Okay, let me back up a second.

In case you didn’t know, Rock Band 2 has been released on the Xbox 360 (they have a month exclusive before the PS3 and Wii get it) and the amazing folks at Reverb Communications and MTV Games sent over the game, the new wireless guitar and the new wireless drum set.

While I’m super appreciative of being sent these items for review, I unfortunately have to report that the wireless guitar had an issue.

The top of the guitar – where the buttons are – was broken. If you pushed the 3^rd and 4^th buttons together, it activated the 2^nd button as well, so you couldn’t play certain notes. The bottom section of the guitar worked fine, so we were able to use it, but since the top had issues, we all discussed if this would be another major defect like last year’s guitar or if this was an isolated incident. Thankfully, I spoke with tech support today, and they say my issue is the first one that’s been reported and they’ve sent me a new one. In case you didn’t know…the tech support for Rock Band is amazing. Just like last year…it took me about 30 seconds to get a human on the phone and they dealt with my problem in less than 2 minutes.

Moving on…

After using the new guitar and new drumset…I was VERY impressed. Both items are wireless – which makes it much easier to walk around the room and not trip over cords. But more than that….the new drum set has a heavier petal, which makes it easier to use. And the new guitar feels superior and is easier to go up and down on, so you can hit the buttons with less resistance. While I wouldn’t say you have to buy the new instruments, if you did, you’d think it was a good investment.

But who cares about new instruments if the game is no good. Thankfully, you don’t have to worry, as Rock Band 2 kicks even more ass than Rock Band 1.

The thing to know is…Rock Band 2 isn’t so much a sequel as a reboot of the original game. I’d rather call Rock Band 2…Rock Band 1.5.

The reason is the gameplay is the same…but they’ve fixed anything and everything that could be tweaked to make it better. Instead of having to play the same character in the band, characters can rotate to play any instrument. Also, the game has a better online mode, with tons of great options for bands. While it might be too much for a casual player, for people that play all the time and are constantly looking for new challenges, the new online stuff is great as it’s updated everyday and you can challenge people all around the world.

But easily the best change is the no fail mode option.

Many times I’ve played the game at a party, or with friends that have never played, and they struggle to get the hang of playing the guitar or the drum set. With no fail mode, you can’t be booed off stage. This is a great way for new players to learn the game and not feel intimidated that they’ll ruin it for everyone. Also, it lets people learn to play a higher difficulty with no risk to the rest of the band. Basically…it’s a genius new feature that I wish was in the first game.

The only negative thing I can say about the game is….to be able to play all the new songs, you have to play the tour. Or use a cheat code to open them up. I think it’d have been better to have a mode where all the songs are open and you can just play…but it doesn’t let that carry over to tour mode. Because a lot of people play Rock Band at parties, and being limited to under 30 songs kind of sucks. But if this is the worst criticism of your game…you’re doing pretty good!

Even though I’ve rambled on and on about the game and the good and the bad…I haven’t said the most important thing – Rock Band 2 is one of the best games available on any console or any system. It’s quite simply a MUST OWN title. The game improves on everything that wasn’t perfect in the first and it offers 84 new songs and additions for a very reasonable price. Also, if you already own the instruments, you only have to buy the new game and you can import all your downloaded songs and all the songs from the first game for $5 dollars. That’s beyond reasonable.

But more than anything, Rock Band 2 is such a great game because it allows people to play something together and work as a team. Games that you play on your own get boring and very repetitive. Rock Band 2 offers 4 minute blasts of fun that can be extended to all day parties and all night jam sessions. The game never gets old as new people can take over and start to play, and the game offers new songs every week to keep the addicted gamers happy.

Congrats to Reverb Communications and MTV Games for making such a kick ass product. Now if you could only get Weezer’s Pinkerton as a full album download…all would be complete in the Rock Band world.

Here are a few words from Nico.

ROCK BAND 2 -- Thoughts by Nico

Simply put -- I love this game.  Rock Band is fun and it’s a gateway game – people who normally don’t like to play video games can’t deny its playable nature.  With the release of Rock Band 2, they go and add a much improved bass pedal for the drum kit, make it wireless so pesky friends don’t trip over the cord and there’s the new song catalogue.  In addition to this, I thought the interface for separating music was great.  You can divide by Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and downloads, genre and decade, as well as name.

Funny story.  I was recently at a party at a friend’s house (yes, I step away from the keyboard periodically).  They had a recording studio set up in their garage – a real recording studio replete with a real drum set.  Two of the ladyfolk at the party started to take turns on the drums.  They kept a steady beat.  I asked one of their boyfriends how long they’d been playing and he responded, “oh, they just play Rock Band… a lot…”

Bringing men and women together through games…

Teaching the masses the joys of musicality…

Rock Band should get a Nobel Prize in gaming and they improve upon it with the release of Rock Band 2.

The moment I have spare cash, I’m going to get this upgrade to an already fun game.