Whether you're Team Rock Band or Team Guitar Hero, the next month or so is definitely an exciting time for rhythm action, music game fans everywhere as the two biggest band-based, multiplayer-centric titles gear up for launch this October. With Rock Band sticking to it's tried-and-tested plastic guitar/bass, drums and vocals formula, and Guitar Hero striking out with a brand new button layout and a focus on tight, guitar-centric gameplay instead, it'll certainly be interesting to see how the two compare.
Rock Band does have it's funky freestyle guitar solos though, which make you sound like a seriously cool shredder with ease!
But really, no matter how many bells and whistles you try to cram in, the strength of a music game lies in its song list, as the developers try their best to provide a fine balance of songs and artists that gives everyone a number of songs they can't wait to play. Because after all, if you're going to be playing the same sixty or so songs for the next god knows how many hours, they'd better be good songs. First out of the gate with their complete song list is Rock Band 4, so, without further ado, here's the totally complete list of tunes you'll be able to rock out to, come next month:
- .38 Special - Caught Up In You
- 4 Non Blondes - What's Up?
- Aerosmith - Toys in the Attic
- Arctic Monkeys - Arabella
- Avenged Sevenfold - Hail to the King
- Benjamin Booker - Violent Shiver
- The Black Keys - Fever
- Brad Paisley ft. Keith Urban - Start A Band
- Brandi Carlile - Mainstream Kid
- The Both - Milwaukee
- Cake - Short Skirt/Long Jacket
- The Cure - Friday I'm In Love
- Dark Wheels - V-Bomb
- Disturbed - Prayer
- Dream Theater - Metropolis Part 1 - "The Miracle And The Sleeper"
- Duck & Cover - Knock 'Em Down
- Eddie Japan - Albert
- Elvis Presley - Suspicious Minds
- Fall Out Boy - Centuries
- Fleetwood Mac - You Make Loving Fun
- Foo Fighters - The Feast and the Famine
- Gary Clark Jr. - Ain't Messin 'Round
- Gin Blossoms - Follow You Down
- Grouplove - Tongue Tied
- Halestorm - I Miss The Misery
- Heart - Kick It Out
- Heaven's Basement - I Am Electric
- Imagine Dragons - I Bet My Life
- Jack White - Lazaretto
- Jeff Allen - Recession
- Johnny Blazes and the Pretty Boys - Cold Clear Light
- Judas Priest - Halls Of Valhalla
- The Killers - Somebody Told Me
- Lightning Bolt - Dream Genie
- Little Big Town - Little White Church
- Live - All Over You
- Lucius - Turn It Around
- Lynyrd Skynyrd - That Smell
- Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars - Uptown Funk
- The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - The Impression That I Get
- The Outfield - Your Love
- Ozzy Osbourne - Miracle Man
- Tijuana Sweetheart - Pistol Whipped
- Paramore - Still Into You
- The Protomen - Light Up The Night
- Queens of the Stone Age - My God Is The Sun
- Rick Derringer - Rock and Roll, Hoochie Koo
- Rush - A Passage To Bangkok
- Scandal - The Warrior
- Scorpions - No One Like You
- Slydigs - Light The Fuse
- Soul Remnants - Dead Black (Heart of Ice)
- Soundgarden - Superunknown
- Spin Doctors - Little Miss Can't Be Wrong
- St. Vincent - Birth In Reverse
- System of a Down - Spiders
- Van Halen - Panama
- Van Morrison - Brown Eyed Girl
- White Denim - At Night In Dreams
- The Who - The Seeker
To be perfectly honest, we're not entirely sure what we think of the list - there's a lot, A LOT, we've never even heard of, and we like to think we have pretty wide-reaching musical tastes, covering everything from Marilyn Manson to Taylor Swift, from Bach to Tori Amos, and from Led Zeppelin to Johnny Cash. Still, the likes of Fall Out Boy, Paramore and The Killers should please the 00s scene kids, while Aerosmith, Ozzy Osbourne and The Who should please fans of classic rock, and Bruno Mars' Uptown Funk ensures even the teeny bopper crowd are catered to. Personally, we're all about System of a Down's Spiders, Prayer by Disturbed and Avenged Sevenfold's Hail To The King, with a side of Halestorm's I Miss The Mysery - although Van Morrison's Brown Eyed Girl isn't half bad either, nor is the now-requisite-for-any-Rock-Band-game Who song, The Seeker, we suppose.
It's been too long...
But, despite having some sixty songs on the disc, this is probably the first Rock Band game where we're not familiar with 90% or more of the setlist from the outset - and if we don't know most of them, we're not sure the average Joe Bloggs will either. Of course, sometimes it is the lesser known songs that end up being some of your favourites, like Juli's Perfekte Welle on Rock Band 1, Alex Chilton by The Replacements on Rock Band 2 or the horrendously complex Prequel to the Sequel from Between the Buried and Me as part of Rock Band 2's free DLC, so we don't want to discount Rock Band 4 just yet.
Rock Band 4 will be hitting the Playstation 4 and Xbox One in a couple of week's time, on the 6th October. Now we have the full song list, all that's left really is to sit and wait with baited breath!
