The release of Rock Band 2 in New Zealand seemed like an after thought.  ”After” is the crucial word there, incidentally; almost a year after, in fact.  Rock Band 2 was released in North America in September 2008.  We didn’t see it until December 2009.  One major consequence of this delay has been that most people who’re interested in it have already imported it.  The dearth of marketing has meant that more casual players are mostly ignorant of the release.

In all fairness, not that much has changed since RB1.  There are some new multiplayer modes, a slick drum trainer, and a bunch of new songs – more than 80, all told.  Almost all of the songs from Rock Band can be transferred to Rock Band 2 for a small fee as well, which is nice.  Still, RB2 is retailing at around $90, which does seem a little steep for an oldish game that seems more like an expansion, and already looks a bit dated in comparison to the likes of the much newer Beatles Rock Band and the competition from rival Guitar Hero franchise.

I don’t want to sound like I’m selling this game short.  Despite appearances.  Rock band was enormously enjoyable, and Rock Band 2 is just slightly more enjoyable, so on balance it’s a hell of a good game.  It’s just been withheld from this market for over a year because the colonies aren’t important enough to warrant getting games in a timely fashion.

Rock Band 2 instruments aren’t yet available domestically.  Rumour has it that they won’t be shipped over until stocks of RB1 instruments are exhausted, and I couldn’t begin to guess when that’ll be.  It’s not a major problem, since they’re not that much cleverer anyway; the drums are velocity sensitive, for example, which is nice but hardly necessary.  The existing Rock Band and Guitar Hero peripherals are all compatible anyway.

It plays exactly as you’d expect.  Very much like Rock Band.  And that’s no bad thing.  Whether you’re a perfectionist looking to score as well as possible on every song, or you just want to thrash some songs with your mates, perhaps over beers, Rock Band 2 is ideal.  The World Tour mode is almost unchanged, except that you can now play right through on any instrument.

So, 2008’s hottest rhythm game is pretty damn decent.  But there’s not really that much to say… not this late in the game.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 3:41 pm and is filed under Games, Reviews, Xbox 360. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.