Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 6-10 of 128
 Game Not Broken, Guitar Bad, Playstation Dirty April 18, 2008
Parent of 6 (Keedysville, MD USA)
10 out of 15 found this review helpful
We bought this from Amazon and were very happy with the service, always have been. Unfortunately it is defective and a person has to go through hoops to get a replacement. It can't be shipped back to Amazon and replaced, you need to go through EA games. When you open the package there is a notification saying if it doesn't work contact EA games, do not contact the vendor. I did contact Amazon and they responded helpfully but time will tell if we get ours. It also went down in price in 1 week. Oh well, pray for me.
UPDATE: also I would give it 5 stars but I can't change it on Amazon's site.
EA Games took very good care of us after we found out the guitar was defective and they replaced it delivered within 5 days. The game is a blast, I was wrong about the game being broken, My playstation was dirty and after I cleaned it the game worked great. Our whole family plays it and have a lot of fun. Also Amazon was helpful also in getting me the information I needed to get the guitar replaced. HIGHLY RECOMEND THE GAME
 Great party game, certainly better than Guitar Hero!! January 1, 2008
Tina (Tampa, FL)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
A few weeks ago I was invited over a friend's house to play Rock Band on his Xbox 360. I absolutely fell in love with the game and just had to have it for myself. Only I didn't have a 360 and I knew it would be extremely difficult to find one for the PS2. I was about to go all crazy and buy a 360 just to play Rock Band when one day I managed to find a PS2 version just by chance. So of course I bought it and set it up as soon as I got home.
Setup isn't all that simple. Unless you want to take 5 minutes to set everything up everytime you play, I suggest leaving everything assembled (that is, if you have room to store everything). Initial setup obviously takes longer. First you must setup every instrument. The mic requires no assembly. Easy enough. For the guitar, you need to snap the end of the guitar into the other piece, then put on the strap, then unscrew the plate on the back of the guitar and insert the batteries (which are included). The drums have several different pieces. This is what takes the longest to set up. After the instruments are assembled, you hook them up to a usb hub which then hooks up to the usb port on your PS2.
In terms of the actual game, you are allowed to have 4 people playing at one time (one singer, one drummer, and 2 guitarists-bass and electric). If you only have a couple of people or if you just want to play by yourself, you have that option as well and you can choose any instrument to play. Just want to sing? That's fine. One of you wants to play guitar while the other plays the drums? That's fine too. The additional guitar is not included with this bundle but if you have a Guitar Hero guitar, that'll work.
What's great about this game is that anyone can play. I played this on New Year's Eve with my 20 year old sister, my 22 year old sister, my 13 year old male cousin, my 15 year old female cousin, and my 40 year old uncle and everyone enjoyed it. I probably wouldn't recommend this for younger kids because even the easy levels can be difficult for adults. There are 4 different levels to choose from-easy, medium, hard, and expert. Each player can choose which level they want to play on. If your singer doesn't know the words to a certain song, you can put him/her on easy while your awesome bassist can play on hard or expert.
For those who don't have Guitar Hero and/or don't know how to play the game, it's pretty simple. The singer sings the lyrics (obviously). The drums and guitars have 4 and 5 "buttons" (respectively). Each is colored. Every player has their own "chart". Different colored circles come in varying speeds down the "chart" and the player must hit the correct colored buttons as they come to the end of the "chart". When done correctly, notes are hit in tune, and music is produced. You play as a band and when one person fails, you must "save" them (or bring them back into the game) by playing really well and hitting every note.
If you have someone in your group that is a good singer and can hit the notes and/or is not all that great at playing the guitars and drums, this is your singer. If you have someone who has good rhythm and doesn't mind playing at an obnoxiously fast speed, this is your drummer. If you have two people who are quick with their fingers and can multitask, these are your guitarists. Other reviewers pointed out that this game is hard and yeah, it can be. Not everyone is going to be good at every instrument. I'm good on guitar but can't play the drums on easy without failing. This is why I think this game is better suited for teens and adults.
A few other noteworthy things to point out. First, this version is different from the 360 version. Obviously with the 360, you can play "online" with other people and you can't with the PS2 version. Also the tour options are different. With the 360 version, you can constantly work up to harder difficulties and new songs whereas the PS2 version is very straightforward-you get new songs after playing the other songs no matter what difficulty level you're on. I've played every song and from here I can only try to beat the harder levels. After I've accomplished that, there isn't much else to do.
There are different options as well. You can configure your game so that there isn't a lag with the song. If your guitarist is a lefty, you can choose Lefty Mode. You can change the volume levels for each instrument so that mom isn't yelling at the kiddos that the drums are too loud. Song-wise, there are only a few songs that the younger generations will know. I'm 20 years old and of the 58 songs, I've probably only heard of 15 or 20. And some of the songs have me questioning why the heck they were chosen for this game. But overall the songs aren't terrible.
Would I recommend this game? For sure. Keep in mind that younger kids might have a really tough time getting the hang of it. Replayability isn't as great as I'd like it to be but I'm hoping there will be new Rock Band games released in the future.
 Amazing game! April 4, 2008
Lyndall S. Smith (Carlsbad, NM USA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I purchased this just before I went on spring break. All during spring break, I spent most of my time playing this game. It is loads of fun to play. It teaches some of the basics of guitar playing and drum playing that are required for doing the real thing (obviously it doesn't have strings like a real guitar, but it does teach you to move your fingers to press the correct buttons and strum like what you do with a real guitar).
My only complaint and why I gave four stars rather than five, is because the wireless guitar that comes with Rock Band Special Edition PS2 IS NOT COMPATIBLE with the Guitar Hero games. I purchased all three Guitar Hero games right after I bought Rock Band thinking it would work and it doesn't work with any of the Guitar Hero games. I had to purchase a seperate guitar controller to be able to play the other games.
The only game the guitar that comes with Rock Band is good for is ROCK BAND! However, the guitars that you get with Guitar Hero DO WORK for ROCK BAND. I hope that this review has given you an idea about this wonderful video game.
Just to reinterate, this game is great! Definitely worth the money!
A word of warning August 18, 2008
Cristin M. Maughan (Wichita, KS)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
Just a word of warning. I purchased this bundle yesterday from another retailer(Target). Got it home, set everything up, inserted the game, and nothing. I investigated to make sure it was not something on my end, but my console reads everything else I have fine.
So my next step was to try to contact EA customer support. After I finally got a live person, I found out that EA is suing Sony over this game because apparently the game is on something called a multi-layed disk. Which Sony told EA all PS2's would be able to read. Well EA is aware of at least 7 different production runs of PS2's that have been reported as not being able to read the game. My recourse? Not EA's problem. Call Sony, or take the game back and try to get my money back. I'm going to try to call Sony today and see where I get, mostly because I don't want to repack everything. I'll update with what happens.
But for now, if you have a PS2, I recommend checking into this by contacting Sony to make sure your system will read these multi-layered disks before you waste your time.
Just as much fun as Guitar Hero December 30, 2007
YodaOK (upstate/central NY)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
This game has been a lot of fun so far for me and my family. We picked it up for the retail price (around $160). Usually only one or two of us can play a game like Guitar Hero at one time. With Rock Band, the whole family can play. One person plays guitar, another plays bass (and yes, Guitar Hero Guitars will work with the PS2 version of rock band as we've been playing this way already) and another either plays drums or sings. It took me a little getting use to the new wireless guitar that came with Rock Band. The strum bar is very different from the Guitar Hero Guitars. It doesn't make that clicking noise when you stum it, which is a big plus, but the action you get from the stum bar is different than the Guitar Hero Guitars. The buttons are large and square on the guitar. I find this much easier for fitting my fingers on the button and they don't tend to slide off and hit the other buttons.
The drums are a lot of fun. It helps to have good rhythm to begin with when playing them, but even that's not required. My 8 y.o. was able to play them and make it all the way through songs and had a blast doing it. Even my husband who has no musical talent was able to sit down and get through a song on the drums. The only complaint with the drums is that they are a bit loud when you hit them with the drum sticks. I have seen mods for fixing this and will probably do so soon (foam pad and felt to dampen the noise of the stick hitting the drum). The drum sticks that come with the game are very cheap. Ours came with nicks of wood out of them. I'll be getting a better pair very soon.
The microphone is beefy and seems to pick up singing pretty well. I've only sang one song with it so far, but it worked great.
I've seen complaints about people having difficulty with the game picking up the instruments, but we had no problems at all. We plugged the items into the included usb hub and we were off and running. It took more time to unpack everything out of the box than it did to plug it all in and start playing.
Overall, a great game and lots of fun.
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