Rock Band: AC/DC Live Song Pack (Wii)

...earlier Singstar and Guitar Hero, Rock Band was one of the most successful playalong games of the past couple of years. Where previous games let you do vocals and guitar respectively, Rock Band lets you do both and you can have a go on the drums too. It's a ludicrously expensive game if you want to get the most out of it. A full set of instruments costs around £90, and the game another £30; you could almost buy an Xbox 360 for that, and you might ...
...the defining bands or heavy rock that have sold hundreds of millions of albums over the past three decades or so. Chance are you'll either already love them or hate them and that'll be a decisive factor in whether you'll want to give this game a shot or not. This version stands alone, albeit in a rather bare bones fashion with no tournament or online play, so you don't need the original. You will, however, need the instruments.


... more

Taking its inspiration from the earlier Singstar and Guitar Hero, Rock Band was one of the most successful playalong games of the past couple of years. Where previous games let you do vocals and guitar respectively, Rock Band lets you do both and you can have a go on the drums too. It's a ludicrously expensive game if you want to get the most out of it. A full set of instruments costs around £90, and the game another £30; you could almost buy an Xbox 360 for that, and you might well want to given that the Wii version is rather cut down. Given that the more recent editions of Guitar Hero offer a similar experience, with mutually incompatible equipment, it can be an expensive business if you're into these kinds of games.

AC/DC don't need much of an introduction, being one of the defining bands or heavy rock that have sold hundreds of millions of albums over the past three decades or so. Chance are you'll either already love them or hate them and that'll be a decisive factor in whether you'll want to give this game a shot or not. This version stands alone, albeit in a rather bare bones fashion with no tournament or online play, so you don't need the original. You will, however, need the instruments.

Anyway, here's the obligatory tracklisting:
Thunderstruck
Shoot to Thrill
Back in Black
Hell Ain't a Bad Place to Be
Heatseeker
Fire Your Guns
Jailbreak
The Jack
Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
Whole Lotta Rosie
You Shook Me All Night Long
T.N.T.
Let There Be Rock
Highway To Hell
For Those About to Rock (We Salute You)
Moneytalks
Hells Bells

Whilst seminal tracks like You Shook Me All Night Long and Back In Black will be familiar to even the most casual listener of rock music, these are mostly fan favourites that aren't going to appeal too much beyond fans of the group. All the songs are performed live with Brian Johnson on lead vocals, which is a bit of a disappointment given that many of them would be more associated with the late Bon Scott. The vocal tracks are also rock hard to perform with much high pitch screeching and rapid-fire vocals required, although I've a feeling that fans of Johnson will relish the challenge. Surprisingly, the guitar tracks seem relatively easy which might disappoint the Angus Young fans out there. Drumming to an AC/DC track is never going to be a complex affair either.

There's a disappointing lack of AC/DC characters, which is a bit of a shame as Johnson and Young in particular are both very distinctive on stage and they definitely missed a trick with merely the standard ones singing and playing the music. Graphically, it is still good though with the usual flare you'd expect from a Rock Band game. The Audio is superb, as you'd expect; nothing less than CD quality.

Unlike the 360 and PS3 versions, the Wii cannot export these tracks to the forthcoming Rock Band 2 which is unfortunate as you won't be able to benefit from improvements to the game engine in future versions, as well as the tournament or online modes. Given that the Wii has already got the raw end of the franchise, that's all the more reason to consider another console if you must have this game. Alternatively, if you're not that big on AC/DC, you might just prefer to go for one of the recent versions of Guitar Hero where the Wii isn't so much the poor relation.

In summary, it's a package that will likely only appeal to the hardcore AC/DC fan. Still, given the millions of albums they've sold over the past thirty-odd, I'm sure there are plenty of those around.

(Also reviewed on Ciao.com as Phantom_Wombat) 

...less