Page 1 of 2 Recommend article: Game Review - All in all, the positive aspects of Rock Band outweigh the quirks that come with being an innovator in gaming. See Rock Band in action … Everyone s talking about the war of Mario vs. Master Chief for holiday gaming stardom, but there s another player in the race and it comes in the form of drums, guitars, and karaoke. Rock Band is the latest music/rhythm title from the alliance of EA, Harmonix, and MTV.

For the first time in a video game, it combines multiple instruments and vocals together to provide a fairly realistic rock band experience. Drumming to a new beat Undeniably, the most talked about component of Rock Band leading up to its release was the drum set controller. While guitar playing and singing titles have kind of become commonplace, there has been very little focus on drumming, especially in North America.

So for most gamers, this will be the first time they have an opportunity to unleash their inner Keith Moon (that s the drummer from The Who, by the way). The drum set is also arguably the cooler looking instrument. The large controller contains four drum pads placed side-by-side, representing a snare, a crash and two cymbals. During a song, players must watch the notes as they come up on the screen and correctly hit the corresponding drum pad at precisely the right time.

For an even more challenging and realistic experience, though, there is also a foot pedal. Foot pedal cues show up just like a regular drum beat, and are often played simultaneously. For the harder levels of difficulty, it s fairly common to have drum phrases that constantly have beats where two drum pads and the drum pedal must be hit at the same time. Because this is the newest, most innovative component of the game, it s easily the most captivating.