Rock on!
Rock Band 2
Gameplay
Career mode is long and continuous. Even when you have beaten all the gigs, you can replay them to try and get five gold stars on all of them and get a better high-score to work your way up on the Wi-Fi rankings.
You can form your own band with your friends or people online. The best part about this game that makes it superior to Rock Band other than the songs has to be the fact that you can change which instrument you play whenever you feel like it (besides in the middle of a song or gig). The other really good things about this game are the clothes and different instruments you can buy in the Rock Shop.
The online play, battle of the bands, and tournaments are loads of fun. There's only one small problem with it, and that is the tiny bit of lag you may experience which can be a pain for anyone on hard or expert.
The game can be hard to beat, depending on if you challenge yourself with a higher difficulty or not. I recommend that you do some songs on a higher difficulty than you are used to, that way you'll get better and better.
Rating: 9.4/10
Challenge
This game can be easy, medium, hard, or expert, literally. Those are the difficulties you can choose. For guitar, bass, or drums: easy uses the first three notes (green, red, yellow) and is great if you are just starting. Medium uses the first four notes (green, red, yellow, and blue), is a bit faster than easy, and has a few more notes. Hard uses all five notes (green, red, yellow, blue, and orange), has a lot more notes, and is a lot faster. Expert is a lot faster, harder, and more intense than hard in the way that it has crazy solos, tricky chords, and much more. For singing, when you go up a difficulty, it does not get faster. The bars just get a lot thinner so you have to hit them almost right on. Some songs are a lot harder than others, so be prepared to move down a difficulty for certain songs.
Rating: 9.8/10
Storyline
Well, there isn't much of a 'story' to the game… Basically, you can hire staff which you unlock, unlock new songs, gigs, and venues, and sometimes you'll get offers to do challenges before songs. It's not an adventure game, so it's limited in its storyline.
Rating: 6.7/10
Graphics
There isn't much to be seen except a bunch of notes streaming down a screen, few menus, and your band on stage. But, the quality of the band on stage with all their clothes and instruments is absolutely amazing.
Rating: 9.1/10
Controls
The controls are what really make this game realistic. You can buy the guitar bundle (one guitar + game), dual guitar bundle (two guitars + game), full bundle (guitar, drum set, mic, and game), a single instrument (guitar, mic, or drums), or just the game. The drums have two symbols, three pads, and a foot pedal. The equipment for this game is also compatible with Guitar Hero World Tour (as long as it's on the same console). You can use the Wii Remote as an instrument, but for drums it is absolutely horrible. One of the neat features is you can press green as a substitute for A and red as a substitute for B, like any other Guitar Hero/Rock Band Wii game.
Rating: 10/10
Sound/Music
Well. It is Rockband… The game is based around music and sound… Anyways, yes, the sound and music are amazing. Most of the songs are ones which you've probably heard of on the radio before or know if you are a hard-core rock fan. With a track containing songs from the 70's to like Pinball Wizard (The Who), Master Exploder (Tenacious D), Give it Away (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Eye of the Tiger (Survivor), Chop Suey (System of a Down), Shackler's Revenge (Guns 'N Roses), and more! Also, for a couple hundred Wii Points, you can purchase songs from the Music Store!
Rating: 10/10