Format: Xbox 360 (version tested), DS, PS3, Wii
Release: Out now
Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix Music Systems
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Harmonix’s journey towards its masterpiece has been one of many highways, each a turn towards the ultimate synthesis of music and videogames. This latest has become known as ‘the one that actually teaches you to play instruments’, but in truth they all are. Even Frequency, which turned the PlayStation pad into a kind of Eno-esque navigator of obscure electronica, is as valid a tutor as this game. The obstacles feel just as tall, the need to climb them as strong. The only difference is that the rewards are so much greater.

Rock Band 3’s flagship, the Pro Guitar, is an unqualified triumph. Though the true hybrid, the Squier, won’t be out until next year, the current version, with its button-based fretboard and phoney ‘strings’, makes an ideal stand-in. It’s durable, desirable, tactile and precise. The buttons pivot just right to let the finger slide across them, coming as close to steel wire as buttons can. There’ll be breakages, of course, and justified hissy fits from the victims, but our Pro experience has been 100 per cent positive.

Our best-case scenario for Pro was that the guitar – and we’ll talk about the keyboard in a moment – would be a hard but effective taskmaster with its own set of rules, sitting comfortably in a vacuum between games and actual musicianship. A bridge, in other words, as suggested in our preview. It’s defied our imagination.


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Every aspect of the game is as playable with the ‘classic’ controller as any previous Rock Band. But to those willing to brave the fire, the Pro guitar makes it redundant. Sure, this initial Mustang version is still one step removed from the real thing, but to those starting out it makes no difference. Hour by hour, step by challenging step, it strips away the alienation of the instrument, the stigma of those five coloured buttons, and any lingering doubts of its worth as a videogame device. It’s surely no coincidence that the first track in the tutorial, The Hardest Button To Button, is by the genre’s onetime detractor, The White Stripes.

When it comes to the discovery and democratisation of music, the key figures have often been masters of visual mnemonics, able to see the unlikeliest links between images and memory. The Pro mode notation appreciates that learning aids don’t have to be obvious. The basic plucking is certainly straightforward: a number indicates where along the fretboard to hold, and comes floating down the relevant string on the highway. Chords, though, are defined as ‘shapes’ that look completely alien when they first pop into view, and barre chords are different again. Yet these strange symbols speak clearly to some part of your brain or other, because a few hours later you’re fluent.

The overlap between learning this and a regular game is remarkable, even when the controller features 102 buttons. That it never feels frustrating despite its obvious fearsomeness speaks to the complete success of the new Rock Band experience. There is simply no aspect of this game that isn’t polished to near-perfection. Take, for instance, the ‘Overshell’, the game’s new user interface. To call it a frontend would be misleading, since it genuinely envelops the entire play session. Signing in, browsing available characters, choosing a difficulty and joining your bandmates onstage is like dropping a coin into a slot and hitting a big flashing ‘start’ button. Switching profiles, dropping out and taking control of primary menu navigation are no different. The many dots of modern player management are joined without any one line cutting another. Functions are sometimes barred under specific circumstances, but never without reason.