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Rock Band is a video game that comes in a box the size of a large cat carrier or a small steamer trunk. This is because along with the usual game disc, Rock Band comes with a collection of plastic musical instruments: a guitar, a drum kit and a bass (which looks exactly like the guitar), plus a microphone for vocals. Using these "instruments," you pretend to play along to songs by Nirvana, the Rolling Stones, Metallica, Radiohead, R.E.M. and so on. You're not actually playing--the instruments don't make any noise. The fun is real, but everything...
...most ambitious entry in the genre of music-based video games, and retailers can't keep it on the shelves, even at $170 a pop. "We can't make 'em fast enough at this point," says Alex Rigopulos, CEO of Harmonix, which developed Rock Band as well as two Guitar Hero games. It would be easy to dismiss Rock Band as a fad or just a game, but there's something more to it. Besides being insanely fun, music-based games like Rock Band may actually be important. Consider these five reasons while I take another crack at the drums...
...same old-same old - visionary artist struggles successfully to realize his particular vision, gets famous, gets laid, gets in trouble with the whole celebrity thing, tries to escape the demands of his exigent fans (wow, do they hate it when he turns from the acoustic to the electric guitar at the movie's version of the Newport Jazz Festival shocker), ends up sort of beloved, sort of intact, but sort of unfulfilled...
...Nintendo's Wii and PlayStation 3 were big last year, which means not as many will show up on Christmas lists this year - though lower priced games for the consoles will. We have no shearling boot craze or jean shortages. Instead, lower ticket items like the popular video game Guitar Hero III and Barbie Girls MP3 Players are big, and accessories such as handbags will do well. Dave Sievers from Archstone Consulting predicts a $7 billion increase in gift cards this season, reaching $35 billion, compared to the $28 billion spent on them last year. Likewise, online shopping continues...
...during the otherwise-decent “Try It Again” is like finding a finger in your chili. It kind of ruins the experience. But the worst song, by far, is the Pharrell-produced “T.H.E.H.I.V.E.S.,” which features a one-note guitar line and frontman Holwin’ Pelle Almqvist pretentiously crooning, “We rule the world.” The song’s chorus, unsurprisingly, features a voice spelling out the band’s name. It’s an awful impersonation of “Idiot?...