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PreviousRock Band Review
Wii Review by Ellie Gibson
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It's about time Rock Band made it to the Wii. After all, Nintendo's little white box is the ultimate social gaming machine, and Harmonix's big expensive box is the most fun you can have with friends you don't want to sleep with. The perfect match, in theory. In practice, the core gameplay is present and correct, making for a highly enjoyable experience. But if you've played Rock Band on the PS3 or 360, you can't help noticing that something's missing. Quite a few things, in fact.
At least the instruments are up to scratch. The full kit retails for GBP 129.99 (though it's easy enough to find if for under a hundred quid online). For that you get a USB hub, wired microphone and wired drum kit, plus a wireless guitar and receiver. The game must be purchased separately, as with Rock Band for other consoles.
Side-by-side, the Wii peripherals look almost identical to the Xbox 360 ones - the most obvious exception being the drum kit is white instead of black. The pads are identical and make just as much noise. The spring on the Wii kit's foot pedal feels like it has slightly more recoil, meaning a little more effort is required but less accidental presses are likely.
The microphones are the same, except the chunk of plastic near the USB end of the Wii mic's cable is much smaller and neater. The guitars are indistinguishable, apart from the fact the Wii one is wireless. So if you're one of those people who complained about the 360's guitar for having spongy fret buttons and a click-free strum bar, you won't get on any better with the Wii version.
Once again, basic gameplay involves watching coloured notes scroll down the screen and hitting the relevant buttons or pads, or singing the right notes. It's instantly familiar to anyone who's played a music game before, and easily accessible to anyone who hasn't. The gameplay works just as well on the Wii as it does on other consoles, and the arrangements for the songs are just the same.
Actual screenshots of Wii Rock Band are almost impossible to locate.
The list of songs you have to choose from, however, is slightly different. There are 63 in total, which includes five bonus tracks not featured on the PS3 or Xbox 360 discs - "Dirty Little Secret" by The All-American Rejects, "Roam" by The B-52s, "Rockaway Beach" by The Ramones, "Roxanne" from The Police and Oasis' "Don't Look Back in Anger" - although all are available as downloadable content for the bulkier consoles.
The remaining tracklist will be familiar to anyone who's played Rock Band on another machine. Expect contemporary hits ("Are You Gonna Be My Girl" by Jet, The Killers' "When You Were Young") alongside nineties classics (Nirvana's "In Bloom", "Sabotage" by the Beastie Boys) and golden oldies ("Gimme Shelter" by The Rolling Stones, "CSI: Miami theme tune" by The Who).
Not a bad selection of songs, then. But you'd hope so, because you're stuck with it. Unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game, Rock Band for Wii has no online functionality. Obviously, this means you can't play with other people over the internet - not a massive deal, considering the large number of Wii owners who couldn't give a fig about Friend Codes.
However, being able to build your own library of tracks is a key highlight of Rock Band on other consoles, and it's a real shame there's no option to do so in the Wii game. (At least it makes a change from waking up with a hangover to realise your friends spent all your Microsoft Points on No Doubt records and the Jimmy Buffett track pack, though of course "Cheeseburger in Paradise" is worth every penny.)
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Comments: 1-39 of 39 in total
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Bizarre review, Ellie, certainly didn't read like a 7. And whilst it might be seen as a lazy conversion, methinks you expected too much from Ninty's little white box.
And the screenshot comments were just as strange - are you lot incapable of taking your own pix? Or does EA (or any other publisher, for that matter) mandate what images you use in your reviews? |
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monkeyspasm
22/01/09 @ 08:40
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Bit late innit?
It's been out for months on Wii - I've had it since last September, RB2's pencilled in for the end of this month IIRC! Review is spot on though IMO. Guitar Hero World Tour is very good on Wii. |
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Why use pre-rendered video? I know it's not up to 360 and PS3 standards, but I'm pretty surethw Wii can do basic 3D. Some might say it regularly does. Some might even say Guitar Hero: World Tour does. I don't get why you'd do that except if you're doing a lazy port and don't want to downscale/create the models.
Apart from that, bet it's still a laugh. |
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rhubarbandcustard
22/01/09 @ 08:57
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Wii owners deserve to be shat upon with £130 ports of great games.
Hey, and guess what! They have been. HaHa. Wiilol
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 22/01/09 @ 09:00
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Doctor_What
22/01/09 @ 08:58
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Have I missed the RB2 kit being released on the PS3, or is that still to come? Does anyone know when that might happen?
(Before anyone says 'just buy the 360 version', I've fitted a nice and cheap 250GB HDD in my PS3 and don't fancy forking out for anything similar on my 360 to save the DLC songs.) |
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Redeye
22-Jan-09 08:21:41 Bizarre review, Ellie, certainly didn't read like a 7. And whilst it might be seen as a lazy conversion, methinks you expected too much from Ninty's little white box. Ellie did mention that Rock Band 2 hasn't been cut down so it's clear that Harmonix just couldn't be arsed with Rock Band 1 on the Wii. |
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Because the Wii and all other consoles are sentient beings which create these games for themselves? What a moron.
"The Wii" didn't fuck it up, the developers did. Conversely "the DS" didn't do it right, the developers did. Similarly, "The Eurogamer Comments" didn't fuck up your post, you did.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 22/01/09 @ 09:24
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spudsbuckley
22/01/09 @ 09:35
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More irrelevant crap from EG. Instead of reporting the news late as per usual they've decided to review a game 4 months late.
Genius. |
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"Because the Wii and all other consoles are sentient beings which create these games for themselves? What a moron.
"The Wii" didn't fuck it up, the developers did. Conversely "the DS" didn't do it right, the developers did. Similarly, "The Eurogamer Comments" didn't fuck up your post, you did." Good point. What I meant to say was only on the Wii would such a simple game be shit. :) |
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Eighthours
22/01/09 @ 10:02
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A curious choice for review, since Rock Band 2 on the Wii is nearly out, and is far more feature-complete than this version which has been out for ages!
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HuggyAtHome
22/01/09 @ 11:03
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Sounds an even worse conversion job when you compare with GHWT on the Wii -that has the ability to download tracks and create avatars. And the 'instruments' are better quality.
However, does Rock Nand force you to have 4 Wiimotes to play with all the kit - GHWT does and it's rubbish it that regard |
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What I meant to say was only on the Wii would such a simple game be shit. :)
7/10 is "shit" now? I appreciate that I'm a Wii owner and therefore have no clue about anything, but EGs scoring policy makes it pretty clear that things are getting ropey when you hit 5 and below. I've played plenty of '6' games that have been perfectly respectable, particularly if you're into that specific genre. |
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monkeylite
22/01/09 @ 11:13
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Read like a 5/10
As for screenshots, can't you guys take your own friggin screenshots? You have PCs there no??? |
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kinky_mong
22/01/09 @ 11:23
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soon we'll be rid of the music party game fad and can get back to real games.
But whatever will you do when there's no comment sections about music games for you to recycle the same comment in? |
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@secombe
What I meant to say was only on the Wii would such a simple game be shit. :) 7/10 is "shit" now? I appreciate that I'm a Wii owner and therefore have no clue about anything, but EGs scoring policy makes it pretty clear that things are getting ropey when you hit 5 and below. I've played plenty of '6' games that have been perfectly respectable, particularly if you're into that specific genre. Yeah, it's "shit" because they need the score it to be "shit" in order to reinforce the idea that all games on Wii are shit: it's cognitive dissonance at its very finest. :) Without wanting to get too much into the whole score post-mortem a score of 7/10 seems very reasonable to me when the Xbox version got 8/10: the number of features cut for no apparent reason (I say no apparent reason because they're implemented in RB2 on Wii) would count for the drop from "almost brilliant" to "something we greatly recommend you have a good look at before you buy" particularly with RB2 just around the corner. |
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"I've played plenty of '6' games that have been perfectly respectable, particularly if you're into that specific genre. "
Well you would say that, you're a Wii owner and therefore about as technically literate as that Grandmother from the Beverly Hillbillies. So what's all this about loads of Wii games not supporting something as basic as widescreen? Is there nobody in the Wii community who flags these sort of things? |
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mechamonkey
22/01/09 @ 15:44
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Wow, this review is months late.
I've got RB 1 & 2, GH 2,3 and WT on the 360 with a good HD tv and 5.1 audio and have played this loads on it. My friend has a similar set up but has this on the Wii, guess what , it's still funny as fuck to play regardless of the download limitations and ropey FMV, you dont really ive a toss about any of that when youre all wailing along to the game :) Basically, get the 360 or PS3 version if you can but definately get this if you have a Wii and get RB 2 later on, it's still very much worth it and incredibly fun. |
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electrolite
22/01/09 @ 16:11
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Wow, Wii comments thread usually bring out the 'specials'. I can only imagine the froth on the keyboards in front of the likes of rhubarbandcustard and Garulon....
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God Eurogamer you are now officially the worst review site of games in the history of video games. Time after time you get your reviews completely wrong. People will start to think that your a bunch of PS3/ 360 fan boys! either that or you totally hate the Wii, if so then don't do these reviews.
Have you played this game fully EG? |
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Well you would say that, you're a Wii owner and therefore about as technically literate as that Grandmother from the Beverly Hillbillies. So what's all this about loads of Wii games not supporting something as basic as widescreen? Is there nobody in the Wii community who flags these sort of things?
I know, it sucks just having to enjoy games for what they are, with no preconceptions of technical deficiencies. I was over my parents the other day and they were playing Mario Kart, I knew, deep down, that they weren't really enjoying themselves as they hadn't previously researched how many polygons were being shifted around per second. |
Comments: 1-39 of 39 in total
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