Rock Band 2 for Wii

W

Waller Creek

100+ Posts
My wife wants Rock Band for her birthday (December). We have a Wii. A little research tells me that I should probably wait for Rock Band 2, which is released in November for the Wii, I think.

2 questions:

1) General advice so that i buy the right thing in the right way at the right time?

2) Is there a good forum on the web for finding out electronic advice? I used Gizmodo from time to time, but it seems phone focused and hit or miss. I suspect there are some other good ones somewhere (besides here).

Hook 'em
 
Haven't played it, but everything I've read about it says Rock Band for the Wii is horrible. Definitely wait for Rock Band 2, or just get the new Guitar Hero when it comes out.
 
Rock Band's website:The Link has a decent forum. Perhaps you could ask on there regarding the wii version. Of course if thats the only platform you have, I guess thats what you should get. As for RB2 I would wait for it. Plus if the instruments work for RB1 (which I'm assuming they will), you could probably pick up just the game cheaply somewhere if you like RB2 (as opposed to buying RB1 and then jonezing for RB2 later on).
 
That's a tough one since neither is out. If forced to choose I'd pick Rock Band since they already have experience with drums/vocals and might offer better improvements to the game play, wheras GH is figuring them out for the first time. You could also pick the game thats cheaper. I think all the instruments for both games will be interchangeable with each other, but won't know for certain until they are out. Or, you could just look at the song lists and see which game appeals to y'all.

Rock Band II
Guitar Hero (rumored)
 
I'm a big fan of both Guitar Hero and Rock Band. I'm a Wii owner, but have gotten to play lots of Rock Band on a friend's 360. Been watching the development of both very closely. In my opinion, you'd be foolish to get Rock Band for Wii. The game is really stripped down from the 360 and PS3 versions, and some of the games better features were removed. The biggest areas where there are shortcomings are:
1. Downloadable content. This is one of the biggest selling points for Rock Band, and it is unavailable in the Wii version. They do offer a disc of 30 additional songs, which you have to swap out to play. There's no word on whether Rock Band 2 will support it, which makes me nervous.

2. Word Tour Mode. This was one of the greatest strengths of Rock Band, in that you'd play sets of songs together in different venues. Totally removed from the Wii version of Rock Band- you play single songs at a time. No word on what's happening here with Rock Band 2.

3. Rock Band Wii does not have a customizable character creator. It was really cool to make a character who looked however you wanted, complete with tattoos, crazy hair color, and a wild wardrobe you unlocked in World Tour Mode (see item 2).

4. Rock Band Wii does not have online play. You want multiplayer, it will be locally. Now Rock Band 2 is supposed to have some improved modes, but again we don't know if they'll get onto the Wii version.

Each of these items will be present in Guitar Hero: World Tour. The folks from Harmonix haven't confirmed or denied that they've added these to Rock Band 2, except to say that the Wii version will be a "more competetive product" to someone who reported it in a blog. I get the feeling that Harmonix isn't really trying to put the best product out- what the Wii is getting is really a port of the PS2 version, which for RB1 released 6 months earlier.

These are pretty big drawbacks for me. I have really enjoyed the experience on the 360, they've done wonderful downloadable content and integrated it so well...and they decided that they could make some easy money porting the PS2 version to the Wii. And on top of everything, the instruments are also confirmed as not compatible between the two- I'm only buying one set of plastic instruments, and World Tour looks like the winner.

If the 4 items I mentioned above don't matter that much to you, I'd check the setlists for each game:

Rock Band 2

Guitar Hero World Tour

Be aware that both setlists have some overlap, and they're both short about 20 songs (World Tour isn't fully announced, and RB2 is giving away 20 songs as free DLC right after launch. If the Wii version has DLC anyhow).

Edited for the blog link
 
Halstead, be aware that the World Tour list you've got has been called wrong by Neversoft. I think the giveaway is the Red Hot Chili Peppers song being listed as "Take it away" instead of "Give it Away". The one I've posted has a little more solid footing though some of the sources, particularly magazines, have posted wrong information that requires correction.
 
I'm really hoping all the goodies get put into Rock Band 2 for Wii. If the downloadable content and world tour mode make it in I might be able to justify the second set of instruments. But I'm getting the sense that we'll not see much of an improvement over the first version.

I'll go watch ye olde Hot for Teacher gameplay footage- makes me feel better.
 
thanks for the replies. sounds like i really can't know until after the next versions are released for the Wii. Of course, after that, they will both be impossible to find in stores (or at least the better one will be), but that's to be expected.
 
Time to eat some crow- Harmonix is cleaning up Rock Band 2 for Wii, per IGN.

Addressing my points from earlier:

1. Downloadable content. Is available, can be stored on an SD card but must be moved onto the hard drive for use in game (apparently they're waiting for some patch from Nintendo to play off the SD card). It will include all the DLC available for RB1 except what was released in the track pack disc over the summer. You also won't be able to rip songs off the RB1 disc like you can for the 360/PS3 version. I guess to play those songs you need to have the other disc and put it in.

2. Wii gets World Tour Mode. Excellent!

3. Wii also gets customizable character creator. The one caveat is that you don't have a custom logo maker for band artwork/tattoos.

4. Online play is in, with head to head individual/band play and online coop/ world tour.

Harmonix has also come out and said that the Guitar Hero 3 guitars will be compatible with Rock Band 2. No word on drums.

I'm a tiny bit more inclined toward buying this, but I'm not sold yet. I already have guitars from GH3, I like the GHWT drum setup better, and it sounds like Neversoft is more on top of the Wii/SD card issue (I know that ExciteTruck, Super Smash Brothers, and Endless Ocean can all run data off an SD card so I'm not sure what the problem is). And Guitar Hero is out earlier. But I may consider getting the disc for this, especially if the drums end up being cross compatible.
 
thanks for the update tallgrant. Your write-up, the IGN preliminary evaluation, and my previous experience on a friend's PS playing Rockband has me leaning that way.

The good news is that, thanks to fierce competition and capitalism, the next generation of RB and GHWT for Wii are both going to be excellent.

Keep me posted on updates, please. Still not sure of release dates?
 
I got Guitar Hero World Tour for the Wii on Sunday. So far, awesome.

I like the drum setup with the hi-hat more than the rock band drums. I think the buttons and strum bar on the guitar are easier to use. Mic seems about the same.

Otherwise, the game plays very similarly rock band. However, I haven't tried all the other gameplay modes yet. Just the group play. As long as the songs are comparable (and so far they are), the controllers make the difference for me.

No official word yet on Wii controller interoperability, but it seems likely.
 
Got World Tour midnight on Saturday. I'm really happy with it- the songs are really well charted, the instruments are fun to play, and I've already put together "Wipe Out" in the song creator.

I'm probably buying Rock Band 2 when it comes out- if the drums are compatible it'll cinch it. Because the guitars are compatible, I can get away with just the $50 game only version. It was delayed until December though.

If you're in Austin Waller send me a PM- I can see about getting you some hands on experience.
 
Thanks for the help, Tallgrant. I'm in Dallas, so no need for the preview. I like the thought of buying both Rock Band and Guitar Hero for the Wii with the compatible instruments (drums too, correct?) since then it's only $50 incremental to leverage the investment in instruments.
 
I want to get my wife Rock Band World Tour for Christmas - but I also need a new game platform. Wii or PS3? Both have good and bad points. I like the idea of the Blue-Ray player, but I really have no preference. Which is best?
 
From a purely Rock Band standpoint, PS3 is better. It'll put out better graphics, has larger on-board storage, and also offers use good use of the RB1 related stuff. The Wii isn't as powerful, but its a lot cheaper.

Is the console going to be solely for playing Rock Band, or do you intend to play other games? What kinds of games you intend to play affect that decision as well.
 
One last update here- IGN is reporting that all the GHWT instruments for Wii work in Rock Band 2. Release date for the game is December 22 (though I'm not sure if the RB2 instruments will be out until January). And it appears to be fully features (with not as fancy graphics)
yippee.gif


And I think I'm buying it- I'm really happy with the world tour instruments, particularly the drumset, so this is a pretty win situation for me.

I'l try to post my impressions in about 2 weeks.
 
Got in several hours on guitar, and then one song on drums. Keep in mind that we played on Expert only, so the stuff about difficulty isn't really applicable to lower ones.

1. The game plays well on Wii. The graphics look blurry at times, but nothing we didn't adjust too. The blurriness doesn't affect gameplay- the highways are clear. It's really handy that it loads the next song in multi setlists while you're playing.

2. The game looks to be fully featured. It checked out our console name online ('Horse Robots' is not considered classy, so I'm known as 'Torbush'). The character creator looked like what I saw on the 360.

3. The menus are way better, and it's nice that the drums use actual pads to go up and down instead of reaching for a joystick.

4. Wii World Tour drums work fine. The orange pad is mapped to ring up as blue. Wish they'd mapped it to green instead, but it's not a huge deal.

5. I've only played the easier guitar songs, but I generally like the way World Tour charted better. It just seemed to better match the real guitar/be more fun to play. I had a friend playing drums

6. I've also been happier with the easy end of the World Tour setlist. I knew that going in, but there are some songs that are separate to each.

7. I really am starting to dislike Dinosaur Jr.

8. World Tour Mode is the best part of owning Rock Band. Gives you a decent reason to keep playing the same songs again and again.

I'm fairly happy with it. I think that Guitar Hero has a better setlist and is charted better, but World Tour mode and DLC sold me on this. I can't wait for the songs to go up for sale.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Weekly Prediction Contest

* Predict HORNS-AGGIES *
Sat, Nov 30 • 6:30 PM on ABC

Recent Threads

Prediction Results Threads

2024 Schedules

Back
Top