Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero WT?, Which one to get for the Wii?

[Konger]

So I've been watching these games for a while, always thought they looked like a lot of fun, but having never played them, I couldn't convince myself to fork over the cash for any of them.

This Christmas Vacation, I visited my brother for a few days, who had Rock Band with an extra guitar, and fancy wide screen/Surround Sound. I had a fucking blast playing songs all New Years, my girl did too. And I've been dying to play some more since I've gotten back. I've been kind of lost after finding out that there is not only Rock Band 2 now, but Guitar Hero has their own band version as well, and can't really come to a conclusion.

Generally, the main opinion I'm seeing in all of the reviews is that GHWT has better hardware, drums are better made with cymbals included, and the Guitars are much more dynamic, with added features. But otherwise, Rock Band 2 has the better software, easier to jump in and play with friends, more streamlined interface/features and such.

People say that solo guitar playing is far better in GHWT, and the overall vibe is that the drumset is FAR superior in GHWT, but the game itself just dropped the ball in several ways, and the music line-up for Rock Band 2 is better.

The optimum solution would probably be to buy the GHWT set, and get the lone Rock Band 2 game individually later, but that's pretty expensive added up, I'm going to be broke for some time again until Summer probably.

To add to the confusion though, I'm hearing that GHWT may be a better choice for the Wii since you can download songs to SD card's, considering the Wii's limited hard-drive space compared to a 360 or PS2. GHWT on the Wii also has some kind of fancy Mii-jam out mode where two people can sort of dive in with Mii's and play some music together just messing around. But then my brother has Rock Band 1 and 2, so there is the extra pro that I may be able to jam with my brother and his wife online sometime, which would rock, but probably wouldn't happen too often.

So I guess I'm sort of leaning towards the GHWT kit, but I loved Rock Band, and I'm a little worried I may be plopping down 160 bucks, and end up missing the Rock Band features.

You guys have any input? Have any of you played both, with the different instruments?

[Rhendal]

I haven't tried Guitar Hero World Tour yet (because every time I try at Best Buy someone's on it), but I've heard the same things you have, the hardware is better but the game itself is lacking compared to Rock Band.

DLC

I have Rock Band 1 and 2 and over 160 songs, and there's still a ton more songs that I could download (but I ain't rich and my drums are broken so I haven't been playing at home, more on that later). From what I've gathered a lot of songs that are on GHWT are also available either on the disc or as DLC in Rock Band. For pricing of DLC, I'm not sure if they changed their prices but when Guitar Hero 2 and 3 came out the price for songs was atrocious. If they're still at the same price range of 2 and 3 then Rock Band's DLC is a lot cheaper. They also have a much bigger selection of songs and (at least for PS3 and 360) if you buy Rock Band 1, go into Options and pay $5, you can transfer all of the songs from Rock Band 1 to your hard drive and play them in Rock Band 2, that way you don't have to keep swapping out discs to play specific songs.

Guitars

I've preferred Guitar Hero guitars over the Rock Band ones. I haven't tried the GHWT guitars yet but I'm assuming they followed the same formula for them compared to GH 1, 2 and 3. This isn't too much of a problem since you only get one guitar per pack on either game so if you picked up Rock Band and didn't like the guitar you could pick up a Guitar Hero guitar and use that, leaving the Rock Band guitar for player 2, and it also keeps it open in case someone does prefer one over the other when they come to play.

Drums

I think this is the most important part of picking between hardware. I bought a real drum kit in June after playing Rock Band for 7ish months, and while I still suck at drumming I at least have a good feel for the real thing compared to the game versions.

For the original Rock Band drums, having 4 pads and a kick pedal does emulate drums well, but it still feels like a game compared to the real thing, mainly because the pads for the toms are the same for the cymbals. The original Rock Band drums break easily, I've cracked the plastic under the snare drum pad twice and split the kick pedal in half three times.

GHWT comes with two cymbals, 3 pads and a kick pedal which is neat, but looking at the layout (like I said I haven't actually played with the GHWT drums yet) I'm not sure if I like only having 2 toms and I don't know if I like the placement, kind of looks like it's on a small tray. It's too right up front for me, at least Rock Band feels like they kind of wrap around you if you know what I mean. From what I understand they're much better under stress as well, or at least not as bad as the original Rock Band drums.

The cool thing about the Rock Band 2 drums is not only did they reinforce them (for instance the kick pedal has a metal plate on it instead of being made of shitty plastic) and for $40 more you can buy 3 cymbals from Mad Catz. The Rock Band 2 drums have 3 plugs for the cymbals on the drums and the software will tell the difference between the toms and the cymbals for when you're doing fills (when you can play whatever you want, if you hit the green tom it will make a floor tom sound, but if you hit the green cymbal it'll make a crash cymbal sound). I also bought an actual Pearl kick pedal that's converted to work with Rock Band and it's bad ass, but it's probably not up your alley due to the price (I can also always convert it back to a real kick pedal too). There's also the Ion drumset that's an actual electronic drum kit that was made specifically for Rock Band and you can get a drum brain to set it up as an actual electronic drum kit but that's $350 just for the drums, sans drum brain.

Personal Suggestion

Obviously I'm biased towards Rock Band, and I'm going to tell you you should consider buying that over GHWT. The hardware is important but from reviews and comparisons the software is better for Rock Band over GHWT. I'm not saying this just because I own Rock Band 1 and 2, I've been trying to get rid of brand name loyalties for a while now.

Personally I have problems with how Neversoft's PR has handled Rock Band's competition since they and Harmonix split off and I don't like their pricing of DLC (but nowadays with GHWT they might be competing better in this area). I know they're both companies making as much money as possible, but Rock Band seems more geared towards fans and Guitar Hero seems more geared towards just flat out selling shit. Rock Band has had a LOT of indy artists and songs that are usually off the beaten path (they have Squeeze on Rock Band 2 for crying out loud!) of the usual radio lineup and GH seems to try and stay towards songs off the billboards.

Next time I swing by a Best Buy I'll try and give the GHWT drums a shot to see how they are.

[Kaz!]

Rock band/GHWT are big for parties. In my experience, people care more about songs they know/like than the controllers. I'd go with Rock Band. At my parties, there's sometimes one person who says "This guitar is weird" but they end up forgetting about it five minutes later.

Also, the GUI for GHWT is not as good as Rock Band's IMO but partiers don't really care about that either, and they're not so significantly different that it's an issue.

[grugbuk]

Rhendal: The song packs (3 songs each) for GHWT are priced at 440 points, which I believe is the same as Rock Band...correct me if I'm wrong.

I love GHWT's soundtrack compared to RB2. One of the main reasons for this however, is the addition of Jimi Hendrix. They also have a track pack for download with 3 additional Hendrix songs.

As for the guitar, they added a new "slider" function. It is an additional set of frets located towards the bottom of the neck. Certain sections of songs will have a purple "rope" connecting the notes, which means you can "slide" through them rather than strumming and using the main frets. Kind of a cool new feature, especially when playing "Do It Again" by Steely Dan.

I've always preferred GH's gameplay over Rock Band. I found the timing for hammer on's and pull off's more friendly and the difficulty a bit more challenging overall.

I don't think you'll be disappointed with either choice, as both are great games (I own GH3, GHWT, and RB, and enjoy all of them...I plan on eventually buying RB2).

[Konger]

Thanks for the write-up's guys, it's a tough decision. Sucks being a broke-ass college student.

I read a few more reviews on Rock Band 2, and I guess I'm sort of leaning that way now. Some of the features that I thought only GHWT had, Rock Band 2 does as well.

From what I've dug up.

ROCK BAND 2

PROS:
Easier for people to pick up and play at party's.
More varied Set List.
More DL content, entire Back Catalog from Rock Band 1, over 500+ songs.
Far better gameplay, software.
Can play online with my brother.
More appealing visual style to me.
Better Campaign Mode, band simulation, w/ incorporated downloaded songs.


GUITAR HERO WORLD TOUR

PROS:
+$20 Cheaper, and easier to find.
Far better, more responsive Guitars.
Wii exclusive features like Mii jam mode.
More fun solo with Guitar, more chance to show off with advanced features.
More advanced Guitar potential.
Built in cymbals on the drums.

I've heard mixed preferences towards the Drum sets now, everyone agrees the Drum Set for Rock Band 1 was Shite, and either game has a far superior kit. Drums are probably what I care about the most, I wish I could play GH's first hand before deciding. I like the idea of the raised cymbals, the Rock Band 2 attachments sound more gimmicky to me since the gameplay wasn't designed around it. I get what you said Rhendal, about liking the drums being more wrap-around in Rockband, but it seemed less realistic to me to be hitting the right drum, and it making a cymbal sound. The ideal drumset for me would be 3 toms, the snare, bass pedal, and 1 cymbal, but none of them are setup like that. Rock Band 3 maybe?

Trying to look at it from what would be most affordable for now, and have the best potential to upgrade later on, like I'd probably want to expand the hardware, or software in the Summer when I have more dough.

I could either buy the whole GHWT kit now for $160, and get the standalone Rock Band 2 game with an additional guit later in the Summer.

Or just get Rock Band 2 now for $180 now (everywhere I see it offered online is over 200), if I'm lucky enough to find it, and get an extra GHWT guit over the summer, maybe the cymbal expansion kit.

I guess the real deciding factor is the drums. I'll have to hunt around and see if I can find either playable in a store so I can check out the drums and decide.

[Konger]

Man this thing would rock to play on... but for 300 bucks you could pretty much buy a real freaking set.

[Steve]

I actually have been hearing from people at work the ION drum set is not that great. Like sometimes it is not responsive and such... But oh well I have no opinion about this matter other then Most people I know have Rock Band 2 and if you also have a Xbox 360, get that one. Since you will be able to play with more people on these boards online... If they ever play online...

[Konger]

Man, just when I was coming to a conclusion, I came accross this pretty good comparison review: http://www.gizmag.com/guitar-hero-world-to...k-band-2/10527/

Pretty much echoed other reviews that the Guitars are far and away better on GHWT, and people actually fight over using that one over the Rock Band version. And that the drumset for GHWT is more realistic than the Rockband 2 version. He also noted that you could hook up a real, midi drum kit to GHWT and set it up to work with the game, which sounds way better than some Ion set for RB2 that will only work with the game. What a great way to learn the drums. Not that I could really afford to do that now...

The real kicker he mentions at the end though, is that on the Wii, the hardware isn't compatible with each other.

So now I really have to decide between superior Hardware, or superior Gameplay.

[Konger]

Fuck it, I'm just going to go with Rock Band 2.

[Rhendal]

Steve and my friend Josh has the Ion drum kit. I've been thinking about buying it (it's the $350 one I mentioned that can plug into a drum brain, the extra $50 is from that third cymbal that doesn't come with the $300 package) but want to try it out for the reason Steve said. I've heard you have to play it right and it works properly, aka you can't hit the side and have it work(where the metal rim of the drum would be anyway), you actually have to hit the pad. Essentially the Mad Catz expansion makes the Rock Band 2 drums a cheaper and less hardcore version of the Ion drum kit. I watched a video on IGN showcasing the Mad Catz expansions. He put it on Freestyle mode. When he hit the toms, they made tom sounds and when he hit the cymbals they made cymbal sounds. The guy couldn't play at all, but you got the idea. They were also impact sensitive, so a light tap is different from a hard hit.

For your 3 toms, snare, 1 cymbal and a pedal you can buy one of the Mad Catz cymbals for $20, or all 3 for $40, so if that's what you want, there ya go. However, you should realize that the way rock songs are played you use more than just the hi-hat (the clam looking cymbal) when you play. You'd essentially play the hi-hat and then have to hit a tom or play a tom as a hi-hat and crash or ride (another type of cymbal) every now and then.

I would hit up a Best Buy or something to give the GHWT drums a shot. I'm assuming you've played Rock Band before at your brothers so you have a sense in how it feels. I'd also make sure compatibility with instruments is okay. There was an issue when Rock Band 1 came out where you couldn't use the rock band guitars with Guitar Hero 2 or 3 due to some licensing problem. I know you can use rock band drums in GHWT but I'm not sure about the other way around. I'm assuming they're all cross compatible but you never know, these two companies are butting heads so hard right now.

Grug: Yeah like I said I wasn't sure about the pricing for GHWT. All I knew was the pricing for GH2 and GH3 DLC packs when they first came out were like 600 points or some bullshit. I figured they would competitively price them.

While Jimi Hendrix would be awesome to play, I wouldn't buy one or the other just for one artist unless you're REALLY into them. It sucks with getting exclusivity like that but that's how these companies feel like they have to play it. IMO the rock band song list is superior to the GHWT one, though there are some good songs on there (and equally for both of them, some crap).

[Konger]

Well set lists available on the main game aside, Rock Band 2 has a much more extensive downloadable content selection. Though I think it's lacking on Hendrix unfortunately.

I walked down to my local ebgames, They had a playable Rock Band 2 setup, but it was ripped to shreds and turned off. They had only the guitars available for testing for GHWT, but there was seriously a line of like 4 to 6 Mexican kids waiting to play it.

I was happy to see that it was fully stocked with both games, and full kits, both for $189, though GHWT you can get on Amazon for $169 with free shipping.

I'm hearing the opposite now, that all Guitar Hero guitars do in fact work with RB2 on the Wii, or at least IGN is claiming they tested it, and it works.

Either way, I think I'm just going to go with Rock Band 2, it's easier, and I'll pick up a GH guitar later on. Now I just need to convince the significant other that despite being broke as a joke, we should drop 200 bones on video game.

[Rhendal]

LOL I told you the Rock Band one at Best Buy would be destroyed. Also my girlfriend loves Rock Band...Then again she's a gamer too...

OH! Also (and I figure with all the info you've seen from other sources as well as ours you already figured this), get Rock Band 2 for the better instruments and pick up Rock Band 1 later on. Not only is the drum kit more durable and expandable but the Rock Band 2 guitar is a lot nicer than the original one. It seems a lot sturdier and the buttons work a lot better.

It's a shame you don't have a 360 though, otherwise you coulda played with us. :/

[Konger]

Believe me I'd love to have a 360, but I've got about another year in this never-ending education, I feel like I should have a doctorate by now. Can't wait to have a real job so I can actually afford some shit again, I figure by then it will be close to the new systems coming out anyway. Instead I'm stuck trying to stay entertained with this stupid Wii.

I think this is the first time I've ever not had all of the major game systems available since the Atari came out.

[Konger]

I think I've come to another conclusion now, in light of my brokeness, and need for a guitar fix. I think I might just get Guitar Hero: Legends of Rock, which is only 60 bucks now with the Guitar bundle. Would give me some sweet tunes to rock out with at a great price for now, and over the Summer I can save up the $190 for Rock Band 2, and I'll then have a second, Guitar Hero guitar.

Sounds like a decent plan to me. Though I think this is the older model guitar that doesn't have the fancy touch/slide buttons.

[Rhendal]

Sounds like a good idea, man.