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Rock Band 2: Best Yet
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One Game Feature by MAtt Dujnic, 2/26/09
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Right now, at this moment in history, Rock Band 2 is the best video game. Best. It’s not ‘the best’ by the standard measures of video game quality (though it fares well there, too), but it’s the best for outward reasons: for its presentation of video games to the wider, sometimes game-fearing, world, and for what it does to that world and the people in it, which is universally positive.
First of all, it is anti-internet. It doesn’t matter if you are a gamer or not, the internet is making all of us solitary social retards. That, in itself, is a big topic - with paragraphs about anonymity, consequence, decorum, and furries - but I must state it a priori for now. Internet + us = social retards = true. Rock Band 2 is the cure; you must be in the physical presence of other people to enjoy this game. The designers assured this by making solo play feel vaguely pathetic: the active solo game-space occupies a mere 1/4 of the screen; this constantly reminds loners of just how alone they are. So invite some people over, dammit!
Second of all, the game is fun in at least eight ways: Guitar, Bass, Drums, Vocals, Back-Up Vocals, Vocals from the Guy on the Couch, Tickled Spectator, and Softening Cynic. Lots of games are “fun,” but the Rock Band 2 you cannot lose in any of those roles! There’s actually an option for that: No Fail Mode. That means that even your Wii-curious grandma can get in on the action with no fear that it’s going to bring down her whiskey-sour buzz.
And that brings us to point number three: it’s the long-lost party piano. Everyone knows that old-time image: people gathered-round the piano to sing, while the one guy with magic fingers plays whatever he knows. Well, now, anyone can play the proverbial piano, and the song selection is much, much broader, and growing by the week. No longer need parties be doomed to naught but drink, eat cheese, and talk talk talk. That’s not enough for a party - how much can people possibly talk if they never do anything? Get in there and perform!
Some will turn their nose up at it because it happens to involve a TV screen, but they can go back to enervating left-wing political arguents in the kitchen nook. The fun people will be rocking out until 4 in the morning, with new friends and old friends, new music and old music - the ice is broken and wallflowers are uprooted and your wife is playing too and there’s not a hint of fucking irony on any smile in the room.
There’s more, oh yes. It’s price point is awesome, around $200, which brilliantly shames you into being social, lest your money not be well-spent. It’s also non-violent and cuss-bleeped, so the kids can play (even if it is odd to hear your seven-year-old neice sing ‘White Wedding’). The character customization provides partiers something to do during breaks, and reveals that everyone likes looking a rock-and-roll version of themselves. It just goes on and on. It is, as I have scientifically proven, the best game. And the word on the street is that there will always be more songs, but never a Rock Band 3. This doesn’t surprise me, because for the sequel to be any better, it would have to be able to cure cancer or fly to Mars.
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'Best Yet'
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#&rendershop#
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