We're going to start the review off with the price, which is a whopping $170 not including tax. Even if you already have the guitar and mic, you still need the drums and game, which runs you $100. So $170 is kinda a bargain and the guitar is more realistic than Guitar Hero. Although it's still expensive for one game. They better release a couple of sequels or this could end up like Steel Battalion on the original Xbox, which is scary.

Getting back to the game, it's basically three games in one. All the games are rhythm type games were you have to hit buttons or sing correctly to the lyrics. What Rock Band does is allow you and a few friends to play all the parts of a real band. The guitar can be lead guitar or bass. The drums are just drums. There are vocals at the top that you have to follow like in a karaoke machine. There's a team score that keeps track of the entire group. All this stuff makes the screen very crowded when you have four people playing.

The game can be played in solo mode or with a group in world tour band mode. In solo mode, you can decide what you want to play and let the computer handle the rest. So you can rock out as the lead, or slowly fall asleep playing bass. Both modes have you traveling around the world racking up points and get cheered at by fans. Although that's not saying much since you spend all your time looking at the gameplay screen.

Each band member can pick their own difficulty, and the game has specials like overdrive and a score multiplier to keep it interesting. But basically, it's still just pressing buttons along with the screen. There's not a whole lot of depth in this game. If you've played Guitar Hero or Karaoke Revolution, you've pretty much played this game. The only difference is the drums and the ability to play along with your friends as a complete band.

You can customize your character and buy stuff for him or her. The graphics are on the same level as Guitar Hero, which means they aren't very good. This is a multiplatform game available on the PS2 and made by EA. Add those two together and you know you're not getting next-gen graphics. The music is acceptable. Most of the bands are famous, but most of the songs available are not their big hits.

The game has an online mode where you can rock with your buddies overseas or wherever, but unfortunately, there's no world tour online mode. There's a leaderboard that keeps track of which band has the most points, but that's about it. You will be able to buy entire albums online for your band. But overall, it's a good package, but not any better than the other rhythm games sold separately. It has more variety, but not more depth.