Rock Band is the epitome of a “casual game” — it’s a title that fosters drunken get-togethers where you and your friends/family can embarrass yourselves and have lots of fun doing it. The Wii is the most popular current-generation videogame console, so I’m sure many soccer moms were elated when Harmonix announced that they were bringing the game to Nintendo’s best-selling machine.
Unfortunately, the Wii version of Rock Band was what gamers would call “gimped”: it was essentially a port of the stripped-down PS2 version, so most of what made the HD console versions so appealing was missing. The omissions included online multiplayer, the character creator, DLC, and Band World Tour mode. You could still get up to three people in a room with you to play in a band, but it just didn’t hold a candle to the experience offered on the PS3 and 360.
With the release of Guitar Hero World Tour — a title that’s going to be fully featured on all current-gen consoles — looming, Harmonix surely knew they had to bring their ‘A’ game on the Wii with Rock Band 2. They’re almost done with the game, so yesterday, they invited us out to 1515 Broadway in Manhattan (aka MTV headquarters) to give it a whirl. Hit the jump for my impressions.
[Update: Harmonix was kind enough to send over screenshots of the Wii version, so now, the four images you see in this post are from it.]
If you’re here to find out whether the Wii version of Rock Band 2 can compare to the PS3 and 360 versions, let me save you some reading time. This time around, Harmonix has done right by its Wii-owning fans. With the help of Houston-based Pi Studios, they’ve put together a game that is, for all intents and purposes, identical to its higher-definition counterparts (graphics aside, of course). Rock Band 2 for the Wii offers all the same gameplay features that the PS3/360 versions do, and more importantly, downloadable content will also be available.
Everything you know and love about Rock Band 2 on the PS3 and 360 can be found on the Wii: a full-featured character creator, online Band World Tour (with friend codes, ’natch), Battle of the Bands, the Drum Trainer — it’s all there. In fact, there were only two features John could name that were intentionally left out: the Photoshop-esque band logo and tattoo creators. You can choose from a variety of prefabricated logos and tattoos, but you can’t edit them. Really, though, those two exclusions are so utterly inconsequential that you’d have to be a fool to skip the Wii edition of Rock Band 2 just because of them (assuming you don’t own a PS3 or 360).
As of this writing, over 250 songs have been made available as Rock Band DLC, and we were assured that all that music will “eventually” make its way to the Wii. At launch, though, Wii owners will be able to pick from thirty of the best DLC songs (as chosen by Harmonix), as well as the twenty free songs that will be available on November 4th for the PS3 and 360. And going forward from the Wii launch, there will be “complete parity” across all current-gen platforms. So if Harmonix puts out Led Zeppelin IV in February, they’ll release it for the PS3, 360, and Wii in the very same week.
Producer Matt Kelly explained the mechanics of how Harmonix was able to pull off DLC on the hard drive-less Wii. Many of you are likely aware that Virtual Console games can only be stored on an SD card — the Wii is apparently incapable of running games off the flash memory. Here’s a “hallelujah!” moment for Wii owners: you can store Rock Band 2 DLC on an SD card, and you can play songs directly off the card! Once you’ve filled up the Wii’s internal storage, songs will automatically be downloaded to your SD card instead, and the game will simply load the tracks into memory when you want to play them. So if you’re looking to pick up the game, make sure to pick up some SD cards while you’re at Best Buy (and remember: the Wii won’t read cards larger than 2 GB).
Again, if you’re worried that Rock Band 2 on the Wii is a shadow of the better-looking versions, don’t be. You’ll have all the tools you need to rock out with your cock out. Of course, I’d still suggest the HD versions if you’ve got those consoles, but if not, the Wii version of Rock Band 2 is perfectly viable.
