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So I’ve had Rock Band Wii for a day or so now, and I thought I should be nice and share my thoughts with all of you, just in case you had any doubts or worries before it hits shelves next week. Hit the jump for my full review.
This isn’t going to be nearly as lengthy as my typical reviews, because to be honest, it’s Rock Band. The game has been out for a while, and as far as gameplay goes, it’s really the same. There are differences to be noted, such as the lack of character creation and online play, but we’ve known about this for some time also.
First thing I’d really like to note here for those that survied the Guitar Hero III disaster on the Wii, it doesn’t output sound in mono. That’s right, this game (much like every other game in the world) supports stereo sound! Unfortunately there’s no Dolby support, so no surround sound for you.
Hooking up the instruments is pretty simple, just hook up your hub and plug in your drums and mic. As for the guitars, you’ll need to plug in your wireless dongle(s). Press the little button on the dongle and then then one on your guitar and you’re good to go.
All you need to do now is pick your band name and you’re ready to rock. The game from here on out is pretty much the same. You don’t collect money for new clothes and stuff, for obvious reasons. You do have a few extra tracks that weren’t on the original set list for the 360 and PS3, it’s not much, but a few extra tracks are always nice.
So how do the instruments perform? The mic is identical to my 360 version, and the drums are almost the same. The only real difference is two bottom bars connecting the feet together are plastic, and seem to almost hug the ground. This seems to make the kit a little more steady, but otherwise they play just as well as my original set.
I haven’t played the PS3 version of the game much, so I can’t say that I’m quite as familiar with the wireless guitars. However, I can definitely say that the ones included in the Wii bundle are awesome. The wireless reaches at least 25 feet without any signal loss or missed notes (I’d have tested from a greater distance, but I ran out of room). The strum and whammy bars felt good, and the buttons were all responsive. I had no issues activating Overdrive by tilting the neck, either.
Overall, I’m pleased with the port. It really does suck that they weren’t able to get any online features or DLC into the game. I don’t really miss the character creation too much, but then again I haven’t added new clothes to my 360 characters since I initially created them. I give Rock Band for the Wii a solid 4 out of 5 gears.
Rating:
I’ve never actually tried the game myself, but the drums look a little delicate considering people are going to be battering at them. Do you think they’ll hold up to a pounding, Scott?
Well, they’re identical to my 360 drums which I’ve had since November of last year. I’ve been beating on those for around 7 months and they’re still holding strong!
That’s good. My brother plays drums and I’ve seen what’s left of his sticks after a couple of weeks - had horrible visions of an expensive games controller going a similar way!
Thank you i have been looking forward to this game for months and this is the first review of it ive seen im aware of lack of character creation and online play but i dont mind as long as the game plays close to the 360 and ps3 versions because those were terrific.either way thanks for the review
This seems very nice, but there’s just one thing.. Can you use the Guitar Hero 3 guitar or do you have to purchase a whole new one?
By the way, what is wrong with the guitar hero 3 Wii? You say: “those that survied the Guitar Hero III disaster on the Wii”
I’ve never played the PS3 or Xbox versions, so I assume they are a lot better?
Cheers
ok koekje unfortunately for the wiii version of rock band you will not be able to use the guitar hero 3 controller which is dissapointing, and also i agree with you in that guitar hero 3 for the wii isnt that bad the graphics are a little down but the gameplay is still lots of fun and i dont get what people hated so much about it.
I mentioned this on another story but I made a legit playlist for this game (i’ve been getting really pumped).
thought i would share…
http://www.nutsie.com/member/v....._id=153837
I hope they dropped the price on this version to compensate for its lack of features?
I’d rather wait for a Wii version that doesn’t rely on FMVs. This is why downloadable content and the character creator weren’t implemented. They deemed the PS2 as too weak to handle real-time content, so used massive pre-rendered videos instead, which of course they figured would be fine for us Wii owners.
Im having a major problem. When i use the wiimote to hook up my guitar hero 3 guitar it goes to the microphone. what should i do
@josh.
you cant use the guitar hero controller on rock band bro.
GH3 guitar doesn’t work…. but does the Nyko Frontman guitar work?
sweet Yo, good find.
Heyy, I just got Rock Band for the Wii, and so far I love it, but my family & I can’t seem to get the guitar to work? We’ve plugged everything in correctly, we’ve done everything the instructions said! But the guitar just keeps blinking (where the blue light should be in the 1, 2, or 3 column like on the Wii remote) Can you please help me in figuring out how to get it to work?! Please help me!
thanks dude.
[:
“You don’t collect money for new clothes and stuff, for obvious reasons.”
what do you mean?
what ARE those obvious reasons?
thx it releives me that it doesnt require a wii mote to play the instruments
How do you use the guitar hero wii guitar on the rock band? Cant get it to work..
do u get to choose ur character since u can’t creat them and can u change their clothes and guitar?
Yeah, I was starting to panic over this one, too. Just make sure the dongle and the drums and mic are plugged into the USB hub, then Reset the Wii. It should pick it up; the dongle’s blue light will start to flash immediately after the Wii is reset. Then press the white button on the guitar and it should connect to the dongle near-instantaneously.
Can you use Guitar Hero 2 or 3 controllers from Xbox 360 with the Wii Rockband? I took the GH2 wired Controller and tried to plug it into the USB hub but the game wouldn’t register it as a controller? Is there anyway to make 360 controllers compatible with Wii RockBand?
Can anyone tell me if it is possible to use the wii Rock Band guitar with wii Guitar Hero III… has anyone made it work?? and HOW??
Yo, if the GH guitar doesnt work with rockband, i dont really think the rockband guitar will work with GH. But i might be wrong, if i were u, id ask around a little more! LOL :-)
Whats a Nyko Frontman guitar???????
Just picked up Wii Rockband yesterday. Husband and I are already addicted. We’ve played GH a few times and dug it, just wondering how ‘committed’ we are to RB.
All the charts, comments and blogs I’ve read said we’re out of luck and only Xbox 360 has compatible equipment… so far. Any word on the upcoming GH4’s compatibility with RB guitars for Wii?
At $50+ a pop, seems like a waste to get 2 guitars for each game. If you’ve heard anything on this, would love the feedback.
Is it really true that the GH3 controllers don’t work with rockband???
If that’s true, I’m in big trouble because I really want the game, just bought 2 GH3 guitars for it, and I don’t want to spend another $50 just to play the game…
Unfotunately, no guitars are compatible between RockBand and Guitar Hero on wii, only on the Xbox 360 version. I’ve had the Wii version of Rockband since the day it came out, and I have to say I’m rather disappointed. Considering the hype surrounding the game and what I had seen, I thought I would love it, but I actually haven’t played much cause I don’t really like it. I was really used to playing Guitar Hero 3, so when I got to RB, I didn’t feel comfortable on the guitar ; the part with the strum and whammy bar is fine, it’s the frets I had trouble with. They actually cover the whole neck of the guitar in width which makes it hard on expert to play without hitting other frets (on complicated parts of certain songs). Maybe it’s the way I play, but I’m a lot less comfortable with it then the ones for GH. I didn’t really like the interface of the game either, looking rather simple and ‘botched’ compared to the guitar hero interface (the designs of meters, where things are placed on screen, the design of the guitar neck where you see your notes go by, the design of the notes themselves, etc.). Still, I decided to play guitar first, since I was pretty good at GH, i told myself it would be the easiest way to unlock every song.
I started on hard, but since I played expert on GH, it was far too easy so I put it on expert and went through the whole set list in one afternoon. Then I tried a drum career. Since I’m a drummer, i put the setting to hard. But the songs I knew were missing a lot of the bass drum kicks (mostly) and other drum hits so i put it on expert. I didn’t do the whole career cause I got tired of it after 6 or 7 blocks of songs.
For a drummer, the drumming isn’t as intuitive as I hoped it would be. You play a lot less by feeling than by what you see on screen… even when you know the song you’re playing (all the drummers will understand what I mean when they try it). Maybe I’m asking for too much, but with each drum pad changing from hi-hat to tom to crash, it makes you wonder where they’re going to make you hit. Most of the times I missed, I really was following what was on screen in terms of rythm but my hand went for a different pad because it felt like ” that’s where the cymbal would have been if I had been playing a real drum kit “. But still, in terms of instruments, it’s the closest you get to the real thing since every beat is actually a pad you have to hit. So if you want to learn to play drums, you can learn how to move each arm and leg independently with this.
A big downside to the game : the lack of emphasis on the career mode and unlockables for the wii makes it less appealing to want to get through with it. I wasn’t enough into singing to start a career, although I did enjoy singing when I played with a bunch of friends. Plus, in my opinion, there aren’t any technical downsides to the singing experience in RockBand.
The really good part of the game is band playing. A lot of fun, no matter what the downsides of the game are, the multiplayer is really solid and a lot of fun compared to single player modes. But let’s say you can’t make much of a party night without hearing the same songs coming back over and over again.
All the instruments respond really well, and I had no trouble plugging any of them in (plus the white drums are really sweet), but it is a rather gimped version of the game. If you have the choice on which console to get this game, I’d recommend going for the XBOX 360 version since the gameplay experience is more complete, you can play with GH controllers, and all the donwloadable songs make it that much more fun to play, and there’s a lot of variety for every taste (even hardcore songs to download and scream your lungs to when you’re the singer… really hilarious). But all in all, if you’ve really enjoyed guitar hero and/or only own a Wii, I’d suggest waiting for Guitar Hero 4 with the drums and mic, compose your owns songs, create your characters, etc. It looks a little more promising for Wii owners then RockBand is. But for those who really like Rockband and want to stick with it, there’s a little hope for a better game since RockBand 2 is coming out this fall. Let’s just hope they’ve upped their game for the Wii.
My daughter is 10 and wants an “electric guitar” for christmas. Since she’s never played guitar I thought a GH or RB game for the Wii would be neat. I don’t play the Wii and I am clueless about which game I should get for her. What do you guys recommend?