It’s a long dormant battle that’s all set to reignite this year, but I’d like to put it to you: which did you prefer back in the day? Rock Band or Guitar Hero?
Personally, I spent a lot more time playing Rock Band, mainly due to the Rock Band store, but the history of Rock Band in Australia is a complicated one. Technically the second game never even had a release here. So I’m guessing Guitar Hero is more popular in Australia than, say, the US or Europe.
But I’ll put that hypothesis to the test: Rock Band or Guitar Hero? Which is it?
Comments
30 responses to “The Big Question: Guitar Hero Or Rock Band?”
Rock band. For me at least I liked their sound track in the core game more, the store just made it better
Yeah for me it’s definitely about the songs. Guitar Hero focusses too much on that hair metal, classic rock, prog rock genre that might be interesting to play on guitar but the songs do nothing for me. I liked Rock Band’s focus on the band and realising a good song is more than just a riff, it’s all the instruments coming together to create a whole.
More modern bands, more classics that aren’t just from American 70’s and 80’s, more pop songs. Sometimes a simple riff that’s iconic is more fun to play than a brutal solo that simply exists to challenge you (Dragonforce). These games, ultimately, are about fun, and friends having fun together. Your girlfriend is less likely to enjoy Metallica and as a result the game is going to be put away quicker if there’s not a varied selection that everyone can enjoy.
Rock Band and by a considerable margin.
The most important thing about these titles are the songs. Rock Band had the best selection and being able to transfer tracks between titles was great. On top of that, The Beatles: Rock Band is by far the best title in the genre.
When it comes to the gameplay, I prefer Rock Band to Guitar Hero. The two games have a different approach to note charts and the way Rock Band handled things made better sense to me than Guitar Hero.
All down to preference but I’m pretty adamant about mine.
“The Beatles: Rock Band is by far the best title in the genre. ”
Absolutely! The instruments that came with the pack were great too. Love my Hofner RB bass. 🙂
And yeah, RB’s DLC was much better especially since you could play it with later versions of the game. Each disc based Guitar Hero release always struck me as a shameless money grabber.
I guess that depends what you like.
The Beatles: Rockband is the only Rockband/Guitar Hero game that never interested me.
I’m still bitter that Harmonix spun some lie about not being able to import Beatles songs in Rock Band 2 and 3 because the Beatles game had harmonies which weren’t supported in Rock Band 2. But Rock Band Green Day had exactly the same harmonies system and you could import all of that into RB3!
I understand “licensing” and all that; but I wish they’d admitted that rather than spinning the lie they did. It meant I never really played any of the Beatles stuff when RB3 came out; because if I wanted to play a single Beatles song I’d need to swap discs.
One thing that’s always irked me, is how Harmonix doesn’t seem to want Rock Band in this country, hopefully they’ll remedy that with RB4.
For me it used to be Guitar Hero until Rock Band got released and I imported it before it came out here, and although I have enjoyed most Guitar Hero games, there’s just something about RB that draws me to it, the absolutely massive list of DLC tracks and backwards compatibility of instruments sure helps.
So yeah, RB for me.
Fairly easy choice if you have a wiiU
thankyou Rockband for ignoring me 🙁
I used to like both of them. They both had strengths and weaknesses and I didn’t gravitate towards one or the other specifically.
As a real life drummer though, I really disliked the implementation of the drums in RB, I much preferred GH’s approach to drums.
I haven’t played either of them in a long time now though.
Amplitude!
Did you back the Kickstarter for the remake?
No.
See, I preferred Guitar Hero, but that was purely because of cost. I couldn’t afford broadband, so Guitar Hero’s disc-based distribution worked better. I couldn’t afford a set of pro drums, so Guitar Hero’s stock set gave a better experience. Guitar Hero had GH:Metallica, which I entirely preferred over AC/DC, Greenday, or Beatles.
If I’d had a decent job and some spare money floating around, enough to go all-out with Rock Band, I’d probably have checked the other box above. And for what it’s worth, RB4 is waaaay more appealing to me than GH: Live.
Guitar Hero instruments and Rock Band game.
Lugged several guitars and drums around for 5 moves, then I sold the lot once I stopped moving and got my own house, because all that plastic crap was then taking up my space.
I preferred Rock Band.
Rock Band.
Still play Beatles Rock Band with the kids, they always found the drums more fun than Guitar, and we all get to play together with the younger ones on vocals.
Only got to play Guitar Hero. The new one I don’t like the look of at all. I just wanna play rock and heavy metal songs ;-;
Rock Band. Fun fun times. DLC support was amazing.
Guitar Freaks :3
Guitar Hero 3 got me in, but Rock Band was the real deal. The more gimmicky GH got, the more I loved Rock Band. Unfortunately my friends were all GH fans, so didn’t get many multiplayer sessions.
Rock Band. The library of songs is amazing; it’s challenging, it’s fun, and I’ve been introduced to some of my now favourite bands by playing songs from the Rock Band Network. I also much prefer the RB drums, though I can’t say anything about the guitar as I’ve only ever had GH ones.
Having said that, Guitar Hero is still pretty fun every now and then, and while everyone seems to be pissed bout Guitar Hero Live, I for one am intrigued and eager to try it out. Plus, Alter Bridge’s Cry of Achilles is in it – you can’t go wrong with Alter Bridge.
Rock band, with Guitar Hero guitars. RB just has a better approach to their note tracks. When you play the same song on GH and then on RB, it just feels more natural on RB. Add to that that if a lead track is simple, RB will just let it be simple, even on expert. GH has a bad habit of using deliberately tricky fingerings or even adding notes that just aren’t in the song. That doesn’t make it fun-challenging, just annoying.
I used to play both with the kids. We used Guitar Hero instruments for both game series’. GH3 was my favourite – Through the Fire and Flames was especially challenging to play (aced it on normal!) while the kids loved LEGO Rock Band.
For the new releases I’m leaning towards Rock Band, if only for the tracklist. As much as I like dubstep I cannot fathom how they think a Skrillex track will work in Guitar Hero!
I may likely end up getting both, but only if the instruments from one will work with the other just like before as I can’t afford two sets!
EDIT: seems like the new instruments won’t be cross-compatible due to the new Guitar Hero controller having 6 buttons instead of 5 and being guitar only; no drums or mic.
Guess I’m going with Rock Band then since it will be compatible with all past RB & GH instruments!
Guitar hero simply because its what we had in my family back then i honest didn’t even know rock band existed.
Rock band!
I started out on Guitar Hero, but have never liked what I’ve played of Rock Band.
NEITHER! Rocksmith 2014 FTW!!
NONE!
GitaDora 4 LIFE DESU!
Rock Band FTW because they had The Replacements’ “Alex Chilton” as DLC.
Rock Band. Started on Guitar Hero, owned and played the entire series, during which I also started Rock Band. Rock Band is the only one that I go back to.
+1 for RockSmith.
I’m intrigued by the new Guitar Hero – but just like last gen – backwards compatible DLC means Rock Band wins for me.
Was more into GH at first – but not being able to play any of my GH2,3 or Greatest Hits Songs in GH4 onwards sort of killed it for me.
Rock Band – pretty much every song from every disc I’ve bought (RB1,2, Lego RB, ACDC RB) – excluding Beatles RB – and nearly every song I bought from RB1 onwards is playable in RB3. I’m sure it’ll take a while for the full library to come over from RB3 (and I’m still not sure whether it will include the RB1/2/3 base exported song libraries as well, or just the paid DLC) – but any number of songs carrying over higher than zero is better that what GH Live is offering.
Also – drums. Though that new RB4 Mad Catz Kit looks horrible. 2015 and still no elevated cymbals as standard? Gah. Band Hero had the best drum kit of the lot. Sell me a next gen version of that, or at least a new bass drum pedal as mine is pretty much destroyed.