The Associated Press has posted a rundown of the year’s best games, and with Uncharted 2, Assassin’s Creed II, Dragon Age, and Arkham Asylum taking the top four spots, there’s little in the list to complain about. (Well, aside from its shameful brevity. Come on, mainstream news, it’s time to start giving these things a little more space.)
What did catch my eye was this bit at the end:
Game of the Decade: “Rock Band 2.” Harmonix Music Systems provided an entirely new type of video-game experience with “Guitar Hero,” giving all of us the chance to live out our rock-star dreams. “Rock Band 2″ is Harmonix’s fullest realization yet of that ideal — and the one game I keep coming back to whenever I just want to have fun.
Of course we could argue all day about what it takes to be “game of the decade.” But if your criterion is that it’s the one that never gets old, the one you fire up all the time, just for kicks and the pure joy of playing, well, I find it hard to dispute that call.
What about you?
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Yet I can’t help thinking that without Guitar Hero, there would be no Rock Band — so is it better to say Rock Band 2 is the game of the decade when it owes its existence to the popularity of another series?
CJ, the developer of Guitar Hero 1+2 is the same that did Rock Band.
I can’t think of any other game that’s had such a… huge impact on my life. Sure, there are other games of this decade that still have a massive influence on me (Neverwinter Nights being the main one). There’s not been another game which has not only got me playing and listening to a lot more music that I would’ve previously shrugged off. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll always be a hard trance/hard house DJ at heart, but bouncing around at In Flames and Killswitch gigs aren’t so… foreign to me – and next year I might do the Download festival – something else I’d never have considered.
Rock Band 2, Game of the Decade? I’d agree.
I see Rock Band as the full realization of the original Guitar Hero’s potential. If GH is The Legend Of Zelda, RB is A Link To The Past. I suppose a case can be made for Guitar Hero being more innovative, but it too is simply a refinement of Konami’s games.
Based purely on the amount of time I’ve spent playing it, RB2 would have to be my game of the decade. Of course, if I were to make a list, the criteria wouldn’t be as simple as that.
Rock Band 2 absolutely deserves the title.
CJ, if we follow reductive reasoning like that then Pong will be game of the year every year.
Given the amount of time I’ve spent with Rock Band 2 and the amount of money I used to buy additional songs, I think there’s a good chance RB2 would also be my personal “Game of the Decade.”
Just taking a glance through the list’s “Honorable Mentions,” I noticed Rock Band Unplugged among them. I definitely enjoyed the game, but apparently not enough to ever consider seeing Unplugged anywhere in an article for “Game of the Decade.” Consider myself surprised.
I think it’s possible to justify the choice of Rock Band 2 in part because of Guitar Hero — specifically, because both games were created by the same studio.
Consider if it were a totally different type of game: The original Halo made a huge impact on the popularity of FPSes on consoles. But say Halo 3 was an improvement on that in every way. (Just for argument’s sake; I actually barely played the first one.) Unless we were specifically talking about the most influential games of the decade, I’d think most people would choose Halo 3 for such a list, being a superior product.
I guess what I’m saying is that for these purposes I feel like we can kind of consider Rock Band to be a sequel to Guitar Hero, considering the basic gameplay is the same and the studio is the same.
One other point to consider: Guitar Hero itself owes its existence to GuitarFreaks, of course — so how does that come into the equation?
Maybe the voters were taking into consideration the accessibility of the game as well. I dont see my parents trying Halo when they visit, but they can get the hang of Rock Band with ease. The ability to cater to a wide range of both age and skill levels should definitely contribute to the vote.
Rock Band 2 gets my Vote as well.