The Next Step

I lied. Sorry.

http://www.codershole.com/idump.php

So Ethan and Tellef and I finally broke down and bought Rock Band on Sunday, and it is awesome. The drum set is a bit bulky for our living room, but well worth it considering the entertainment value the whole thing gets us. We spent pretty much all of Sunday and Monday (huzzah for well-timed snow days) playing it with Lauren, Pat, Dave, and Walsh. Here’s the way things are looking for our band (“The Keltons”) right now:

Me – Guitar, vocals
Ethan – A little of everything
Tellef – Drums
Pat – Guitar, vocals, 4/5 drums
Lauren – Vocals, some guitar
Dave – Guitar
Walsh – 1/5 drums (Pat’s dedicated bass pedalist)

With such talent available, it’s no surprise that we were rocking for pretty much two days straight. Lauren pulls us through most vocal tracks, to say nothing of her obvious talent on the cowbell/tambourine. Ethan can hold his own on pretty much any instrument and has a better voice than perhaps he ever told anybody. Tellef holds down the drum set, without a doubt the toughest instrument, except perhaps for some particularly evil vocal tracks. Dave’s smooth upright style is perfect for the bass, and whether out of pure smoothiness or laziness he uses it for the lead too. Pat showed us all how you’re supposed to sing with stunning renditions of “Epic” and “Timmy & the Lords of the Underworld.” And let’s not forget Walsh, the bass-pedal-pushing specialist for those of us who can’t make more than two limbs cooperate at the same time.

Unfortunately, our band remains incomplete. The Rock Band box only comes with one guitar controller, and the game is completely incompatible with all guitar controllers made previously. Although it’s depressing that we can’t use the Guitar Hero controllers we invested in, Rock Band is so much fun that Ethan offered to make the investment into another guitar. And so we set out to Best Buy today to find one.

We should have done some research first. Apparently, despite the fact that the game has been out for two months, there are still no individual instruments available for purchase. From anyone. They don’t hit shelves until February 4, despite the piles of Rock Bands waiting to be bought, each containing a precious guitar controller. Considering that the game is made specifically to be played with four people, this is just wrong. It’s one thing to have inventory issues if you are marketing a game that can be for four players, for instance, running out of controllers when (if?) Super Smash Bros comes out. But when you make a game that begs for four players so obviously as Rock Band does, it is your sacred duty to make sure that four players can play a little bit sooner than three months after the game is released. Right now the only way to play four player Rock Band is to buy another box set for $170 and use its guitar controller. Not nice, Harmonix.

That said, the game is ridiculously fun. I only wish that I had less homework so I could spend more time playing it.