Every Music Game You Could Ever Want

Here’s a single location to pick up every music game that’s available (and at some of the cheapest prices). I’ve got Rock Band (old, new, track packs, you name it), Guitar Hero (5, 4, 3, 2, 1, blast off!), singing games, dancing games, brutal killing games. It’s all here and easily linked over to our Amazon store.

The link will take you to all the available platforms (Xbox 360, Wii, PS3, PS2, PSP, and DS). If you are in the market, buy from our links and support the blog. If you are not in the market, look in awe at how many music related games are available. It’s staggering. Let me know if I missed something.

Band Games (Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Rock Revolution)

Dance Games

Karaoke Games

Handheld Games

Brutal Legend

DJ Games

Is Guitar Hero Beating Rock Band?

Let me start and say, I am a Harmonix and Rock Band fanboy. Why? Well, I fell in love with the first Rock Band for its drum charting, vocals, and song selection. I then sunk several hundred dollars into DLC, then bought Rock Band 2 and imported everything in. To make the drumming experience complete, I bought the Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit because of the MIDI input, and plugged it into a Roland electronic drum kit.

This is where I see Guitar Hero taking a lead. The fact that I bought a Guitar Hero drum kit to get the ultimate drumming experience. Why could I not have used a Rock Band kit? That’s because Harmonix doesn’t build any hardware for it (but Red Octane and 3rd parties do). Now, I tried Guitar Hero World Tour (GH:WT) but just never really got into the game. I didn’t love the drum charting, the tour mode wasn’t compelling, and the online experience just blew. Though, Red Octane definitely won (for me) in the hardware department, thanks to that MIDI jack.

We all know that GH is pumping out games like the end of the world is near, but they are truly innovating with each release. Since GH:WT, they have released GH: Metallica which added a 2nd kick drum. Many gaming drummers say that the drum charting (and other features) have been fixed. For Xbox users, the ability to use the wireless mics from the game Lips has been enabled in GH: Metallica (and GH: Smash Hits), which now allows for a full wireless band. Though, the no import and DLC in GH: Metallica (and GH: Smash Hits) is a let down.

The upcoming GH5 is going to again take music gaming to a new level. Finally, GH will add the import/export feature. It will continue to support the wireless mics and double kick drum. Then the makers will add more. Any combination of instruments, allowing friends of the same instrument to play together. Plus, the “Pick up and play” mode will be excellent for parties, like in the game Lips. As some have stated, the confirmed (and rumored) setlist of GH5 is looking very impressive. The Activision/Red Octane team is really stepping up.

So what’s up with Rock Band. Still no support for the Lips mics. The Rock Band drums have an add-on to support the GH double kick drum songs, but no double kick added to Rock Band songs. Rock Band is still awesome with it’s weekly DLC releases, so no complaints there. I know we are getting The Beatles: Rock Band soon, but what I really want is to continue my Rock Band 2 love affair (or start a Rock Band 3 one), with all this DLC I have bought. I love the game, but want more (like the GH makers are giving their fans).

When I ask the question, “Is Guitar Hero beating Rock Band?”, I don’t care about sales or volume sold. I care about functionality, music, and features. Right now, it’s looking like Guitar Hero is winning on functionality and features, and to this Rock Band fanboy…that’s a drag.

What say you?

Holy Crap! Music Gaming Overload

I’m going to keep this post short, as the number of Amazon pre-order ads speaks for itself. WTF?!

And the new stuff that’s already available:

Guitar Hero: Smash Hits — The Setlist (and editorial)

Activision dropped lots of news over the past 24 hours, and we will bring you as much as we can. First, let’s talk Guitar Hero: Smash Hitscoming for all major platforms on June 16.

This is the greatest hits of all previous Guitar Hero games..the ones that only had guitar and bass, now for the full band experience. (See the set list after the break). If you ask me the set list is nothing shy of incredible.

Incredible as the list may be, I’m still going to have a hard time buying anything with the Guitar Hero name on it. Why? It comes down to the engine that runs the game, the drum charting, the lack of import, and the DLC model.

All of this years Guitar Hero games (Guitar Hero: Metallica, Smash Hits) are based on the the core Guitar Hero: World Tour engine, with some improvements. I generally do not like the layout of the notes, and the loose timing windows. Also, the fail window is scary. You can go from perfect to fail in less than 5 seconds. Maybe these things will be improved on for Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, and I hope so.

As for drum charting, the guys charting Guitar Hero drums, just don’t get it right (unlike the guys charting Rock Band songs). Maybe it’s the layout of the 5+1 drums for Guitar Hero, versus the more simple layout of Rock Bands 4+1 drum setup. But, I can say for sure, that I have seen several fairly simple songs for Guitar Hero: World Tour and Guitar Hero: Metallica, where hi-hat notes were not charted at all.

As for importing, I really, REALLY wish Activision would get an importing feature. If they did…I would buy every GH game that would support the import feature…and I would run out right now and get them. I HATE (and I know you do too) swapping discs, just to play some music.

For DLC, I don’t buy any GH DLC, because of the lack of import. You buy DLC for one game, and there is no guarantee the DLC will import to the other GH games. Again, too much disc swapping for me.

For now, Guitar Hero: World Tour is the first-and-last GH game I plan on buying…but it’s difficult to keep my word, since Guitar Hero: Smash Hits has such a kick ass set list. Pantera, Motley Crue, Warrant, Heart, and lot’s more. Oh, and there are a handful of duplicates from the Rock Band library too (which is a downer.)

…and now, the set list you’ve been waiting for:

Guitar Hero

• Pantera – “Cowboys From Hell (Live)”
• Franz Ferdinand – “Take Me Out”
• Queens Of The Stone Age – “No One Knows”
• Joan Jett & The Blackhearts – “I Love Rock N’ Roll”
• Boston – “More Than A Feeling”
• White Zombie – “Thunder Kiss ’65”
• Blue Öyster Cult – “Godzilla”
• Helmet – “Unsung (Live)”
• Queen – “Killer Queen”
• Incubus – “Stellar”
• Ozzy Osbourne – “Bark At The Moon”
• Deep Purple – “Smoke On The Water”
• The Donnas – “Take It Off”
• The Exies – “Hey You”

Guitar Hero II

• Avenged Sevenfold – “Beast And The Harlot”
• Rage Against The Machine – “Killing In The Name”
• Rush – “YYZ”
• Lynyrd Skynyrd – “Free Bird”
• Foo Fighters – “Monkey Wrench”
• Iron Maiden – “The Trooper”
• Nirvana – “Heart-Shaped Box”
• Lamb of God – “Laid To Rest”
• The Police – “Message In A Bottle”
• Wolfmother – “Woman”
• Kansas – “Carry On Wayward Son”
• Stone Temple Pilots – “Trippin’ On A Hole In A Paper Heart”
• Warrant – “Cherry Pie”
• Alice in Chains – “Them Bones”
• Danzig – “Mother”
• Jane’s Addiction – “Stop!”
• Reverend Horton Heat – “Psychobilly Freakout”
• The Sword – “Freya”
• Mötley Crüe- “Shout At The Devil”

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock

• Pat Benatar – “Hit Me With Your Best Shot”
• Living Colour – “Cult Of Personality”
• Heart – “Barracuda”
• Kiss – “Rock And Roll All Nite”
• AFI – “Miss Murder”
• DragonForce – “Through The Fire And Flames” < li>Priestess – “Lay Down”
• Slayer – “Raining Blood”

Guitar Hero Encore: Rocks the 80s

• Anthrax – “Caught In A Mosh”
• Extreme – “Play With Me”
• Judas Priest – “Electric Eye”
• Poison – “Nothin’ But A Good Time”
• Ratt – “Round and Round”
• Twisted Sister – “I Wanna Rock”

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

• Aerosmith – “Back In The Saddle”

Guitar Hero: Metallica DEMO — Initial Reaction

Ok, here we go. I downloaded the free demo of GH: Metallica from Xbox Live Marketplace. You may know that as far as rhythm games go, I care about:
1. Drums
2. Vocals
That’s about it. When mixing things up, I’ll play some bass or guitar, but those don’t matter to me at all. I never owned Guitar Hero 1, 2, or 3.

The Metallica demo comes with four songs, two from Metallica, one from Queen and one from Alice In Chains.
* Sad But True
* Seek & Destroy
* No Excuses
* Stone Cold Crazy

I only played drums tonight. I’m most concerned with how the drums play, since GH: World Tour has drum charting issues on expert. T put it simply, on GH: World Tour, Sweet Home Alabama on drums expert is missing some hi-hat notes. It’s very obvious, and makes you feel like you are not playing actual drums.

Here’s my quick take on GH: Metallica drums. The expert+ mode (double bass drum) was not used in the demo, so I stuck with expert. “No Excuses”, I failed out within 30 seconds. Lot’s of moving around with the yellow and orange cymbals, and my brain is trained for the Rock Band setup. The only thing I can say about that song is, I suck at it. I’ll come back to it another time.
Then on to “Sad But True”, one of the easiest and more repetitive Metallica songs. I figured that I’d 5-star it no problem, and I did. But, there’s a big BUT here, the drums are under charted. In many spots, there is a simultaneous yellow/orange/purple hit (2 cymbals and a kick drum) followed by an empty note. The problem, where there’s the empty note, I can easily here a hi-hat note. This happens throughout the song. Oh what a disappointment for such an easy song.
Then on to “Seek & Destroy”. It’s a fast moving song, but not crazy. I 3-starred it, and felt it was charted good. No complaints at first.
The final song, “Stone Cold Crazy”. This is my favorite Metallica cover form the Garage Days album. It’s a very fast moving song with lot’s of yellow/orange switch ups. I 3-starred it, and think it was charted well, but I will have to play it more to really see. I don’t really love the yellow/orange charting that is now in World Tour and Metallica.

Overall, with the poor charting of “Sad But True”, it’s going to be inevitable that other songs will be under charted. Since I’m not likely to play much of guitar or bass in this game, and as much as I like Metallica, don’t plan to do much singing of there’s…this game might be a pass for me.

I will likely save the $60 for more Rock Band DLC.

FREE Guitar Hero: Metallica for Xbox Live Gold Members

Xbox Live Gold Members, run to the Xbox Marketplace right now. There is a FREE demo of Guitar Hero: Metallica up there.

Brilliant move by Activision and Microsoft, if you ask me. I’m guessing pre-orders are not as high as anticipated, so they are trying to bring up the buzz.

For me, GH: World Tour is a disappointment on drums, but good on vocals. The only reason I’d be interested in the Metallica game is for drums. So, if Activision did a good job charting drums (i.e. like the Harmonix guys did with Rock Band), I’ll buy it. If not, no thanks.

I have queued up the free demo from the www.xbox.com web marketplace, and can’t wait to get home tonight to play.  What say you?

Game Universe Convention

Live in Massachusetts? Love gaming? Want to attend a conference? Check, check, and check. Check it out…

Game Universe Convention Aug 2009 in MASS!
First Info Cash Prize RB Tournament!

Guitar Hero: Metallica … Duplicate Songs

We are just weeks away from the release of Guitar Hero: Metallica.  Many people are excited about this, since it brings in lot’s of heavy songs, plus adds an expert-plus mode (with double-bass drum) for drummers.  But, let’s look at the game for the value.

Figure it will cost you $50 – $60.  Guitar Hero: Metallica features 49 songs, 28 being by Metallica, and the other 21 songs being bands that are “their personal favorites and influences from over the years”.  So, at more than $1.00 per song…each track is about the price of 1/2 a song from DLC.

As a concern with all these music games, how many duplicate songs are there?  Unfortunately, I’m afraid there are more dupes than I’d like.  Let’s take a look at the set list and mark the duplicates.

• “All Nightmare Long” – Metallica
• “Battery” – Metallica – Rock Band 2
• “Broken Beat & Scarred” – Metallica
• “Creeping Death” – Metallica
• “Cyanide” – Metallica
• “Disposable Heroes” – Metallica
• “Dyers Eve” – Metallica
• “Enter Sandman” – Metallica – Rock Band
• “Fade To Black” – Metallica
• “Fight Fire With Fire” – Metallica
• “For Whom The Bell Tolls” – Metallica
• “Frantic” – Metallica
• “Fuel” – Metallica
• “Hit The Lights” – Metallica
• “King Nothing” – Metallica
• “Master of Puppets” – Metallica
• “Mercyful Fate” (Medley) – Metallica
• “My Apocalypse” – Metallica
• “No Leaf Clover” – Metallica
• “Nothing Else Matters” – Metallica
• “One” – Metallica
• “Orion” – Metallica
• “Sad But True” – Metallica
• “Seek & Destroy” – Metallica
• “The Memory Remains” – Metallica
• “The Shortest Straw” – Metallica
• “The Thing That Should Not Be” – Metallica
• “The Unforgiven” – Metallica
• “Welcome Home (Sanitarium)” – Metallica
• “Wherever I May Roam” – Metallica
• “Whiplash” – Metallica

Other Artists

• “No Excuses” – Alice In Chains
• “Turn The Page” – Bob Seger
• “Albatross” – Corrosion of Conformity
• “Am I Evil?” – Diamond Head
• “Stacked Actors” – Foo Fighters
• “Hell Bent For Leather” – Judas Priest
• “Demon Cleaner” – Kyuss
• “Tuesdays Gone” – Lynyrd Skynyrd
• “Beautiful Mourning” – Machine Head
• “Blood And Thunder” – Mastodon
• “Evil” – Mercyful Fate
• “Armed and Ready” – Michael Schenker Group
• “Ace of Spades” – Motorhead – Rock Band 2
• “Stone Cold Crazy” – Queen
• “Mother of Mercy” – Samhain
• “War Ensemble” – Slayer
• “Mommy’s Little Monster” – Social Distortion
• “War Inside My Head” – Suicidal Tendencies
• “Toxicity” – System of a Down – Rock Band DLC
• “Black River” – The Sword
• “The Boys Are Back in Town” – Thin Lizzy – Rock Band DLC

If I took it further and compared it to the older Guitar Hero library, there would be more dupes.  So, 44 original songs (not available for Rock Band 1, 2 or Guitar Hero World Tour).  Is this worth $50-60  to you?

Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits in June

So, have you heard that Activision has a ridiculous number of Guitar Hero games slated for the upcoming year?  You probably have.  Guitar Hero: Metallica, Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile, Guitar Hero: Modern Hits, Guitar Hero: Arcade, and the one we are talking about today, Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits.

To quickly sum it up, think of all the songs from previous Guitar Hero titles, now added with full band support (guitar, bass, drums, and vocals) and repackaged as a new game.  Now, what do you think of that?

For me, I was never a Guitar Hero junkie.  I got into music games thanks to Rock Band’s drumming and vocals capabilities.  Other than Guitar Hero World Tour, I don’t own any Guitar Hero games.

Now, enter Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits (GH:GH).  Personally, I’m not a big fan of additional shrink-wrapped games, when downloadable content (DLC) is available on all the big platforms (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, PC).  I love how Harmonix has a solid full-band game (Rock Band 2) and just offers new DLC every week.  Some DLC I love, some I hate, and some I get if I have a few bucks to spare.

Though with Guitar Hero World Tour, there is a good enough list of songs that are not available for Rock Band, which drew me in.  This will likely be the case with Guitar Hero: Greatest Hits.  If (and only if) the set list contains great songs for drumming and singing, I will likely pick it up.  So, it’s all about the set list for me.  Give me songs I want, and I will buy.

We now have heard pricing for GH: Greatest Hits.  It’s confirmed at $60 for the 360/PS3 release, $40 on Wii and $30 on PS2 and expected in June.

Eight songs have also been confirmed:

• “Barracuda” by Heart
• “I Love Rock N Roll” by Joan Jett and The Blackhearts
• “I Wanna Rock” by Twisted Sister
• “Killer Queen” by Queen
• “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against The Machine
• “Nothin’ But A Good Time” by Poison
• “Them Bones” by Alice in Chains
• “Through the Fire and Flames” by Dragonforce

So, for the price and the current song list, are you interested?  I have to imagine that most plastic guitarists/bassists, already own most if not all of these.  But drummers and singers might be getting excited.

For me, I won’t pay $60…period.  I’ll wait for sale prices.  Based on the song list; Barracuda, Killer Queen, and Nothin’ But A Good Time all are must haves…but the list will have to be much larger if I’m going to fork out that cash.  Here’s hoping Rock Band get’s some of this stuff as DLC before June.

Rock Band & Guitar Hero with Real Drums – Part 3: basic setup

This is Part 3 of a multi-part series.
Part 1: the discovery
Part 2: intro and shopping
Part 3: basic setup
Part 4: pro setup (coming soon)

Ok, so you now have all the gear to get going. Let’s take a few (literally) minutes to get setup so you can experience this for the first time. Honestly, it won’t take you more than 30-40 minutes to get the basics setup.

To review, here’s what you should already have:
* Guitar Hero Drum Kit
* MIDI Cable
* Electronic Drum Kit/Brain with Assignable MIDI capabilities
* can’t forget…Game console (i.e. Xbox 360, PS3, Wii) with game (i.e. RB2, GHWT)

1. Setup the GHWT drum kit as instructed in the manual. Nothing out of the ordinary here; setup the stand, place the drums on the stand, plug in the pedal, plug in the cymbals etc.
NOTE: If you are using the GHWT kit for Rock Band, put the Yellow cymbal on the left, and orange (unused) on the right. If you are using GHWT, put orange on left and yellow on right.
2. Plug the GHWT kit into your game console and start up your game of choice (i.e. RB2 or GHWT). Play around and make the the kit plays as expected.
3. Plug the MIDI cable into the back of the GHWT kit; there is a MIDI port right next to the kick drum plug port.
4. Plug the other end of your MIDI cable to your e-drum kit brain (i.e. Yamaha TMX, Roland TD6V, etc).

Ok, so let’s step back for a second. You have confirmed the GHWT kit plays fine with your console right? If the GHWT kit has issues, please make sure you get those corrected before proceeding.

Now, let’s get into pad placement on your e-drum kit.

5. Make sure you have at least the minimum number of pads setup on your drum kit. For example, Rock Band needs four pads and a kick drum; GHWT needs 5 pads and a kick drum. You need to have at a minimum 4 or 5 pads ready to plug in/configure.

6. Configure each pad on your e-drum kits brain with the following MIDI value.  NOTE:  The voice (actual sound) doesn’t matter, what matters is the MIDI value.

RockBand Settings (CREDIT: Doc_SoCal)

RED – MIDI Note 38
YELLOW – MIDI Note 46
BLUE - MIDI Note 48
GREEN - MIDI Note 45
KICK - MIDI Note 36

GHWT Settings are the same, you just add the orange pad at MIDI Note 49.

7. Now, turn on your game and try it out.  If using RB2, test each pad in the Drum Trainer. This way you can start to fine tune everything.  Basically, every time you hit your kits snare drum (aka red), your e-kit drum drain will send the MIDI note #38 through your MIDI cable, into the GHWT kit, into your console…and of course onto your screen (and speakers).

Now, you will likely have to recalibrate your game as I noticed a very small, but noticable lag.  After manually setting calibration, everything works great.

What this leaves you is with your e-drum kit fully functional as a drum kit for RB and GHWT, and it also leaves you with a fully setup GHWT kit. The good part of this is, you can let friends (or kids) use the GHWT kit when they want to play, and keep them off your nice kit.  Both kits will be usable at the same time.  So, if someone hit a pad on the GHWT kit while you are playing your e-kit, the hit will get registered. What’s good is, you can let someone play the GHWT kit without unplugging the MIDI cable.  What’s bad is the obvious. Someone can break your streak by hitting a pad on the GHWT kit. It’s only an issue for me if my little kids are in the room and want to join in the song with me.

There are two potential concerns to consider. First, You don’t have your Start, Select, or Menu buttons mapped on your drum kit. This means you need to use the GHWT controller to press Start etc.  The mapped MIDI pads can be used as a D-pad and the corresponding buttons, but you have no Start, Select, or Menu on your kit.  Second, you have a plastic drum kit now just sitting in your room unused. If you are short on space, this can be an issue.  My setup is in my basement, so it is not an issue and I’m fine with this.  In fact I keep the GHWT kit rght next to my e-kit, so I can press Start, Select, and Menu as needed.

So that’s the basic setup.  Coming in my next post, I will talk about taking things further with more professional setups. I will talk about mapping multiple e-drums so you can expand well beyond the 4-5 pad configuration (see picture for a sneak peek). I will also talk about ripping apart the GHWT controller and mounting it on your e-kit (something I do not plan to do, but others with limited space have).