to place it on a table-top.[15] The drum controller also features standard controller buttons in the middle of the peripheral for navigating in-game menus. Overdrive for drummers can be deployed by hitting the crash cymbal (green note for right-handed configuration) that appears directly after a freestyle drum fill. The second version of the controller, distributed with Rock Band 2, introduced quieter, "velocity sensitive" drum pads, a reinforced bass pedal, wireless capabilities, and compatibility with separately-sold cymbals. ION Audio has also produced a premium drum kit that includes cymbals and can be upgraded with a drum brain to be used as an electronic drum kit.

The microphone is a standard USB microphone. Players can use most other USB microphones, while Xbox 360 users can substitute their console's headset, if they wish. For the most part, singers are judged on how closely they match the pitch of the song's vocalist. During "talking parts" that do not judge pitch, a phoneme detector will pick up individual vowels and consonants of the spoken lyrics.[16][11] Some sections without vocals will display circle notes, allowing for the microphone to be used as a tambourine and cowbell by tapping it or making vocal cues. Overdrive for singers can be deployed by singing in freestyle vocal sections of songs, denoted by yellow artwork in the background of the vocals interface.

On January 4, 2008, video game peripherals manufacturer Mad Catz announced it had reached an agreement with MTV and Harmonix to produce peripherals for Rock Band.[17] Other peripheral companies have developed their own guitar controllers, such as Nyko's Wireless Frontman, that work across between Rock Band and Guitar Hero titles.[18]

Game modes

The primary mode of play in both games is a "Band World Tour" mode (renamed "Tour" for Rock Band 2); in the first Rock Band, this was limited to a band of two or more players playing locally, but Rock Band 2 expanded this to any number of players, locally or online. After choosing a band name and hometown city, the band members can create their own rock characters, as well as a band logo. Once setup is complete, the band can begin playing concerts in small venues in their hometown until they unlock vans, tour buses and private jets, which unlock more cities and different continents. Unlocking and completing new gigs unlocks additional songs for play across all game modes. Successful performances also earn the band fans (used as a metric of measuring the band's popularity), stars (which accumulate based on the success of each individual song performed), and in-game cash (which each player can spend at the "Rock Shop").[19] Most cities and larger venues require the band to achieve a certain number of fans and stars before they are unlocked. In the process, bands can loop through cities multiple times, eventually playing larger venues in cities they have already visited.[19] In-game venues are inspired by real-life venues and often display local art styles from each of the represented cities.[19]

Players complete unique sets of activities at each venue. Performances consist of single songs, multiple song sets, "make your own" setlists, and mystery setlists.[20] Players are also faced with decisions that Harmonix refers to as "risk-versus-reward."[20] Bands need to choose which sized venue they perform at carefully, as a poor performance at a larger venue poses a greater threat of the band losing fans.[20] For certain performances, bands are faced with an optional challenge that requires the band to average a certain amount of stars for their gig in order to reap the rewards.[20] Bands can also choose to perform a benefit concert (earning no in-game money but gaining more fans) or "sell-out" (earning more in-game money but losing fans).[20] Additionally, for certain gigs, bands can compete for band managers, roadies, security personnel, and sound guys, as well as a recording deal with a record label.[20] The "Endless Setlist" allows players to experience an all-day concert atmosphere, as the setlist requires playing the entire game disc's setlist from start to finish.[21]

Rock Band 2 introduced two new modes. "Challenges" allow a band to play through pre-determined setlists, arranged via difficulty, to earn in-game money. These "Challenges" include those based on songs on-disc, as well as through additional songs from the first Rock Band or from downloadable content. A "Battle of the Bands" mode consists of limited-time online tournaments updated on a daily basis. Each specific "Battle of the Band" challenge will have a number of songs and may have specific requirements or limitations; for example, a challenge may require a vocalist, or that the band cannot use Overdrive for the challenge. The goal in these challenges is to achieve the best "score", which may be the numerical score, the number of stars earned, or the longest streak of consecutive notes played correctly. This score is tracked on global leaderboards, and allow the players to compare their performance to their friends and others. "Battle of the Bands" challenges utilize both on-disc content and other songs the players may have available.

The first Rock Band features a more traditional "Career" mode for a single player on either lead guitar, drums, or vocals, dividing the on-disk songs into nine tiers arranged by difficulty of the song for that instrument. Each subsequent tier would only be unlocked after completing the songs in the previous tier. The player would earn in-game money based on their performance. This was removed in Rock Band 2 in lieu of the improved "Tour" mode.

"Quickplay" mode allows up to four players to play any song that has been unlocked. Single players may play head-to-head with another player on the same instrument either through "Score Battles" (both playing at the same time to earn the highest score) or "Tug of War" (each trading off sections of a song, trying to outplay the other). Also included are "Tutorial Mode", which allows players to learn how to play each instrument, and "Practice Mode" which allows players to practice songs for each instrument. A more complete "Drum Trainer" mode was added to Rock Band 2 to help players learn basic drum patterns and drum fills at various speeds.

Customization

Players can create and customize their own in-game character, complete with adjustable hair, body physique, clothing, tattoos, onstage movements, and instruments. Using cash earned within the game, the player may purchase items at the in-game "Rock Shop," with which they can customize their rock star. The game features an art maker where players can combine different clip art elements to create custom face paint, tattoos, clothing designs, instrument artwork, and band logos. Bands themselves can create their own logo, and in Rock Band 2, players can assign any generated character to "stand in" for parts that are not presently being played.

With the release of Rock Band 2, players are able to use the official Rock Band website to create physical merchandise of their characters and band, including posters, t-shirts, as well as six-inch tall figurines.

Soundtracks

Main article: List of songs in Rock Band
Main article: List of songs in Rock Band 2

Rock Band and Rock Band 2 featured soundtracks containing 58 and 84 songs, respectively, spanning many genres of rock music from the 1960s to 2000s, and including licensed music from both well-known artists, as well as independent groups. The majority of songs for Rock Band are master recordings, with a handful of cover versions, while all of Rock Band 2's songs are master recordings. Players are able, for a small fee, to export most of the songs in Rock Band onto their console's hard drive to play in Rock Band 2 and future Rock Band games.

Main article: List of downloadable songs for the Rock Band series

Harmonix has provided new songs, compatible with both games, through regular weekly downloadable content. These have included various singles, artist packs featuring three or more songs from the artists, and full albums. Singles cost $1.99 to download, with packs and album costs varying depending on the number of songs. The music can be purchased either directly from the console's online store, or through the Rock Band games directly via its own "Music Store", which allows users to preview the music prior to purchase. Presently, only Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of both games support downloading; the Wii version of Rock Band 2 will add this feature, and Harmonix will re-release existing downloaded content on the Wii Shopping Channel over time. Harmonix has stated that the Rock Band series is a music platform to allow players to discover music and provide a wide range of music through additional content;[22] a recent download pack includes five country songs as well.[23] Over 30 million downloadable songs purchases have been made through Rock Band music store service through November 2008.[2]

Main article: List of Rock Band track packs

Harmonix has created a series of Track Packs that contain up to twenty songs previously featured as downloadable content that can be played as a standalone title with reduced features (such as no character customization and limited game modes). These titles were initially intended for users of Rock Band on platforms that lacked network capabilities, specifically the PlayStation 2 and the Wii. However, the second Track Pack was made available for all four console systems, and allows users on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii to download these songs for use in the main games. A third Track Pack provides all the tracks from AC/DC's Live at Donington album in a similar manner to the second Track Pack, including exporting them to the main games.

Cultural impact

See also: Cultural impact of the Guitar Hero series

Like Guitar Hero, Rock Band has influenced the music culture as well, as other areas of society. Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy, the founders of Harmonix, were together named in Time Magazine's list of the 100 most influential people of 2008 for their creation of Rock Band. In the article, guitarist Steven Van Zandt claims, "in the history of rock 'n' roll, Rock Band may just turn out to be up there with the rise of FM radio, CDs or MTV."[24] A reality television show, Rock Band 2: The Stars, was created by VH1, featuring several players performing and being eliminated by judges Alice Cooper and Sebastian Bach.[25]

In terms of sales, Rock Band trails the Guitar Hero series, selling only 4 million units in 2007 compared to Guitar Hero's 11.8 million.[7] Wedbush Securities gaming analyst Michael Pachter believes that both game series will sell another 3 million units each by early 2009.[7]

Sales of downloadable songs have been in favor of hard rock bands; Mötley Crüe's single "Saints of Los Angeles", debuting as a Rock Band track at the same time as the release of the album of the same name, saw 48,000 Rock Band downloads and 14,000 iTunes downloads during its first week of release.[26] The popularity of some tracks have also led to groups considering releasing more material for the game. Rush's alternate version of "Working Man" released only for Rock Band was met with so much praise from players of Rock Band that the group released the song for download through iTunes, as well as considered making full albums available.[26] Guns N' Roses has delayed their long-awaited album Chinese Democracy so often, many doubted it would ever be released; however, the Rock Band 2 debut of the song "Shackler's Revenge" was thought to be the precursor to the release of Chinese Democracy; the album was indeed released in November 2008.

See also

Reference

  1. ^ Thorsen, Tor (2008-11-11). "Rock Band hits 7M, rings up $574M in US". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-11-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b Kalning, Krintin (2008-12-10). "'Rock Band' is going a little bit country". MSNBC. Retrieved 2008-12-16.
  3. ^ "Harmonix Interview". Edge. 2008-10-20. Retrieved 2008-10-21. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  4. ^ "Rock Band: Japan press release". Harmonix. Retrieved 2008-06-08. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  5. ^ "Rock Band Goes to Japan". IGN. 2008-06-02. Retrieved 2008-07-11. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "Yoshiki announces end-of-year live for X JAPAN, new track". Retrieved 2008-10-23.
  7. ^ a b c Bruno, Antony (2008-10-31). "MTV and Activision face off in battle of the brands". Reuters. Retrieved 2008-11-03.
  8. ^ Kohler, Chris (2008-10-30). "Live Blog: Beatles, Rock Band Makers Team For New Game". Wired. Retrieved 2008-10-30. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  9. ^ "Harmonix' Rigopolous: "Rock Band 3 breaking the annual cycle"". Retrieved 2009-01-07. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ Faylor, Chris (2009-01-05). "LEGO Rock Band, LEGO Harry Potter Rumors Swirl". Shacknews. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
  11. ^ a b c d e f g h Plunkett, Luke (2007-06-14). "Rock Band Details Explosion". Kotaku. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  12. ^ Shoemaker, Brad (2007-07-05). "Rock Band Hands-On". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  13. ^ a b "ScoreHero Invades Harmonix (Rock Band Impressions)". ScoreHero. 2007-10-19. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  14. ^ Moses, Travis (2007-12-14). "Preview: Rock Band PS2 - Impressions". GamePro. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  15. ^ Mitchell, Jason (2007-10-17). "How to Assemble the "Rock Band" Drum Kit". MTV Multiplayer. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  16. ^ "Rock Band: The New Album", Game Informer, pp. 62–69, July {{citation}}: Check date values in: |date= and |year= / |date= mismatch (help)
  17. ^ Crecente, Brian (2008-01-04). "Mad Catz To Make Wired, Wireless Rock Band Gear". Kotaku. Retrieved 2008-01-04.
  18. ^ Johnson, Stephan (2008-04-02). "Nyko's Frontman Available Now". G4TV. Retrieved 2008-04-15. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  19. ^ a b c "On Location With Rock Band". GameSpy. 2007-10-09. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  20. ^ a b c d e f Shoemaker, Brad (2007-10-17). "Rock Band Exclusive - Rock Around the World". GameSpot. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  21. ^ "Rock Band Exclusive: The Endless Setlist". ScoreHero. 2007-10-19. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  22. ^ "Harmonix and MTV Games Unveil Set List for Rock Band 2". Harmonix Music Systems. 2008-07-14. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  23. ^ Faylor, Chris (2008-12-08). "Rock Band Country Pack DLC Detailed, Priced". Shacknews. Retrieved 2008-12-08.
  24. ^ Van Zandt, Steven (2008-05-01). "Alex Rigopulos & Eran Egozy". Time 100. Time Magazine. Retrieved 2008-05-14. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  25. ^ Halperin, Shirley (2008-11-06). "'Rock Band' TV show, featuring Alice Cooper and Sebastian Bach, to jam on VH1 Classic". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-11-06. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  26. ^ a b Levine, Robert (2008-07-14). "Planned Guns N' Roses Deal Underscores Power of Video Games to Sell Songs". The New York Times. Retrieved 2008-07-16. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)

External links

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