The Nintendo Boy Project

I thought about writing something about Rock Band, and it seemed fitting with our latest video, the Rock Band Documentary. You... have seen that, correct?! Anyway, Rock Band! How many of you actually own this rather expensive game? Of course I do, and if you have keen eyes when watching our Rock Band video, you'll see that I have the original Rock Band 1 (RB1) Special Edition version, rather than the much more superior Rock Band 2 (RB2) set... although, I do have the RB2 disc-only game! Now, I've had a reason for this odd purchase, and when I stumbled upon a recent article about RB1 & RB2 for Wii, I felt I had to come out with my thoughts.

The article at GoNintendo titled "Consumer buy Rock Band [1] for Wii, love less features," is of course a sarcastic statement, but according to statisitcs... it's true! O_O Now, if you are someone who keeps up with game information, the following rant about Rock Band for Wii will not be news to you. Basically, when Rock Band 1 first came out in 2007, it came out for Xbox 360, PS2, and PS3. Way to leave Nintendo in the dark, huh? Well finally in June 2008, Harmonix (the game company for RB), finally gave Wii owners the chance to rock out and release RB1 for Wii (almost half a year later). You think, finally you can be cool and pretend to play in a band!

FYI, RB2 beats RB1 in EVERY WAY, as RB2 Wii had all the features that RB1 were missing... so I guess in a way, Harmonix apologized and FINALLY delivered RB2 with all the bells and whistles, something we deserve! And having both games from experience, every Wii owner needs to pick up RB2... a fantastic game!

Here was my plan. I knew indirectly that I would pretty much be supporting Harmonix of buying crappy games (RB1), as evidenced by the article mentioned earlier. I did this, not because I love less features (that is so stupid), but because I am a SMART shopper! Let's take a look:

Option A) RB1 Full Bundle + RB2 Disc = $100 + $50 = $150

Option B) RB2 Full Bundle + RB1 Disc = $190 + $50 = $240

As you can see, I went with Option A for the price tag. $150 is LOWER than the entire RB2 bundle by itself, yet I am getting 2 games for STILL, less than RB2. Now, you can't tell me that isn't smart shopping. Of course, there is the downside of supporting Harmonix's crappy version of RB1 version, which prompted the above linked article, and also pretty much getting the old set of instruments. With RB2, the instruments are new and improved, most notably the drums having a gel center on the pads to quiet the noise a little bit more. Soo I'm pretty much getting the "ugh" bundle of RB, but I save almost $100 by doing it this way. However, there was one really neat benefit that I tell myself for getting the RB1 bundle, and that was because the drums are white, to match the Wii! Now, that's kinda cool, I will admit, considering the other platforms are just the boring gray/black color, including the RB2 Wii version. So maybe Harmonix gave us a special white-colored drum set as an incentive for buying a lacking RB1? Who knows. That's what I tell myself. Even though I sadly gave my money toward the shoddy product that is RB1, I still got both RB1 & RB2 for less than RB2 by itself. Soooo, that's my reason why I bought the RB1 bundle. But trust me, if money wasn't an issue, I wouldn't of touched RB1 with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole.

So, that's my rant on Rock Band. Again, if you haven't read the article I linked above, please take a look at it, it isn't that long, and it's pretty much what prompted me to type out this rather long nRant. But thanks for reading, as I see you've made it to the end! Also.. you may be thinking, what about Guitar Hero: World Tour? Well, again, from watching the Rock Band video... I'm just a Rock Band kinda guy. ;) (and a smart shopper!)

Ready to discuss this nRant? Join in on the thread here: http://www.nintendoboy.com/apps/forums/topics/show/250328-nrant-discussion-rb1-rb2-right-wrong-