Yesterday, at a friend’s house, I was introduced to a game called “RockBank” played on XBOX.  We actually had the WHOLE band - which consisted of a drummer, 2 guitarists and 1 person on vocals.

Needless to say, everything was played on the XBOX 360 and the equipment was “human size”, which means, you’re physically “playing” the game.

The entire gig takes the following hardware:

• 1 wireless drum set
• 2 wireless guitars
• 1 microphone
• Xbox and game

You see, I’m not a rock fan - so many of the songs I didn’t know, but you can still play along. 

The Drums

The drums I played on are a 5 pieces set (with a pedal and 2 drumsticks).  So basically, you’ve got 6 things to manage if it gets difficult.  The one in the picture is the official Rockbank drum set.  The drums are pretty sensitive so you don’t need to BANG on them to successfully register a hit - however you do need a good sense of co-ordination to be able to hit everything at once (including the pedal).

Not my favourite piece, I think I was trying to hit it too hard, but most people enjoy playing the drums the most. 

The Guitar

The guitars are pretty fun.  And since they are wireless, you can enjoy guitar playing as if you were really in a rockband with head-banging and guitar-raising (what do you even call that motion?) and all. 

To be a complete rockband, you’ll really need 2 guitars.  One person can play Bass and one person can play Guitar.  Initially, my arms were cramping because I was probably holding it wrong, or I was super tense, but once you get the hang of it, it’s pretty fun.

Some levels can be very difficult.  You have to co-ordinate pressing the “note” while “strumming” the string or “plucking” it.  And no, I don’t play the guitar, so maybe my terms are all wrong, but you get the gyst of what I’m saying.

Vocals

All you need is a microphone to play vocals.  For starters, to be the vocalist, you really need to know the song - because the game registers tune.  You just need to know the melody, but not the words, so you can virtually hum or “la” the whole song, but what kind of band is that?  I was a little disappointed in the variety of “female” singers available and our girl band was equally disappointed that we couldn’t rock it on all night without running out of songs.

In general, I’d say it’s a pretty fun game.  I can see where it can be addictive to those who enjoy music or rock.  It’s definitely a good party game, but you’ll probably need more than 4 people playing so that you guys can rotate people off during bathroom breaks or sore arms.  Maybe I am getting old, really, my best friend and I were straining our arms just to get the guitar parts down.  Still, all good fun!

References:

Rockbank for XBOX Official Site - www.xbox.com
Rockbank - www.rockbank.com