G l i t c h y G o b l i n !

Yet again I bring you my thoughts on another music game.  Don’t worry, there will be 2 more this year.  This go around it’s all about Green Day:  Rock Band.  Now, I’ll say this to start off:  it’s good if you like Green Day and bad if you don’t.  That should immediately divide everyone in half.

PROS:

It’s pretty difficult. This is a great thing, especially on the back of Lego Rock Band’s easy setlist.  Most of the tracks are what guitar-based music game players refer to as a “chord fest”.  This term means that you’ll be doing a lot of chords a lot of the time.

But it’s not boring because of this. Usually, so many chords constitute a setting in of boredom after a while.  This is not so in this game, because it’s mostly REALLY FAST MUSIC.  That’s the main reason as to why it’s difficult.  You’re playing this chord fest at a really fast pace.

All the band members and venues look and feel like they should. If you like Green Day, then you’ll feel right at home.

There are lots of extras, like pictures and videos of live concerts.  These are unlocked not only by playing the main career but also by completing challenges like playing all of American Idiot at once.

Finally, American Idiot. I’ve been waiting to play this album on Rock Band forever.  This is one of my favorite albums of all time, and it was a delight to finally play it in all of its glory.

CONS:

Once again, if you hate or slightly dislike Green Day, then buy something else. It was pretty much only made for Green Day fans.  However, the only exception to this might be if you are a Rock Band guitarist looking for a way to practice chords (I know some people are bad at them).  This would instead be a great way to practice.

Chord fests hurt. The problem with playing this many chords at this speed is that your hand will start to hurt really quickly.  Their first albums are the worst at doing this.  As their sound progresses, they use the extreme speed/chord fest combination less and less.  So, as you go through the career it hurts less and less.

Even further than this, if you CAN play chords but don’t like to, then as stated earlier about halfway through the career there aren’t many more songs like that.

Some achievements are only solo.  It doesn’t tell you this, though.  Sometimes you have to be playing in your own career, and sometimes you can be playing in a friend’s and still receive them.  If you are unsure, you should probably look them up.

These games are starting to tire even me. After having played an upwards of 14 band-based music games through in their entirety, it’s starting to get a little repetitive.  Hopefully, Rock Band 3 will fix all of this with the Pro modes and Keyboard instrument.

Anyways, the verdict remains that it’s a pretty good buy if you like Green Day, and it isn’t if you don’t.