The Standard

Issue date: 11/30/07 Section: Features

Media Credit: Bazil Manietta

Rock Band, a music video game, was released last week and is already becoming a success in the gaming world.

Developed by Harmonix, the developer behind the first two Guitar Heroes, Rock Band allows gamers to play out several different aspects of a typical rock band, like lead singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer.

Similar to Guitar Hero, the game has you hitting a sequence of notes on screen and in tune with the music. Rock Band can be played solo and online or offline with friends.

"It sells extremely well," said Kevin Parrott, lead game advisor at Gamestop. "We preorder games, and we did not have a single copy of Rock Band that was not preordered on our first shipment of them."

Guitar Hero III, released in late October, branched away from its original developer, Harmonix. It was instead released by Neversoft Entertainment.

Parrott said Guitar Hero III has done better than Rock Band, but it was probably just because it's more of a built-up franchise.

"We had more copies of it than we have of Rock Band," he said.

Sam Hooker, a sophomore majoring in geography and geology, said that he thought there was a large following of dedicated Guitar Hero fans that would be hard to sway toward Rock Band.

"I think Rock Band could make gaming more of a group activity," Hooker said. "Instead of one person playing a game by themselves, Rock Band gets you and your friends involved."

The game sports a $170 price tag that includes all the instruments; a microphone, a guitar that doubles as a bass guitar and drums. It can be bought without the instruments for $50, Parrott said, but those people can only play guitar if they already have a Guitar Hero controller.

"You can buy the instruments separately, but you won't be able to get them until about February," Parrott said.

Hooker said that he was not yet ready to purchase a game as pricey as Rock Band.

"I'm not ready to throw down $170 for a game."

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