Best of the Decade: Rock Band
Sat, December 18, 2010 at 11:45 PM 
Rock Band
Platforms: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Playstation 2, Wii
Release Date: November 20, 2007 (360 and PS3)
Publisher: MTV Games, Electronic Arts
Developer: Harmonix
I still remember how stupid I felt walking through the mall back to my car with the gigantic box of plastic instruments tucked under my arm. For a brief moment, as the mall patrons stared at me with confused looks in their eyes, the thought occurred to me that perhaps spending a large wad of cash on peripherals with which to pretend I was playing music by following along to colored button prompts wasn’t exactly the coolest thing I could be doing with my money.
Once I got them all home and started playing around with them, I never looked back.
Technically the only instrument the genre hadn’t seen was the drums, but putting all of the instruments together in one game was Rock Band’s real stroke of genius. Everything came together for one of the most brilliant multiplayer gaming concepts ever produced.
The Rock Band series is the culmination of Harmonix’s long quest to perfect the music game. They remain one of my favorite ways to relax and release stress. Even five years or so since the original Guitar Hero, it’s still just as fun to pick up a plastic guitar, fire up my imagination, and pretend I’m a rock star for a little while by jamming out to awesome music. There’s something primal and satisfying about the experience music games provide.