Back in October, when it was our 10 year old's birthday, we wanted to give him a present: Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero Word Tour. To find out which would be better, I scoured the Net for comparison reviews, I grilled the guy at EB Games, I even increased the amount of fibre in my diet, so that I could make a good clear-headed decision.
Fast forward till now. We have both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero WT. So much for fibre.
Our original RB2 drums broke. Our replacement drum kit also showed signs of starting to break, which is why we scooped up Guitar Hero World Tour and try its version of a drum kit.
So here we are, both games. As far as we see it, here's how the two compare:
Guitars
First off, I may be biased. I'm a Fender Strat guy. Played 'em since the age of 13. Love 'em. Rock Band's guitar is designed right after the Fender Stratocaster. However, beyond that, the fret buttons are flush to the fretboard, giving it more of a guitar mechanic because you are searching for a fret, not a button to push. The strum bar is also very quiet and responsive, however, the tone switch is right below the strum bar, so we're constantly knocking it down to its lowest position. This is annoying but not huge.
The Guitar Hero guitars are very toy-like. They've made an attempt at modelling them after Gibson's guitars, but its in shape only. The strum bar is very loud and clunky. I'm not a fan of that, but there are worse design sins.
Advantage: Rock Band
Drums
Rock Band's drums are very easy to learn. You hit the circles, and the kick pedal once in awhile. But they are very flimsy. Not good.
Guitar Hero's drum kit is built like a tank. Very solid. However, one of us missed the cymbals once and hit the Xbox directional navigating button which broke off. Not a big deal, but still a minor design flaw. But the addition of cymbals are a real plus, makes the drum experience more life like.
Advantage: Guitar Hero
Game story
Rock Band has you create your band then hit the road to various gigs. You can hire a roadie, tour manager, even a tattoo artist. You earn fans and money as you continue to open more cities and gigs. But there's a lot of reading, its not jazzed up very well. There's times where we're just sitting there reading a screen.
Guitar Hero has a collection of very humorous cut scenes. There's not as much going on as Rock Band, but Guitar Hero seems to be a little more entertaining. You earn clothes, money, instruments, which is good enough for us.
Advantage: Guitar Hero
Game play
I get the sense that the Rock Band designers did their homework. They must've played a lot of Guitar Hero and noted what they didn't like. The interface as you play is very well laid out. The "highways" are deliberately simplistic. There's also a big ol' meter to the left, letting you know how you're doing. Its so well designed that you can just concentrate on the highway and let your peripheral vision keep track of the rest.
Guitar Hero is very busy. There's a tiny gauge in the upper left that you can try to look at mid-song. Good luck with that. Also, you get messages like "50 note streak!" or "Star power ready", but you have to take your eye off your highway to read it. Not as clean. However, the background CGI singers are funnier in Guitar Hero.
Advantage: Rock Band
Overall Experience
I get the sense that the family prefers Guitar Hero. We like the way that we get challenged to an "encore", in addition to the animated sequences. Sometimes when the crowd really cheers, the camera shakes. Funny little touches like that often leave us wanting to play more. Guitar Hero is a harder game to put down. It seems funnier.
Rock Band is far superior with its gameplay screen lay-out. We just wish the Rock Band design team had a "class clown" in its midst.
Advantage: Guitar Hero
I have to mention that our kids are going through a Guitar Hero effect. My oldest boy is showing interest in making real music with a real guitar. We have a few guitars in the house, so I bought him one of his own and I'm giving him some basic lessons. The 5 year-old also plays the drum kit with the Xbox turned off, just playing drums.
With one playing guitar, and the other drawn to drums, I wonder if they could be the next Jonas Brothers?
