Features
Platform: Xbox 360Edition: Special
- Local and global online modes
- Online World Tour mode fuses Solo Tour and Band World Tour modes with opportunity gigs, challenges, cities, venues and hirable staff
- Tour Challenges – mini-campaigns focused on the best songs by instrument, decade, genre, etc
- Battle of the Bands mode – go head to head against other bands in constantly refreshed contests (internet connection required)
- Quickplay – with prefab or customized characters that can play on any instrument. Make customizable set lists and organize your song lists in different categories
Description of Xbox 360 Rock Band 2 Special Edition
Platform: Xbox 360
Customer Reviews
I’m a 36 yo mom with two girls. Rock Band 2 had become a phenom in our house. There’s a magic in making music together, esp with loved ones, that can’t be explained, only experienced. I have to say I’m woefully, pityfully unmusical, and frankly, Rock Band intimidated and scared me – embarassed me at the thought – and I was afraid to even touch it, and I never ever, in ten million lifetimes thought I would like it. Kids, sure– kids try everything once. But me? Now here I am waking up at 6am to play the drums with them before they go to school? I have two pre-teen girls that are drummers now? Wow talk about your ‘I never saw that coming’ moment.
I know Rock Band is a little bit intimidating to us people who aren’t musical. But just order the big box, let it come to the door and set it up in the privacy of your house and no one will be the wiser. It sets up in a snap, no wires at all, no plug-ins, no softwear — very mom (or tech) friendly.
Rock Band 2 is much improved over Rock Band 1 in ease of set up, maintenance, totally wireless, no plugs, cords, etc., and zero STRESS. The drums have been improved so they don’t hurt your wrists like the previous set which were like hitting concrete, they, now, have lots of give. I’ve been playing it about 60 hours in total, now, and no painful wrists like the previous Rock Band 1 set gave me. The pedal is also metal-reinforced now so you can’t snap it, like it’s purely plastic predicessor.
I am trying to reach down into my soul and explain to parents what a wonderful ‘video game’ this set is. How 189.00 is nothing when you think of how much gas, time, energy, and stress it is to run around entertaining them on a regular basis. With four positions to occupy (guitar, drums, singing, and a bass if you get an extra guitar) there is always something for even a little younger sibling of four to do: either sing along or play the drums, gosh they learn it fast. Four year olds are no slouches. Rock Band 2 also has a wonderful ‘no fail’ option so that the song doesn’t crash if one of the members falls out of tune, you can keep playing with no stress, unlike rockband 1. Altho, admittedly, soon, even inexperienced players seem to dislike the ‘no fail’ option as, strangely enough, not ‘failing’ is really the key to it feeling like you *are* real band.
If your looking for a way to meld your family unit, the last thing you would dream in the world might do it would be rocking out to old classics together, but somehow, like a magical mystery tour, it works wonders on the family unit. No one is more surprised than me. I swear I was convinced this would be the last thing on god’s green earth I’d could ever dream of having enough coordination to ever enjoy.
Quick Mom-like Points:
Pros:
-An amazing dads/daughters/sons way to bond. Not too hard to talk dad into a nice redition of ‘Eye of the Tiger’ when he gets off work–where as trying to get him to have a tea-party of play some basket ball is a bit more challanging. Dads LOVE this game, and kids don’t get ‘in the way’ – everyone is an asset in rockband. Which is the sheer genius of it when it comes to familes and their differing ages.
-No musical ability or lessons required. Literally any age over 4 can play.
-Promotes family and sharing and harmony. Appreciation of each other’s musical attempts, and that promotes respect as one ‘musician’ to another.
-Produces confidence and self-esteem via performing. We really don’t get much of a chance to ‘show off’ or ‘express’ our selves infront of each other often. This experience really builds – do i dare say it – self-love and pride in self-ability. When you totally rock the drums or sing a great rendition of a song, or play an amazing solo on the guitar, everyone else knows how hard it is because we all take our turn at ‘bat’ so to speak.
-Great mental concentration, hand-eye coordination improvement as you make music.
-No painful learning curve. Each member of the band plays at their own skill level without it slowing down any other member.
-A fun way burn up all that pent-up energy, and surprisingly, emotion, we build up over the day.
-The drums are quiet. You can literally work in the same room and concentrate on a mental task on a computer while four kids rock wildly on rock band. Why? Becuase they shut up for 4 minutes at a time! WOO!! And they are in a good mood when they play. No one gets angry, it’s such a singular thing of concentration to work as a whole (if that makes sense.)
Cons–
-might agrue over who is to play the drums next. I make everyone switch around ever few songs to play their favs. One of my favorite things about rock band is ‘making’ everyone rotate thru guitar, singing, and drums. Great experiences, all.
-someone or everyone in the house will be addicted. great ‘when your homework is done’ inducement tho.
-the vast majority of songs are classic rock and considered tame by todays lyrical standards as far as decency goes. Some of the songs are depressing and we flat-out skip. I am sure more varied rockband songs will be popping up soon in every possible genre. Christian rock, country, hiphop, etc. For the moment now it’s the classic rock greats and some newer hits. So songs might need monitoring. I haven’t unlocked ‘you oughta know’ by alanis morrisette yet, but I know that’s not a song the kids will be able to play because of they lyrics.
All in all, amazing, wonderful, fabulous!
It’s one thing to go to a concert and sit there and watch a flawless show – but, wow is it another to try to do it yourself. Now I really know what they mean when they say ‘rock on.’ It ain’t no joke. I, now, have a whole new perspective and *respect* for the sweat and brains it takes to make a song work. Grab Rock Band 2 for your family, it’s almost a sure bet to please everyone, including Mom and Dad!
First, the instruments are a big improvement over the previous Rock Band. I prefer wireless to wired, which is nice since I live in a small space and storing the wires is a pain. The face of the drums is made of a different material which makes them much less noisy. This is great for those who live in apartment complexes like me. A second smaller improvement, is that the base of the drums which holds the pedal is a different shape, which means the pedal doesn’t rotate when the drums are lifted and moved.
Another major improvement over the Guitar Hero series is the ability to export songs. With Rock Band 2 you are able to play most the original Rock Band songs in Rock Band 2 by storing them on your hard drive (This cost 400 MS points and requires an XBox live connection). I really like this feature.
One game play improvement in tour mode, over the original Rock Band, allows you to use your character on every instrument instead of just one. This saves a lot of time on character creation. I also prefer the tour mode on Rock Band 2 as it seems more organized, however, this may just be my personal opinion.
The game play remains basically the same, though the song difficulty may have been made slightly easier, though its really hard to say.
The improvement of the drum face alone, makes the special edition worth it for me. If you’re not interested in the quieter drum faces, the wireless instruments, and the drum expansion I would recommend just getting the game IF you have the original Rock Band.
Playing the original Rock Band game once at a party was all it took for me to ask my wife for the Rock Band 2 bundle as my birthday gift. Rock Band is a great party game. Friends look forward to coming over to play, or even just to watch. I organized an after hours Rock Band function at my office recently, and was amazed at how many coworkers came out of their shells to try their hand at singing or beating a drum – even those generally diinterested in video games.
When at home, you can open new songs and venues through the World Tour mode. You can play with up to three friends, or go it solo with “computer non-player characters” substituting for your human bandmates. Being able to switch instruments while playing solo is a great feature that can help you get past a tough spot. If you’re playing guitar and get stuck on the solo for Pearl Jams “Alive”, switch to drums and try it again.
Be forewarned – while not a big deal – know that the bundle currently ships with a solid black guitar with a white pick guard – not the sunburst wood grain pattern everyone describes as the new RB2 guitar. I was a little surprised and perhaps a bit dissapointed that I didn’t get the new guitar pattern, but it is still the improved RB2 version with the stronger strum bar, auto-calibration microphone, and wireless screwless battery compartment.
This is a very fun game that makes you feel like you’re actually participating in some creative musical adventure.
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