2007 Called With A Pretty Good 'Rock Band' Offer
Maybe excitement around the Rock Band video game has faded, but if you were one of the holdouts who were always jealous of friends who brought the game home a couple years back, now is the time to have your latent wishes fulfilled.
Kotaku spotted a snazzy deal in which you get Rock Band 1 and 2, a guitar and drums for $80, shipping included.
Granted, your friends who probably tired of the game after a few months probably would have sold you all their Rock Band gear for $50 just to get the closet space back, but it's never too late to get into a dated fad. Now, to track down that HyperColor shirt my parents wouldn't buy me in 1992.
Maybe The Best Rock Band Deal Yet [Kotaku]
(Photo: Ubiquitous Frame)
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Comments:
Uh, Phil, this isn't just a "Pretty good offer", it's insane. The disc alone for Rock Band 2 costs $60+ tax. When I first bought the Rock Band one bundle it was nearly $170. If you don't have these games, it's worth every cent. Over 140 songs for $80? Hell yes.
Rock Band is so much fun.
*|CLAIM_I_MAKE_MY_OWN_MUSIC_AT_HOME|*
@kyle4: That is, if you enjoy pushing colored buttons on a plastic guitar.
I think Rock Band is fun, to a point. After that point, it becomes increasingly dull.
@339point4: Rock Band is also available for the PS2, so I guess it isn't included in the $79 deal. PS3 and 360 only. If I didn't already own an abundance of plastic instruments like they were Twinkies, I'd definitely jump all over this deal.
@kyle4: It is a pretty good deal, indeed. The one downside, though, is that you're getting the instruments that came with the Rock Band 1 kit, not the improved Rock Band 2 kit instruments. IMO, there's not enough of a difference in the guitars to worry about, but the drum pedal for the Rock Band 2 kit is much, *much* less prone to breaking than the original Rock Band 1 drum pedal.
Just thought I'd throw that out there.
In MY day, we didn't HAVE your "Rock Band" and "drums" and gee-tars... we had AIR gee-tar, and AIR drums and we LIKED it!
@dark_inchworm: I found the Rock Band 2 guitars to be much more responsive than the RB1 versions. Of course, the Guitar Hero guitars are better than both of them, but the RB2 guitars come close.
And "outdated fad", Phil? Seriously? We've played some version of the "play an instrument" games since Guitar Hero came out and they're still fun years later.
@osiris73: Well, consider yourself lucky. When I was your age, we didn't even have air guitars. Even music hadn't been invented yet. We just had to sit around all day and THINK about what music would sound like once someone got around to inventing it.
@339point4: I have a feeling that this includes the RB 1 & 2 software, but the Rock Band 1 hardware. Do some searching around the internet and you'll fine the RB1 hardware isn't worth its weight in feces. I bought RB1 when it first came out and went through FIVE RMA's and never managed to get hardware that worked for more than a couple hours. I eventually returned it.
DO NOT PURCHASE THIS
This is the Rock Band 1 hardware which isn't worth its weight in feces.
That * makes me nervous, since it's after the price and not the whole sentence.
The paranoid part of my brain is saying that it actually means when we run out of these specially priced supplies, we'll ship you the newer hardware and charge you for it.
@darkforcesjedi: So the past two years, I've been having no fun at all with Rock Band? Guitar wise, the only difference is a cable. And my drum pedal hasn't broken yet, 18 months later.
American Apparel brought back Hypercolor shirts....
One more reason to hate them.
Why no love for the wii? I guess I could drag my PS2 out of the closet...
Err I bought the entire RB2 kit for $79 in May. Picked up the RB 1 disc for $15. This deal is ok I guess but you get the inferior RB1 gear and I would have expected a lower price by now.
I'd say don't go for this if unless you don't care much of the drum controller. RB1 drums are loud, unless maybe you want to buy those silencers. Otherwise, RB2 drums are quieter and bouncier than the previous.
My gut feeling is that this site is legitimate, but I do wish that big companies would make things clearer when they put up spinoff sites like this one. I can't find absolute proof that this isn't a scam. [Omitted for your reading convenience: long list of reasons this site initially freaked me out.]
I sent email at rockband.com to ask whether this is a Harmonix promo, and I may buy the kit -- yeah, I've seen the comments about crummy RB1 hardware, but, I'm never gonna play on "expert" so I doubt it matters. Regardless of what Harmonix customer service says, you can bet your ass I'll use a one-time credit card if I buy this.
@Raekwon: Better yet, you could get the entire RB2 kit for $80, borrow the RB1 disc from a friend, and pay the $5 to download all of the RB1 tracks. For $85 you get all of the songs (minus Run to the Hills, Enter Sandman, and Paranoid) and the better RB2 equipment.
@osiris73: Up hill both ways in the snow with cardboard boxes for shoes, and an onion on my belt as was the fashion of the time.
A dated fad? Way to be out of touch, Consumerist.
@kexline:
This ad has been advertised on Rock Band's official forums by the actual game developers, Harmonix.
@sicknick: Still not as cool as hyper colors. I had one back in the day with parachuters on it where only the parachutes would change colors.
Pass...why don't people just buy an actual guitar and learn the songs rather than learn to press a sequence of buttons really fast...
@morganlh85:
It's getting to be the only game I play nowadays.
I especially like our devised drinking game-
your band get Five Stars? Whole band takes a shot.
Eventually you have to drop it to 95% or higher for individula players because after three or four songs the lightweights really start to suck.
Bought this a few weeks back. Came with RB1 hardware, RB1 and 2 software AND (this wasn't advertised) the AC/DC Live song pack. There is also a code on the back of both the AC/DC Live song pack and the RB2 software that allows you to download a certain number of songs for free.
@darkforcesjedi: RB1 instruments are fine and compatible with all the current gen rhythm games on their systems as someone who has owned RB1 gear and RB2 gear Rb1 is fine especially for only 79 bucks. BTW I perfer my RB1 guitar over my RB2 one. Only benefit for me is the auto calibration on the RB2 one.
@kyle4: I never really liked Rockband. Then Beatles Rockband came out. It's allegedly a much inferior game to the original recipe, but I've been playing it nonstop since 09/09/09. :P
On the other hand, I did learn all the music I guess I was supposed to have learned in high school from Rock Band, like Oasis and Weezer and such.
@nstonep: I dunno, maybe because some of us have what the robot devil would call "stupid fingers."
why do all my friends in bands like playing rockband?
@kyle4: Considering it comes with the Rock Band 1 instruments, which, as far as I am concerned, are worth negative dollars, this deal isn't really that snazzy. The two discs by themselves for $80 would be a better deal, because then you don't have to figure out how to get rid of large, annoying pieces of barely functional hardware.
@NoThru22: Agreed. The tone this article was written in got a big frowny face from me, too. I guess I'm just not hip or cool enough to grow tired of semi-expensive games that I buy just a couple of weeks after I buy them. How silly of me to continue to enjoy the product that I've already sunk my money into.
Hey, if you were looking to get Beatles Rock band (and don't care about the drums), but this, and the Beatles (game only), and you have 3 rock band games, for less than what the Beatles bundle would cost.
As far as no Wii, it looks like a clearance sale, and I think Wii had the best sales for Rock Band, so they probably don't need to rush out that product.
@dark_inchworm: Although during our last Rock Band night we managed to break our RB2 drum pedal and just had to buy a replacement. And it was only about 9 months old.
@nstonep: Yes, that's why I never got into playing Call of Duty or Counterstrike - why not just go to Iraq and actually fight terrorists?
i thought I saw this deal on Consumerist a few weeks ago. I got it for $79 w/o shipping. Rock Band 1, 2 and the AC/DC track pack with all of the instruments. Was skeptical but I swear it's legit. At least the site I got it from. Something like rockband79.com.
I'm hoping this happens to Beatles Rock Band after the hooplah dies down a bit. I would love to play it, but I don't want to fork over $100+ for a game that I want purely because the Beatles-Obsessed High Schooler in me demands I play it.
It's kind of hard to tell if this article is trying to be sarcastic or what. I don't recall these games being much of a "fad" in the sense that Pogs or whatever were. Let's also not forget that they're still making Rock Band games and just released a new one a couple months ago.
Some "fad." What's next on the list of dead fads that weren't actually fads and aren't actually dead? House? Skinny jeans?
@kyle4: Actually I'd wager good money that this is for the Rock Band 1 guitar/drum set, and while the guitar isn't too bad (mine broke after only 4 hours, which isn't too bad), but the drums are HORRID pieces of junk. The drums are so loud you have to blast the stereo to even hear the game, and half the time the pads don't correctly register hits. I'm guessing EA couldn't give those things away now a days.
If you're really wanting to get into Rock band, save your cash, get a RB2 or RB: Beatles set.
It says $79* and the * leads to "For Xbox and PS3 Only while supplies last."
I'm not sure how to take that. The statement doesn't seem astrisk-worthy, but maybe they charge more once they run out of the specially-priced stock?