Jared Rea

Honestly, what do you think I said about Rock Band 2? Somehow, I managed to withhold my, “zomg game of the forever!!1″ comments for this Escapist review.

For the kings of rhythm gaming, is this sequel enough to satiate those who have surrendered their bank accounts in the name of downloadable content while being inviting enough for those on the fence between these near $200 dollar sequels? Hell yes, it is.

I’d like to offer a small addendum: when I wrote this review, the merchandise creation tool was nowhere in sight. This has since changed along with the photo tool, as seen on my Flickr. The Rock Band website is still not particularly functional, but at least it’s coming along.

Everyone loves to hate lists and so when the GameTap elders asked me to put together one for the greatest rhythm games of all time, I decided to take it seriously. I joked that in my quest for the definitive list, I had assembled the “Council of Elrond” of rhythm gaming afficinados. Between the lot of us, we could boast nearly 60 years of play and knowledge of this single, young genre.

Shit got real and for the most part, people really appreciated it, though tons of people disagreed. Most of the outrage was over the lack of PaRappa the Rapper, which I can understand, but if you’re going for quality something like that really can’t make the cut regardless of how much I adore it myself. And for however controversial it was to hand the top honor to Rock Band only a month after its release, I stand by it, only I’d like to attach the number two.

For the record, I fought like hell to keep Bust a Move off the list, only because I think nostalgia is a bitch. Still, in the end, everyone agreed that it deserved a spot on the list, a low one at that.

I’m tossing this back online as my Pop’n Music relapse has reminded me of it and also because GameTap no longer exists, so neither does this article. The name “No Doubt, Get Loud!” is a reference to a Beatmania IIDX track, but really, it was just me giving the middle finger to Google for the sake of something catchy. Onwards!

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