Living in the UK is often a pretty rough deal for gamers, and Rock Band is perhaps the pinnacle of this: Not only did we have to wait ages for so much as a release date to scribble in our diaries, after this lengthy wait the price tag felt like another harsh blow, and this time to the kidneys, no less. I’ll not dwell on this for long, as I’m sure we’re all aware that regardless of how we might feel about forking out around £150 for game it’s sadly going to do little to affect the reality of the situation. Rock Band is very, very expensive, and you can’t expect that to change any time soon. On the other hand, it’s also incredibly awesome.

Whilst it truly pains me to have to use the word ‘awesome’ in any context, like many others who’ve broken the bank in order to get their hands on Harmonix’s latest offering I found this to be of considerable relief.

Just as a bit of background information, I’ve never personally been a massive fan of Guitar Hero; in theory it’s brilliant, but in practice I never found myself motivated to actually practice, as the rewards (being able to perfect the solos to metal tracks) never seemed too appealing. My personal Guitar Hero expertise stretches little further than my unerring ability to knock the PS2 over during guitar solos, and passably play ‘Strutter’ by Kiss (Whilst pulling the appropriate shapes/ throwing sweet-ass moves). Personally I found Guitar Hero 3 to be even less enjoyable for the above reasons, as it quickly expected a degree of fret-wanking that I had no inclination to provide.

After the immediate buzz of playing with all the new toys that came in the box, the first thing that struck me as being excellent about Rock Band was the track listing. Right from the off it provides an eclectic and fun selection that doesn’t immediately throw newcomers into the deep end of the pool-o-difficulty, unlike the rather niche track listing used in Guitar Hero 3. It’s hard to define why, but in the first two Guitar Hero games there was a definite organic feel to the way the tracks had been programmed; often you found yourself hitting the right notes without even thinking about it, giving me a strong sense that despite the controller being far removed from the reality of actually playing a guitar, something of the essence had been transferred with huge success. With Guitar Hero 3 the mechanics didn’t seem to be visibly different, but somehow this intuitive nature had been lost in translation; as if the programmers were simply going through the motions, and in doing so somehow missing something subtle, yet very much essential.

The point is that if you already own a guitar and are considering skipping the rest of the kit for now, generally speaking Rock Band won’t disappoint. Guitar Hero veterans won’t find much challenge from Rock Band’s difficulty level, but obviously this time around Harmonix had to choose songs based on their suitability for use across three or four different mediums, meaning that those of you who’ve taken great pleasure in mastering the finger-breaking fretwork demanded by Guitar Hero 3 won’t find much challenge up until the final stages of Rock Band. Conversely, if you’ve no interest in mastering the skill but particularly enjoy pretending to be a rock star for twenty minutes every now and then, then Rock Band could well be exactly what you’re looking for.