OT - Rock Band or Guitar Hero for Wii??

[MickeyMom2Boys]

I want to get my DH one of the drum sets for the Wii for his birthday, but I have no idea which one to get. Can anyone recommend Rock Band or Guitar Hero?'

Thanks!

 

[Scurvy]

I have several Guitar Hero games and Rock band 1 & 2, though I have them for the XBox 360 so I can't comment on the Wii instruments.

My family prefers Rock Band (and Rock Band 2) over the Guitar Hero games. For us, the deciding factor is the track lists - we prefer the songs on the Rock Band games. If you think your kids might end up playing at some point be warned that both games have lyrics that aren't completely family friendly. (Some songs have words that wouldn't make it through the Dis filters.) Rock Band has two new games coming out soon, Beatles Rock Band and Lego Rock Band, that should have more family-friendly lyrics than the games which are already out. Since you can use the same instruments on all the Rock Band games you could pick up one of those later to use with any instruments you already have. There's also quite a bit of downloadable contect available for Rock Band, including a few songs from Spongebob Squarepants.

Guitar Hero World Tour and Guitar Hero 5, which comes out today, have a mode that allows the player to write and play his own music. That isn't something we enjoy but if your husband would enjoy it then that's something to consider since there isn't a similar mode on Rock Band.

Guitar Hero 5 is the first game to allow you to have multiple drummers, lead guitars, bass guitars or vocalists in your band. The other games allow only one of each to play at a time. (Beatles Rock Band will also allow multiple vocalists, but they will be singing different parts. You won't be able to have multiple people playing the same instrument or doing lead vocals on that game.)

The other gameplay is very similar on the two franchises. On the 360 you can use the instruments from either game to play both games, but I don't think you can do that on the Wii.

Anyway, my suggestion if you are torn about which to get would be to look up the track lists for the different games and see which one has more songs that would appeal to your husband, since the game is the most fun when you're playing songs you enjoy listening to.

 

[dizneechic]

As a music loving mama with kids who (as of yet) don't have a musically inclined bone in their body, I wanted something to try to help them hear and understand music hoping to draw out some sort of love for it. We purchased RockBand2 for the Wii (arrived just over a week ago now) and everyone in our entire family loves it. My 2 youngest ones can't really keep up so well (vocals is a great option for them though) so we keep some extra "kids" instruments around they can jam on while dh, myself and dd8 play. The great thing about RockBand vs GuitarHero (at least for kids) is you can choose to play in "no fail" mode so if you do want kids to play who don't quite "get it" yet the song wont fail out mid way.

We also like the track list for RB better (we have guitar hero sitting in the basement still unopened), and are really looking forward to Lego RockBand this November, and will most likely pick up Beatles too on the 9th of this month.

And FWIW, one of my close friends is a photographer who does a lot of wedding and events. She sees Rock Band becoming more and more popular at them, yet she hasn't seen Guitar Hero once.