One liner: Keyboard + plus a six-string = you may be able to play for real now!

By now, after a few years and 250 versions of Guitar Hero, we’ve become somewhat numb to the music game genre. We’ve strummed the fret enough. We’ve smashed the drum pad millions of times. We’ve even strained our voices. Harmonix, on the other hand, hasn’t grown tired of their genre. Instead, they’ve only become more and more excited and SmashPad got to reap the benefits of that on the E3 floor. And what we’ve come away with: keyboards are slick and we really want to start strumming a real guitar.

A real guitar? Yeah, a legitimate, full-sized Fender Squire Strat with some built-in tech. Although demos weren’t available, we were shown how it works on the Rock Band stage. When plugged into your system, the game recognizes the instrument it shows you six strings instead of colored frets. With the built-in technology, the game knows where your fingers are at all times and seems to track them incredibly well. To help improve the realism, Harmonix has revamped the tutorials for the Pro Instrument (developed by Mad Catz) to help you learn to really play a guitar.

As mentioned, hands-on demos of the Squire weren’t readily available, so we can’t tell you whether or not it’s awkward to use. But being able to start on easy with a real guitar certainly sounds promising. And once you get going, all you have to plug the guitar into an amp and shred away. Value!

However, we did get some time with new keyboard. Or keytar, if you will. It’s a mini-keyboard shaped so you can hold it like a guitar. There are 25 keys available, but you can narrow it down to five. Essentially, it’s in two flavors: colors and Pro. Pro enables the use of all 25 keys. On screen, you’ll only be able to see five at a time, so when you’re in Pro mode, the keys will shift so you’ll know which ones to be hitting. Confusing? Yeah, but it’s something that can be adjusted to with a little practice. With the color keys, there are markings on the middle keys to help guide you. The oddest thing about the keyboard is the Overdrive button. We used the board on a stand, so the button wasn’t exactly easily accessible. It takes a bit of adjusting to, but it’s definitely going to throw you off at first. If you would rather (or simply can’t afford the keyboards at first), you’ll be able use the guitar for the colored version.

Rock Band 3 goes beyond adding new instrument types. The menu has been completely overhauled so it streamlines the entire experience, essentially creating what Harmonix is considering a 3-in-1 game. With fluent drop-in, drop-out modes, you won’t have completely stop playing to adjust players. You’ll even be able to go into a party mode and just keep playing new songs until you’re satisfied. On the other end of the spectrum, you’ll be able to dive into a full-game career mode, where everything you do (from tutorials to concerts) will boost your career. In between, you’ll be able to play a couple hours worth of a Rock Band story mode and essentially have beaten the game. It covers a lot of ground without complicating things.

Speaking of covering a lot of ground, Rock Band 3 will be loaded with 83 diverse tracks. Included in the demo were Metric’s “Combat Baby”, The Doors’ “Break On Through”, Joan Jett’s “I Love Rock and Roll”, Ozzy Osbourne’s “Crazy Train” and The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven”. Oh, and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”, as it was meant to be played with keyboards and three-part harmonies (as ported from Beatles: Rock Band). Because of the harmonies and keyboards, you’ll be able to rock out with as many as seven players on a single system. And Harmonix is expected to have 2000 available songs by launch, between DLC and imported tracks. Talk about a party.

Also included for the game are added features to customize your experience. Have you been playing Dani California way too much? Send it back to the farm! You’ll be able to rate songs and let the game know which ones you like playing and which ones you don’t. And since there may be a lot of songs to scroll through, a new filtering system lets you narrow the list according to genre, length, decade and so on. You’ll also be able to create set lists on the Rock Band Web site and have them load up with game when you go back on. Facebook and Twitter integration will let you upload sets lists to challenge your friends with.

So are we getting a little closer to a legitimate music experience? It appears so. But at the same time, it’s also being kept simple for the more casual fans. Though when you pick up that guitar or those drum sticks, it kind of gets you thinking of what you can do with the real stuff. Rock Band 3 will be available this holiday season for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

Use Facebook to Comment on this Post

Related posts:

1. Review: Rock Band 3 (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)
2. Preview: LEGO Rock Band (X360, PS3, Wii, DS)
3. Country Music Diversifies Rock Band; Harmonix Should Tap Community
4. E3 2009: The Beatles: Rock Band Preview (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii)
5. Rock Band 3 and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Setlists Revealed

Share This Post: