There are also more opportunities for your band to come together as Harmonix has introduced the Battle of the Bands concept into Rock Band 2. Updated regularly throughout the week, the Battle of the Bands features a variety of different challenges and playlists for bands of all sizes, from solo guitar contests to four-player score battles Should you best the other bands on your friends list, your score is then uploaded to the main leaderboards where you can then duke it out on a global level. This does, of course, come at the cost of fully-fledged, online multiplayer between two simultaneous bands, but it's not as though this is a major loss. Harmonix does a great job with the Battle of the Bands by displaying the custom band logos throughout the challenge, complete with a tug-of-war score meter that constantly reminds you exactly what kind of competition you're up against. Should you not feel up to such competition, the offline-focused challenge mode offers up the same style of progression as the original Rock Band with playlists of songs tiered by difficulty.
As with just about every rhythm game on the planet, the selection of songs featured in Rock Band 2 is entirely up to debate and while Harmonix has done great job overall, its attempt to please everyone still leaves some sore spots. I never thought I'd see Bikini Kill ("Rebel Girl") in a rhythm game and the long sought after inclusion of AC/DC ("Let There Be Rock") is just the tip of an incredible set list. The beauty of Rock Band 2 is that thanks to the World Tour mode, you can complete the game while avoiding practically every song you don't like along the way, with the rare exception of having unfortunate songs pop up during a random set list.
And so, the first criticism comes in the form of disliking the choice of numerous butt-rock bands. If that seems a tad frivolous, really, just any other complaint one can muster towards Rock Band 2 does as well. Harmonix's was perhaps a bit overly-ambitious, as 20 songs that should have shipped on the disc have since been branded as "free downloadable content" to come someday between now and the day the Sun explodes, the stat tracking website is still not available and you still can't buy real world merchandise for your band - a feature Harmonix has been touting since before the release of the original Rock Band. These complaints really don't have much to do with the gameplay itself, but it does feel as though we're not getting the entire package as it was originally intended. I suppose Harmonix needs something for the inevitable Rock Band 3.
Bottom Line: The best music game in the business just got a whole lot better.
Recommendation: Buy it. You can never have enough plastic instruments.
Jared Rea is a freelance games writer who has been playing rhythm games for a decade now, loves his Pop'n Music, and can't believe how far things have come.
