Guitar Hero/Rock Band 2 Wii news

jwebb1970

http://wii.ign.com/articles/937/937092p1.html

For the likely 2 or 3 here that it matters to, IGN posted their hands-on w/ the Wii version of RB2.

1st - they claim the game is, in terms of gameplay, online, DLC, etc identical to the 360/PS3 editions. Only major differences are the lack of custom tattoo & band logo creation (Wii users stuck w/ presets & templates it seems). And of course, 480p instead of 1080p (it's a music game - who cares). According to Harmonix, when the Wii edition drops (now apparently Dec 18th), the same 20 free tracks the other versions had access to will be avilable. Plus, 30 RB "greatest hits" - the most popular DL'ed tunes from the RB1 & 2 catalogs will be availble for DL. Wii will get the identical weekly DLC updates as well as periodic "catch up" to the eventual goal of having all RB DLC available to Wii users.

DLC will be handled similarly to how GH:WT does it on Wii. Can be stored on SD cards. Sounds, though, that RB will actually DL direct to & read direct from the SD (GH:WT actully has to cache the track in Wii internal memory first before transfer to/from SD).

2nd big news? Despite what the Joystiq & Activision compatibility charts have said, RB2 Wii is 100% compatible with all GH:WT & GHIII controllers, incl the WT drums. Only issue is that WT drums are laid out differently. THe orange drum on the WT kit will have no function in RB2, so small adjustments in playing drums btwn the 2 games, but otherwise fully compatible.

Yeah! Wii finally gets a truly next gen music game experience (WT came close).

Can say from personal experience that a 2GB SD card has plenty of room for GH DLC, so the lack of a HDD is not that big a worry here at all. Plus, Harmonix has ALWAYS sold their RB DLC as singles, enev those that are packaged as albums/Track Packs. So, hopefully no Jimi Hendrix DLC issues like we saw on WT (as in Wii users did not get it).

Besides the issue w/ Jimi DLC on GH Wii? Not much of a tech issue at all, just the Hendrix estate opposed to selling the 3 Jimi tunes seperately (even if most Wii users would have likely bought all 3). Every other WT track pack since the launch have been sold as singles on Wii (Racountours, REM, Oasis, Pumpkins).

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MikeRox

Sounds great, Rock Band 1 was supposedly very gimped on the Wii. I'm still waiting for the UK release of Rock Band 2 on PS3. So far theres just been a very token 360 release (a few thousand units from the sound of it as it's been completely sold out everywhere since day of release) and the promise of RB2 before Xmas on 360/PS3.

Guitar Hero World Tour just didn't quite work for me, though I do like the Guitar controller for it, the game itself wasn't too great.

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jwebb1970

I have World Tour for Wii. Only bought the disc & use the existing GHIII guitar and a High School Musical USB mic I picked up used for $8 (and such a manly mic it is!)

I got WT mainly due to it's having Van Halen, Hendrix & 3 TOOL tracks. The Hendrix DLC issue was a bummer - but that's a problem w/ the Hendrix estate's refusal to break up the pack , not a Wii tech issue. Besides, Wii can do Track Packs - Samba De Amigo has a 3 track DLC pack for Wii right now! But the other tunes I did buy (Pumpkins most recently) have been good & are easy to access via SD.

RB2 looks to have a more varied track list - less metal/hard rock heavy, more pop/new wave/punk titles. And more tunes that any partygoers in your home might be familiar with. That said, RB2 disc was just ordered from Amazon today.

If/when I add drums, they'll likely be the GH:WT kit. Will be some minor drum play issues due to the slightly differnt layout of the WT kit, but otherwise no need for different sets of instruments for differnet games. And a 2nd guitar will also likely be the WT one when they become available on their own.

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