Rock Band
| Developer(s) | Harmonix Music Systems |
|---|---|
| Publisher(s) | MTV (2007 - 2010)
Harmonix (2010 - present) Mad Catz (2011 - 2016) |
| Release date | November 20, 2007 |
| Genre | Vertical Scrolling Rhythm Game |
| Spin-offs | Rock Band: Unplugged, Fortnite Festival |
Rock Band (commonly shortened to RB or mistakenly referred as Rockband or RockBand) is an American series of rhythm games developed by Harmonix Music Systems. Its first installment, Rock Band (retroactively referred to as Rock Band 1) was released in 2007; its latest mainline installment is Rock Band 4, released in 2015.
Songs
Rock Band mainly focuses on licensed English-language rock music, though the series has frequently expanded outside of those bounds, featuring genres such as hip-hop/rap or pop/dance/electronic. It has also featured songs by non-English artists, such as "Oye Mi Amor" by Maná (Spanish) and "Gimme Chocolate!!" by Babymetal (Japanese). Much like the previously Harmonix developed Guitar Hero and Guitar Hero II, the first two Rock Band games, as well as the fourth, feature songs by artists/bands that are associated with Harmonix or are in the Boston, Massachusetts area as "bonus songs". All songs released "on-disc" for Rock Band, excluding Rock Band 3 songs that don't feature Keys and/or Harmonies, have every instrument charted, besides "Imagine" by John Lennon (Rock Band 3) and "Song of the Century" by Green Day (Green Day: Rock Band), with the former only missing Guitar and the latter only having Vocals charted. Rock Band songs are "tempo-mapped" instead of having a singular tempo, meaning that tempo markers are placed so that the beatlines in-game match up with the song. This allows songs to be featured in the game, completely unaltered.
Downloadable content
From November 20, 2007 to April 2, 2013, and October 6, 2015 to January 25, 2024, downloadable songs were released weekly for Rock Band, priced at US$1.99, and occasionally for $1.19 or at no cost. From September 18, 2012, to October 6, 2015, all songs released before Rock Band 3's release were discounted to $1. All songs released for Rock Band 3 feature Pro Keys and Harmonies (if applicable), and all songs released for Rock Band 4 (excluding select Rock Band Network "rewinds") feature Harmonies. Select downloadable songs had Pro Guitar/Bass charts released for them, purchasable separately for $1, some pre-Rock Band 3 songs also had "RB3 versions" released for them, which were separate purchases from their originals which feature Pro Keys and Harmonies.
Rock Band Network
On March 4, 2010, the Rock Band Network (abbreviated RBN) was launched in the US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and Singapore, featuring independently charted DLC songs, allowing record labels and smaller artists to get their songs into Rock Band. Shortly after Rock Band 3's launch, a new version of the Rock Band Network called "RBN 2.0" was released. "RBN 2.0" featured the new Rock Band 3 features of Pro Keys and Harmonies, but not Pro Guitar/Bass, on account of the mode's complexity to chart and the limited userbase that would be able to test the charts. Both RBN services were fully shut down in September 2017, and all songs were delisted in February 2018.
Gameplay
Like many other rhythm games, Rock Band features notes scrolling down an angled "highway", where players hit note gems to their part selected instrument part. Players can choose Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert difficulties, which feature stripped down, easier versions of each chart. While in a song, players can collect Overdrive (OD) energy by successfully maintaining a combo throughout an OD phrase. If a player fills up their energy bar to half-way or more, they can activate Overdrive to give them a 2x multiplier, on top of their existing combo multiplier, which on most instruments, goes up to 4x, which when in Overdrive, gives them up to an 8x multiplier. When playing in a band, if two or more band members share an overlapping Overdrive phrase, it will become a Unison Phrase which awards you with half a bar of energy. While playing as a band, if multiple people activate OD at once, everyone's score will be multiplied up to 8x when all 4 players are in Overdrive. When certain score cutoffs are reached, the player will earn Stars. The player can reach up to 5; when every player in on Expert difficulty, Gold Stars can be reached. If a player misses a note, the "Band Meter" on the left side of the screen will go down; if a player lets the Band Meter completely drain, they will fail out of the song, if all players fail out, they will fail the song, meaning they have to restart or quit out. In solo play, the song will end if you fail out. In Rock Band 1, 2, and 4, 4 instrument parts are selectable: Guitar, Bass, Drums, and Vocals (with 4 featuring Harmonies). In Rock Band 3, 5 additional parts are selectable, Pro Guitar, Pro Bass, Keys, Pro Keys, and Harmonies with each instrument playing their respective part of the song.
Guitar/Bass
Guitar and Bass (commonly referred to as "5-fret”) gameplay is almost identical, with each featuring 5 fret buttons (green, red, yellow, blue, and orange respectively) and needing to strum notes or 2/3 note chords as they reach the strikeline (or smashers). Hammer-on and pull-off (HOPO) notes do not need to be strummed as long as the player has an active combo. While in an Overdrive phrase, if it features sustained notes, those can be "whammied" with the guitar's whammy bar to gain extra energy. Bass gameplay is exactly the same except for the fact that Bassists can achieve "Bass Groove", or a 5x/6x multiplier (which in OD, goes all the way up to 10x and 12x respectively.) This is to compensate for the fact that Bassists commonly only play single notes, as opposed to chords, which give the player more points than single notes.
Drums
Drums gameplay is (within the limits of 4 pads) a 1:1 recreation of the song's drum track, with only small deviances made to differentiate between different played parts that could be charted to the same pad and accommodations made to make playing non-Pro Drums easier, such as disco flips, which swap the red (snare) and yellow (hi-hat) pads to allow the playing of "disco beats" (see: Mr. Brightside, The Hand That Feeds) or moving the hi-hat or ride cymbal over to blue or green respectively in order to facilitate the playing of the tom-toms at the same time as each (see: Message in a Bottle, Peacemaker. The order of the drum pads are red, yellow, blue, and green, corresponding to the snare, hi-hat/high tom-tom, ride cymbal/low tom-tom, and crash cymbal/floor tom respectively. Unlike Guitarists and Bassists who can activate Overdrive at any time, Drummers must activate in designated drum fills, in which they can freestyle drum in the time allotted and hit their green pad at the end to activate Overdrive.
Pro Drums
In Rock Band 3 and 4, Drummers can attach up to 3 cymbals to their Rock Band drum kit, or connect an electronic drum kit via MIDI, to play Pro Drums. If the Drummer has the yellow cymbal enabled, the game will un-flip disco beats, allowing for the player to play the part as originally played.
Vocals
Vocals is arguably the most true-to-life standard instrument, allowing the player to sing the exact vocal part as performed by the artist. Much like Drums, Vocalists cannot activate freely, meaning they have to wait for a large enough break to activate, in which they must make a loud enough voice (i.e. screaming, blowing into the microphone) or press select (only in Rock Band 3 and 4).
Harmonies
In Rock Band 3 and 4, up to three microphones can be plugged in, allowing the play of up to three-part harmonies. Harmonies can still be played with one microphone.
Pro gameplay
Rock Band introduced a new type of instruments known as Pro. These are true to life instruments, allowing players to play the exact Guitar, Bass, or Keyboard parts of charted songs.
Pro Guitar/Bass
Using the Fender Mustang Pro Guitar or the MIDI Squier Stratocaster, which allows for the playing of 22-fret charts, players can play almost exact recreations of Guitar or Bass parts in Pro Guitar/Pro Bass mode (commonly referred to as protar). Despite being accurate recreations of played parts, Pro Guitar charts do not feature bends or natural/pinch harmonics, though the mode does feature fret-hand mutes (palm-mutes are charted regularly), arpeggio markers, and slides. Just like standard Guitar/Bass, it features HOPOs, but it also features "tap" notes, which appear as HOPO notes but don't require a combo to hit.
Pro Keys
Using the Rock Band 24-key Clavier, or by using any keyboard that supports MIDI, players can play almost exact recreations of keyboard parts. Unlike 5-fret, Pro Keys features extended sustains and 4 note chords (though there is a single official chart with a 5 note chord: Blue Monday by New Order). Like 5-fret, notes can be "whammied" to earn extra energy.
Gameplay Video
Gameplay of all supported instrument types in Rock Band 3, on The Clash's "Spanish Bombs". Please note that the streak counter, player name, progress bar, and perfects are all features of the mod Rock Band 3 Deluxe and are not part of Rock Band 3's base game.
Releases
Mainline titles
| Release year | Game |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Rock Band |
| 2008 | Rock Band 2 |
| 2010 | Rock Band 3 |
| 2015 | Rock Band 4 |
Side games
| Release year | Game |
|---|---|
| 2009 | Rock Band Unplugged (PSP) |
| 2009 | Rock Band Mobile (Misc. mobile phones) |
| 2009 | Rock Band (iOS) |
| 2009 | Lego Rock Band |
| 2010 | Rock Band Reloaded (mobile) |
| 2012 | Rock Band Blitz |
| 2017 | Rock Band VR (Windows) |
Notes & References
External Links
Official Website (Wayback snapshot)