By the end of 2007, the rhythm gaming market had changed. The fast success of Guitar Hero in two years not only made it a monolith in the rhythm space, but as early as 2006, developer Harmonix was already thinking about the next innovation. The fast success of Guitar Hero strapped a rocket to developer Harmonix in 2005, giving them some cachet to explore the idea of a drum peripheral. While working on Guitar Hero 2, there were already test plans for something new, something more innovative: a full band rhythm game.
As early as February of 2006, Harmonix was contracting work on creating new peripherals, including a plastic drum kit, with one main goal in mind: a full-on band rhythm game. Things, however, moved super fast that year. In June, Red Octane was purchased by Activision, leaving Harmonix without their main publishing partner. They were still contracted with Red Octane, but technically that contract can be voided by Activision as they see fit.
Activision at first had no plans for that, but by September of 2006 their hand would be forced when MTV came into the picture. MTV in the mid 2000's was mostly a shell of its original intent of focusing wholly on music videos on television, though their diversified portfolio containing original programming, animation, and music shows was still strong enough to give them some capital. At the time, MTV's parent company, Viacom, was entering the gaming market when they saw the prime opportunity to purchase Harmonix.
The move makes sense: an already established developer based in a rhythm-game space, with a massive success under their belts and plans for something new. MTV solidified the purchase by giving Harmonix the runway to develop their major project, spending close to $200 million on what would eventually become Rock Band.
Rock Band was essentially developed in twenty months, with the peripherals in testing for most of that, and with the windfall of cash and a lot riding on the success of this new game, Harmonix had a lot to prove to show they could handle multiple instruments at once in one game. They also had the challenge of now differentiating their identity from Guitar Hero, something that was always going to be an inevitable comparison. What is remarkable is how they were not only able to establish an identity of their own outside of Guitar Hero, but arguably surpassed their success by reinventing the rhythm game market once again.
Rock Band is a simple game in premise. It serves as a setup where you create your own band from the ground up and go on a fictional world tour playing music, from small-time clubs like Heebie Jeebies to massive concert venues across the world. The presentation between Guitar Hero and Rock Band is similar in some respects, a bit cartoonish and light-hearted, but Rock Band is more subdued and grounded in comparison to the direction of Guitar Hero 3, which does work to its benefit in one respect - being more about the music.
Guitar Hero 3 did the impossible, making a game that matches slick presentation with the setlist, despite a few hiccups with difficulty. The arcade-game style of Guitar Hero 3 is beloved for its off-the-wall design and bombastic visuals, to be sure, but Rock Band takes a step back and allows the music to be the forefront. Much of the game is visually more mellow. There is color and vibrancy to the characters, but since everything is customized, from the unlockable clothing to what hair color you want, you're playing in a sandbox with a different design ethos. The cooler tint of the game also reflects this; the visuals are there to service the music, and a lot of the design is meant to complement that.
This includes a revamp of the chart system, going from circular buttons to a small rectangle look. For guitars and bass, it was mostly the same, with hammer-ons, pull-offs, and familiar note charting from Guitar Hero. For the drums, they created the line bar through testing, which would be used to mark pedal kicks on the four-button drum kit they developed. Singing would follow a Karaoke Revolution style of timing the words with your pitch, but would allow flexibility to sing in lower octaves accurately if that was your range.
All of these changes in a vacuum are great, but the main star of Rock Band was that it was a four-player game. The main selling point ultimately was for Harmonix to make a game that made the player feel like they were on stage, in a rock band, and that everyone was working together to achieve a high score. This added to the game's features: bass players can form a bass groove bonus, netting more points despite having arguably easier tracks than guitarists. Drum and guitar solos were added, as were tambourine hits for vocalists. Players can use star power to save someone struggling, and all players in unison provided a massive bonus in points for each successful note hit, with a big rock finish at the end for every player to just jam out at the finale of a song.
All of this is packed into a presentation that is subdued over bombastic, but impressive in its own way. Perhaps it was the influence of MTV itself, but several sections often feel like a music video being produced, with unique filters and camera angles of the band showcasing as much action as possible. To top it all off, some songs have the crowd even sing along if in a perfect note streak, which just adds to the atmosphere and makes the whole showcase rewarding while selling the illusion of being on stage.
Rock Band is, at its core, a party rhythm game, and Harmonix made sure the game's design reflected this, right down to the setlist. Though there are still some covers by Wavegroup, the sixty–five songs are chosen not specifically for their difficulty, but instead for how enjoyable they can be with four players. There are some solid band choices in the representation too, from Bon Jovi to KISS to The Maps and Metallica. There is a balance to the songs that makes them feel instantly playable. For players, especially Guitar Hero fans, looking for hard charts to test their skill, there are a few songs that can provide that, but Rock Band is less about the individual and more about the team.
All of this makes Rock Band a solid game on its own, but the last ingredient that propels the game is its use of online. Rock Band is a multiplayer game, preferably live in your living room if you have a chance, which is where the game truly shines. However, capitalizing on the growth of online consoles, Rock Band would also allow online through co-op play, with strangers or friends as you see fit. Players can engage in online duels, do casual play, or just get a group together every week and play songs for four hours like a real band would.
This innovation alone propelled Rock Band, but it was the second addition that made it viable. With extensive backing from MTV and having enough cache with the music industry, Harmonix was able to license hundreds of songs for Rock Band, allowing downloadable content online. Throughout Rock Band's entire life (including its three sequels, spin-off games, and side, band-centric games), Harmonix oversaw the release of over 2,784 songs, across 25 full albums and 288 track packs, and consistently released songs every week for seven years before stopping in 2014. Online releases resumed in 2015 for Rock Band 4, before finally ending in 2024.
In making sure almost every single song from every Rock Band game is compatible with each other, there may be players out there who have 3,000 different songs downloaded over a nearly twenty-year period for Rock Band 4. Harmonix holds a world record for the most consecutive DLCs, and for good reason; it was an impressive feat and arguably the 2nd-biggest game-changer for the rhythm game industry. It was through this that cover songs (though some early downloads were still covers) became a thing of the past; master tracks were now the standard. It was through DLC that we would see old favorites from previous Guitar Hero games migrate to Rock Band. Only through downloads would we get some bands and songs; heck, Harmonix introduced the Rock Band Network for independent artists to release their own songs as singles or packs, which many took advantage of back then as well, adding to the setlists tenfold.
All of this was a game changer for rhythm games. With the advent of tech advances, DLC, and online, Rock Band showed that it can have the foundations of a simple premise, provide the content people want, and then offer more well beyond the expiration date of that content. Theoretically, someone playing Rock Band would never have to pick up another Rock Band game again, unless they want the added changes in the sequels or some of the later released songs post 2010, and because the game was a massive bundle priced at nearly $159 to $169 depending on your console, it was a trade-off worth investing in.
Of course, the benefits of online were lacking for the PS2 and Wii versions of the game, which Harmonix tried to compensate by selling physical disk track packs, containing a bundled package of songs that all came as DLC for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. The Wii would later be able to get online and DLC content through Rock Band 2, but for PS2 players, this was the only way to add songs to the game. Of these track packs, the only notable one is the AC/DC Live track pack, which contained 18 songs from AC/DC from their live performances that were never officially released as DLC, so even 360 and PS3 players had to purchase that one for the complete collection.
Minor issues with the versions aside, Rock Band was a massive risk for Harmonix. Their buyout from MTV gave them the capital to complete their dream project. It was a game that required a lot of buy-in and goodwill, with players used to playing Guitar Hero willing to take a chance with an expensive game bundle that was not even balanced for their tastes, but instead provided something new to the table. This gamble paid off, making Rock Band a massive success and irrevocably changing the rhythm game genre forever. It may not be the best Rock Band game, but it is arguably the most important one for what it brought to the table, and that alone makes it one of the best rhythm games ever made.
Author's Note: Some videos online were used to capture screenshots of online gameplay. Links are below for credit.