Ranking Rock Band games.
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TLDR; Best-to-Least-Best
1. Rock Band 2 (bigger than the already excellent 1)
2. Rock Band 1 (arguably deserving of the top slot)
3. Rock Band 3 (good but keys-centric)
4. LEGO (good but short)
5. Rock Band 4 (good but late)
I still remember the first time I played Rock Band. I had never played Guitar Hero, so it was all new to me. I was on a trip to another city with a friend to meet Team Fortress 2 pals we played with online, and we played Rock Band (the original) at their apartment. That’s when I first heard Maps by Yeah Yeah Yeahs, which was my friend’s favorite song to drum for whatever reason (I don’t drum very well, so I don’t understand the appeal). But we’d always have to play that song any time we got together. Ugh.
Even excluding the covers (which I think are really good!), Rock Band 1’s setlist is incredibly strong. Blue Oyster Cult, Boston, the Clash, Bowie, Foo Fighters, the Killers, the Police, R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Soundgarden, Stone Temple Pilots, Weezer, the Who… all these songs are, objectively speaking, Rock Band classics and staples of setlists… at least, before we got so much DLC (and customs) that we began to ignore them.
The bonus songs were cool, too! That’s how I learned about The Mother Hips, which are one of my favorite bands of all time at this point! I’d love to get some customs by them into the database eventually… see the suggestions thread in my signature
” src=”/wp-content/uploads/invision_emoticons/default_SA_wink.gif” />Unfortunately, because I’m a Wii user, none of these songs would export into Rock Band 2 or 3. I’ve taken steps to remedy that, um, situation in the past year, but it’s still frustrating that we/Wii got the short end of the stick.
And because I’m a Wii user, I got five treats on the Rock Band 1 disc! Dirty Little Secret (guilty pleasure!), Roxanne, Rockaway Beach, Roam, and Don’t Look Back in Anger were bonus songs! Suck it. (but they didn’t export either!
)Rock Band 2’s setlist is arguably better than 1, but I consider it a tie… however, since 2 has way more songs, 2 breaks that tie. Rock Band 1 seemed to go for the huge bands with huge hits that were accessible, whereas Rock Band 2 dove a little bit deeper. Looking at the setlist, very few songs pop out as definite staples, but there are so many that have become my staples. Bad Company, Fleetwood Mac, Foo Fighters (again), Kansas, Steve Miller Band, Modest Mouse (crowd favorite), Nirvana, Pearl Jam, PUSA, RATM, RHCP (again), the Pumpkins (again), Social D, Talking Heads, and the Who (again). I’m not sure which I’d pick if it were a battle between 1 and 2… but I’ve chosen 2 just for the sake of argument. Don’t send me to a deserted island with only one setlist. That’s inhumane.
Then there’s the keys-centric Rock Band 3 setlist, which I like… but it has even less bangers (as the kids say) compared to 1 and 2. But did it need as many? I’d argue no. Focusing on keys was a good idea! And there are still some bangers and many that I’ve grown to love (or love to hate or hate to love). It might not have my favorite songs (and it definitely has a few!), but it’s still very well put together.
LEGO… well, I’m a Wii user. I never got to play it (because I wasn’t going to purchase a game that didn’t export
). But I’ve oogled the setlist many times and there are so many gems I want in my library. Blur, Bryan Adams, Counting Crows, Bowie, Elton John, Foo Fighters, Good Charlotte, Iggy Pop, Kaiser Chiefs, the Police, Spin Doctors, Sum 41, Tom Petty, the Zutons… hell, LEGO has a very strong setlist. The only bad thing about it is the length. Now I’m just bitter… 
Rock Band 4 is weird. I haven’t played it, but looking at the list there are so many wants along with don’t cares and already got thats. It just feels like many of the RB4 songs have been done before… because of Guitar Hero or customs. However, man, the songs they did include that I can’t get drive me nuts. Arctic Monkeys, Black Keys, CAKE, Gin Blossoms, Jack White, the Killers, Skynyrd, R.E.M., Spin Doctors, White Denim, the Who… but then there are two U2 songs. Two? Ugh.
For the longest time, I had played Rock Band 2 the most. That’s been replaced by Rock Band 3 now because, well, it’s been many years since 3 came out, 4 was never released for the Wii, and there was a much smaller gap between 2 and 3. So Rock Band 3 is, by default, my favorite game platform/engine, but maybe that’s only because I’ve spent so much time with it. To the point: none of the setlists are bad, but some are definitely better than others. However, they’re all still good!
I absolutely agree. A lot of the songs are so memorable on both RB1 & RB2 that I still play them without fail. I think RB1 was slightly better in terms of every song being perfect. As I feel Lego was the best for popular songs, but it was really short with way less songs, albeit all great songs. I really love the RB4 set myself, which is polarizing for many, but honestly I (as I said before) think it reminds me the most of the RB2 setlist with all of the various artists being repeats with songs that weirdly werent included till then. I feel like RB4 did have songs that we would already have with customs, but if we didnt have that, I think it would have given us a different opinion on the set entirely. I dont know if its just me but I feel like the guys whove made RB check this site for idea on songs just because sometimes its alittle too coincidental with some of the song choices recently.
I wouldn’t call RB3 key-centric or it would have Light my Fire instead of Break on Through. I’d call it, “here are some less popular songs for the disk that don’t play so well in the game, so we can offer up the good stuff as DLC for you to buy instead” setlist
I wouldn’t call RB3 key-centric or it would have Light my Fire instead of Break on Through.
I…I don’t even know where to begin with how silly that line of reasoning is.
I…I don’t even know where to begin with how silly that line of reasoning is.
I mean with songs like David Bowie Space Oddity, Warren Zevon Werewolf of London & who could forget John Lennon Imagine. Its heavily Keys oriented. But thats not a bad thing because its a gimmick, Pro Guitar, Bass & Drums. Although its more, lets say helpful to the experience of making you feel like youre actually playing instruments instead of plastic.
I mean with songs like David Bowie Space Oddity, Warren Zevon Werewolf of London & who could forget John Lennon Imagine. Its heavily Keys oriented. But thats not a bad thing because its a gimmick, Pro Guitar, Bass & Drums. Although its more, lets say helpful to the experience of making you feel like youre actually playing instruments instead of plastic.
Space Oddity is not key-centric at all, it has 2 guitar solos ffs. If they wanted a keys Bowie song, they would have went with ‘Life On Mars’ or ‘Changes’.
‘Imagine’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ are definitely key-centric songs, but they’re both also huge and popular hits, while Bohemian Rhapsody is also there for the insane harmonies (not to mention most of Queen’s other big songs were already released as DLC at this point).
I think it’s safe to say the first Rock Band game with a keyboard had a setlist that focused mostly on songs that have keys…
I think it’s safe to say the first Rock Band game with a keyboard had a setlist that focused mostly on songs that have keys…
Well of course haha. You could say that about all of them that added new features, like Rock Band 2 was very story mode driven, Lego Rock Band was very user friendly & for younger teens/kids & Green Day & Beatles were Harmonies centered for sure.
Space Oddity is not key-centric at all, it has 2 guitar solos ffs. If they wanted a keys Bowie song, they would have went with ‘Life On Mars’ or ‘Changes’.
‘Imagine’ and ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ are definitely key-centric songs, but they’re both also huge and popular hits, while Bohemian Rhapsody is also there for the insane harmonies (not to mention most of Queen’s other big songs were already released as DLC at this point).
Well it sucks that they didnt wait to add Queen until after the keys were added but aye it happens, Queen is very popular & they did add RB3 versions of songs to add Keys. Besides Im just saying in general they have many songs that were Keys oriented, or that didnt really have much to them besides Keys.
In my opinion Harmonix has done very well choosing the songs for each game to cover a variety of opinions.
In my opinion Harmonix has done very well choosing the songs for each game to cover a variety of opinions.
Oh hell yeah they did! Guitar Hero did as well, but I believe they only did it better with World Tour, as the rest (besides Warriors of Rock (full band)) is the exception, Guitar Hero 5 wasnt bad, but Rock Band always destroyed Guitar Hero.
RB2
RB3RB1
Lego
RB4RB3 had a much better UI than any of them which is important to me. RB4 is still pretty unorganized in terms of organization of songs.
Lego didn’t do much for me.
RB2
RB3
RB1
Lego
RB4
RB3 had a much better UI than any of them which is important to me. RB4 is still pretty unorganized in terms of organization of songs.
Lego didn’t do much for me.
Oh of course, I think thats a great reason why it makes it fun to play because its not too bad on the eyes & it plays well. Sure I think that RB2 was still a more friendly interface, but RB3 still takes the cake in that instance for easy accessibility.
Modern Love is the ideal Bowie keys song, and of course, it was offered as DLC instead of being on the disk, which instead gets some quirky weird song that goes GREAT at parties [eyeroll], because like I said, they’d rather put the stuff they know you’ll pay for instead of on the disk. Case and point, Bon Jovi on 3 game setlists but not RB3. You have to pay for the upgrades and Bad Medicine.
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