Wii Warm Up: Rock Band, you don't have to put on that red light
by Candace Savino 
{ May 17th 2008 at 10:30AM }
It's no surprise that many Wii gamers are a bit miffed at Rock Band's appearance on the Wii. While originally cause for celebration, once finding out that many of the features were going to be cut, all hell broke loose.The one thing that sounded like it might be somewhat of a saving grace were the five "bonus" songs. If these songs were exclusive to the Wii (and super awesome), the game might at least have stirred some jealousy in PS3 and 360 Rock Band owners. It then turned out, though, that the songs were nothing more than PS3 and 360 DLC offerings.
Our question: if those songs were exclusive to the Wii, might that have gained your favor a little bit? Are there any five songs -- perhaps Nintendo related ones -- that would tempt you to get the Wii version instead? Or, is the lack of other features (online play, downloadable content) a total deal-breaker for you?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Lord Bowser @ May 17th 2008 10:36AM
There's no recorders in Rock Band.
FantomRedux @ May 17th 2008 10:40AM
Give us Nintendo themes for download and onine play and I'll be happy. GH3 should've had a free downloadable song á la the 360's Halo 3 MJOLNIR mix. Like a Mario Mushroom mix maybe?
vidGuy @ May 17th 2008 10:58AM
I have the 360 version and I don't think I could do without DLC. Yeah, it's leaking more money out of my pocket for an already expensive game, but it gives RB even more longevity and there are some great tunes that didn't make it into the core game.
While the ability to customize characters isn't a huge deal in this game, it does add a neat feature over the likes of Guitar Hero. I'd miss that in the Wii version, too.
Casey @ May 17th 2008 11:03AM
If you want to be pro-active. Contact Harmonix at feedback@harmonixmusic.com
Just let them know that you're disappointed by their sub-standard port onto the best selling system around. Be polite, be informative. We'll get something done about this.
Roto13 @ May 17th 2008 11:04AM
Even if it had DLC, it would still be a gimped version, and I still wouldn't buy it.
Also, five exclusive songs is nothing next to the exclusive songs the PS3 and 360 versions get every single week through DLC.
phantomexe @ May 17th 2008 11:17AM
Do a story on the fps The Conduit christ this is a fanboy site and still it never makes news here its a wii only game guys go to n4g.com and check it out they got a video of it very cool.
Rich @ May 17th 2008 11:29AM
I play Rock Band at my cousins' place and they don't play online or buy DLC. So basically they just play it Guitar Hero style. The problem I have with the Wii version is that it's priced the same as the PS3/360 versions. If it was priced accordingly for a gimped version, then I would strongly consider getting it. Also, they had a huge chance of integrating the Wiimote and they did nothing. So I'll pass on this one. Maybe Rock Band 2 will fix things. But by then, I may already have bought Rock Band for PS3 (getting a PS3 when MGS4 comes out).
Charles @ May 17th 2008 11:32AM
DLC is the only deal breaker in a game like this. It's expensive, very expensive and thus I want it to last for a very long time which can only be made possible by DLC...
nytestalker @ May 17th 2008 12:09PM
gh4 > rock band.
And its not gonna be gimped.
Nini @ May 17th 2008 12:51PM
I don't see the point of buying a Wii version if I just pay a little bit more and get a much more robust offering on the Xbox :\.
And even so...5 songs? That's not very much. I don't know, even if the 5 songs were exclusive, it wouldn't give the Wii owners much over the PS3 and Xbox owners. They could just say "well you guys have 5 exclusive, we have 30! Ahahah!". Or something D:
Really, the Wii version needs something to differentiate it from the rest. But I don't think that type of effort is going to be put into it. Oh well. :\
Beelzebozo @ May 17th 2008 1:10PM
No Rush songs, no sale.
Seriously though, not having DLC or online play (or customizable characters, etc.) is a deal-breaker that could not be salvaged by a few exclusive tracks. And I think it's insulting that the didn't even, at the very least, discount this gimped out bundle. Asking Wii owners to pay the same $170 for half the game is a slap in the mouth.
Marcelo @ May 17th 2008 1:36PM
No DLC, no sale. I don't care about online play or character customization. But Guitar Hero got boring after I ran through most of the songs. And now I'm supposed to fork out even more money for another bunch of songs that will get old after a while?
Shoot, I can't even play Still Alive.
Ian @ May 17th 2008 2:26PM
The only way I'll buy it is if they get their act together and make the GH3 controller work for it. I'm not going to have two guitars sitting around when I could just have one. In the case of the Wii controller, they can't push it off on Activision.
Online play would tempt me, though. The most use I get out of GH3 nowadays is playing online with my father, and the songs are starting to get stale.
LeChuck @ May 17th 2008 3:16PM
I'm wondering what GH4 and Rock Rev will do in the way of DLC on Wii. GH4 has the custom track sharing which they said will be in the Wii version but won't be "as robust" whatever that means. If the memory limitations are the only thing in the way hopefully Nintendo will get their solution ready in time to be added to these games or RB2.
Hafk @ May 17th 2008 3:39PM
I think that is the only problem with Wii GH3. Even still, you only have such a small memory to begin with. The Wii does not ship with a hard drive, and it is easy to assume by the end of this year not everyone will have one (if it is made, of course).
In order for the Wii to get the good package, Nintendo needs to fess up NOW and tell us and/or Neversoft so that we can have the good music sharing.
Since we will be having music sharing, do you believe that we will also get DLC? I see it quite possible. If FCCC:MLAK has DLC, I really want to see the next boxart for GHIV have some "red" in that upper-left hand corner.
And besides, it looks like Nintendo is willing to work with Activision and gang, because you can buy a Guitar Hero + DS bundle this summer.
Which isn't suprising. Alot of Wii owners have GH3. Hell, the Wii version of GH3 is STILL in the top ten for this month!
Phil @ May 17th 2008 5:26PM
DLC is a dealbreaker for me. The only dealbreaker. I can deal with the other issues.
It's not even the money, for me. It's the ridiculous waste of resources for a pile of plastic clutter that will be obsolete as soon as I get bored of the songs.
It's bad for my living room and bad for the environment. Without DLC it becomes a bunch of disposable crap quickly.
Sorry, Rock Band. I don't have another system and I wanted you badly... but not on the terms you're offering. I'll wait for someone to come along with a better product.
bbelt @ May 18th 2008 1:48AM
no character creation + no online play + no dlc + no gh3 guitar compatibility = no sale.
gh3 was also farmed out to other developers for the wii version, but vicarious vision put some effort forth and made a good game. Pi studios made the ps2 version, transferred it to the wii, and called it a day. Obviously both versions were an afterthought, with the main focus on ps360, but if you put forth time resources and effort to make a good product ill buy it. thats why i bought gh3 for the wii and why i will not be buying rock band wii.