Day Late, Dollar Short

Rock Band is finally headed to the Wii! Surely, this should be cause for celebration amongst Wii owners everywhere…right? Wrong. As with much Wii news of late, the Rock Band announcement left me feeling quite disappointed.

First of all, there is no DLC whatsoever. Harmonix states in the article that they “wanted to wait before we explored online functionality for Rock Band,” but since Wii games can not be updated or patched in any way, this effectively means no DLC until Rock Band 2, if there ever is one. Oh, but of course the Wii version comes with five bonus songs not found in the 360 or PS3 version! Why not make it 20 bonus songs? Why not 40? If you can’t give Wii owners DLC, give them DLC that’s already been released for the 360 and PS3, but put it right on the disc! These songs are already finished, and since there will be no Wii DLC revenue, putting more songs on the game disc does nothing but increase value of the game with no extra cost to Harmonix. And surely the disc has the space because “there will be no character creator.” Nope, you can’t even use your Miis. So there will be no money, no shop, and only pre-rendered background videos like in the PS2 version.

Are you Wii owners ready to suck it up and get the 360 version yet? If you aren’t yet, maybe the fact that you can’t use your Guitar Hero III guitar with Rock Band will change your mind. True, this is Activision’s fault, but being forced to use the Stratocaster when you have a great wireless Les Paul sitting right there is just no fun. I also enjoy that in response to the question about changes to the peripherals, Harmonix mentioned the white drums. While Harmonix is changing the drums, improving their accuracy and functionality should be the main focus over changing the color scheme.

Last but not least, the game only runs in 480p, which is, of course, the maximum resolution of the Wii. After playing in 1080p, though, any game just looks awful in 480. So, as with pretty much any game that has been released on multiple platforms, there is no reason to get the Wii version.

I have been a Nintendo fan for a very long time now, and I admire and respect Nintendo’s commitment to innovation. There comes a time, however, when a company must not only innovate, but also keep up with other trends. The crippled Wii version of Rock Band is not entirely Harmonix’s fault; much of the blame lies with Nintendo and their refusal to adopt what should be standard features, such as a robust online network and internal hard drive. I’m just happier every day that I bought a 360 in addition to my Wii.