I don’t go home for Thanksgiving. Ever. It’s not a holiday I like, it’s not something I can afford, and I’d rather save my travel time and money for the one just around the corner where people give me things. So while my girlfriend goes home to ever-hoppin’ Huntsville to see her family, I stay in New York and carefully plan out the four-day weekend to ensure I leave the house as little as possible, thus ensuring I don’t run afoul of any parade floats or Black Friday sales. The careful plans hinge upon the one-two punch of buying enough bourbon early and having something new to play with – last year it was the just-released Wii and a handful of games, this year it was Rock Band, the latest from music games savants Harmonix, makers of Guitar Hero 1, 2, and Encore.

Rock Band is just what it sounds like – picking up the big box version gets you a guitar controller, a microphone, and a drum kit. Throw in another guitar controller for whoever’s playing bass and you have a four-piece band that can all play together in the game’s World Tour mode. I’ll save the comparisons between Rock Band and new standard bearer Neversoft’s Guitar Hero 3 for another post, as wordpress has a vitrol cap for each entry and I want to keep this one under the wire. Suffice for now to say Harmonix’s newest bundle of joy is the only music game you need this year, or probably any other. It’s guitar parts and career mode (guitar, vocals, and drums each have their own solo version of play) along are a better sequel to the previous Guitar Heroes than the most recent official installment, and that’s before you even turn on any of the other instruments.

Playing it with friends – the way god intended – is another experience entirely. Thursday and Friday saw Gallaher, Val, and Gregg came over to create our Thanksgiving-themed bands (named All Tomorrow’s Sandwiches and The Black Fridays, for those wondering). While my drum set wasn’t so much with the working, we managed to spend hours touring Europe while swapping up duties on the other three instruments. One of the best parts of playing with friends – particularly friends with no prior experience rocking out with toy guitars – is watching everybody find their particular strength. Val, for instance, is great on bass (and busting out ‘Sabotage’ when need be) while David handles vocals with aplomb and was the only one who could get the largely broken drums to behave themselves. Gregg stuck to the bass, but somewhere out there is the right amount of Maker’s Mark to get him to pick up the microphone. I suppose there’s always next time.

Rock Band is so damn near perfect that even with a broken drum kit it’s clear that this is everything Harmonix has be building towards since they began making music games. The heads of the company have stated over and over again throughout the years that their ultimate goal is to help people experience their muisc in a new way. Rock Band is that new way, an experience so steeped in cooperation and hanving fun together that no other multiplayer game can really complete. You can compete against each other just as easily, but where’s the lasting fun in that? Give me a band instead, give me four reasonably tipsy friends with plastic instruments and a good sense of humor and I’ll show you the future of co-op gameplay.

More later, including the end of Mario Galaxy and a return trip to Rapture.

Filed under: Game Reviews, Rock Band