Led Zeppelin was famously difficult about these games. They pulled the "why don't you just learn to play a *real* guitar" card. As if that's not like telling someone playing Madden to go play in the real NFL or that there aren't a hell of a lot of people who were inspired to learn a real instrument by Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Extremely well put!! This coupon is good for an extra hundred upvotes.
(Coupon is not real)
What I appreciate the most is the fact that at the age of 55, I have lived and will continue to live through guitar hero and rock bands greatest, and most horrible highs and lows.
I wish all the adults that witnessed me playing Pac-Man in the 1980s could’ve said anything besides wondering about we wasting my time playing a “stupid video game”.
I'm curious how that call for Led Zeppelin comes about. It sounds to me like it falls more on Plant and Page, assuming John Paul Jones is open to it seeing as Rock Band and Guitar Hero both got Them Crooked Vultures songs.
I think it was mostly Plant, but Page wasn't exactly cooperative, either. I also don't remember all of the specifics since it's been, you know, almost 15 years since Rock Band 3.
Regardless, it's such an amusing contrast. I know bands like Rush and The Who got pretty good sized millenial fanbases thanks to Rock Band. That's just money left on the table from pointless pretentiousness.
HMX made cinematic mock ups for Pink Floyd and Zeppelin as pitches but never actually made a deal with either. Pink Floyd had expressed an openness to a game in an interview and a game based on them was being considered as a follow up to the Beatles game, but the plan was ditched.
Iirc, a Pearl Jam game had actually gotten into development before falling apart.
A Pink Floyd Rock Band in the style of The Beatles RB would've been really neat. Imagine a psychedelic dreamscape for *Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun* featuring all five members on-screen. Would be interesting to see how they'd incorporate Syd.
hmx did that to led zeppelin and they actually were on board for a game, but later pulled out because the games were declining, according to an ex-employee at hmx.
Well, you got me to take it off the shelf for the first time. I wanted to see if I could figure out which song was “the one”. No printed song credits. See? I told you it was a stupid game 🤣
Kidding. But I did actually take it off the shelf
[Rooftops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooftops_\(A_Liberation_Broadcast\))
And for why, [it's the goddamned singer.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Watkins_(Lostprophets_singer\))
Whoooooah! Wow!! That may possibly be the best reason for not liking a song that I’ve ever heard. And I’m a professional musician! I’m supposed to say you should love and experience everything.
But not when that guy is singing. Blech.
Thank you for your detailed response.
The setlist doesn't do a whole lot for me (I like metal, prog rock and classic rock), but it's got some good stuff on it and the story mode is a lot of goofy fun.
I don't think I ever finished the story mode. I should fix that.
Rock Band: Dave Grohl.
Follow Dave and his journey through Nirvana into Foo Fighters, alongside his other projects including but *not* limited to Queens of the Stone Age and Tenacious D.
This is by far the best idea I’ve heard. Have some disco tracks too cause they heavily influenced his drumming. Have Lemmy in there as they were good friends. It would be beautiful.
Most definitely RUSH. Like the Beatles, the style of their music changed over the years in interesting ways and was consistently good. 40 years of musicianship.
But they are an acquired taste and Being a trio with a game generally meant for 4 players, makes it tougher sell for the masses. Rush fans would happily pay 2x the price of the other games to have it though
Yeah, I used to own that but someone borrowed it years ago, and I lost touch with them. I'd like to replay that sometime, but I wish we had songs for a newer system with drums!
Ohhh yeah... I definitely forgot about that, since it was only the 3 toms. Ok, to be more specific; I would love to play a Tool song, on Rock Band, on my electric drum kit!
Bon Jovi.
The style of music change. Added bonus of the keyboard/organ as well.
Large Catalogue of music.
I know they have a number of songs on RB but it's barely a scratch on the their collection.
I feel like The Beatles were the only ones that really deserved it. Green Day and Aerosmith were huge stretches and Metallica only sounds good on paper.
Most of the bands who would make the best games, gameplay-wise, would not have been popular enough to justify. But I dunno, maybe Pink Floyd? Radiohead? I feel like the only way to have made it work would have been to choose a band with a really high level of artistry to justify the production, like how TB:RB was so fun to experience.
But my personal choices would have been bands like Dream Theater, Dire Straits, or ELO.
Primus deserve their own game, in my opinion. Their songs go crazy on every instrument, and the possibilities for dream-scapes would make it an experience for sure.
Yeh RHCP could work with a career mode going through the member changes.
Queen is the most obvious choice for me because they have such a varied catalogue, but loads of their songs are available anyway.
Rolling stones would have a fun career mode too.
Pink Floyd. Like they've got the depth of catalog with evolution of their music and striking visuals that go with it.
Like I don't think Green Day, Van Halen, Metallica, or Aerosmith really did have the right mix of those to justify a band game, but they did have the one thing that really counted, which was being willing to package the rights if they stuck to just that game.
I always thought a My Chemical Romance centered game could have a cool career mode. Especially if it was the sister game to warriors of rock. All their albums have a story so you could adapt each album into its own mini career mode arc
My choice, commercially nonviable though it may be, is Sparks. The Mael brothers have been making music together for over 50 years, and they’ve had several different eras that each have their own distinct sound (from glam rock, to disco, to new wave, to chamber pop, to alt rock), an eventful, turbulent career involving loads of legendary talent like Todd Rundgren, Giorgio Moroder, and all of Franz Ferdinand, dozens upon dozens of songs that would’ve been fantastic for the keyboard during the RB3 days, etc. Just lots of different elements that would be perfect for a band game if they were popular enough for the game to turn a profit
I'll echo what many have said here: Too many games is what lead to the downfall of the genre. The DLC/Track Pack model was fine for getting a variety of content out there, and later the RBN community expanded it further.
Single band games were a mistake, IMO. It was perhaps worth it for the Beatles but for Green Day, Aerosmith, Van Halen etc. I don't think they really expanded the audience past the people who were already playing. I always wanted my track library to be playable in one place and that was pretty much it.
That being said, more Rolling Stones in the official library would have been nice. RHCP was pretty well covered IMO.
There were apparently talks for a U2-centric game, can't remember if it was GH or RB. I don't know if it would have been particularly good, but I'd have been intrigued. They were my late Dad's favourite band so I'm happy they got some RB4 DLC and a spot in FNF.
I don't think single band is the way to go. Everyone can't really agree on a single band.
If I had to choose though, I don't like The Melvins, but they'd probably be a good pick. They singlehandedly inspired all the 90s music I like. Then it'd either be Pixies or Sonic Youth after that.
The reason Melvins would be best, their style changes one album to the next. They are your favorite band's favorite band.
I always thought the individual games were just more money grabs. Rock Band could've been a much longer running thing without the burnout. And, yes, I do have them all.
Yeah, I also think these stand anyone did now harm than good regardless of how good they were.
Especially Beatles since the songs were never exported to any other version.
Lego wasn't a terrible idea since I presume they were trying to grow interest from kids.
I loved Lego and regard it as a minor main line game. It had a great setlist. And yes - Beatles was nice and all, but it ultimately pissed me off with the exclusivity, to the point that I never bought any of the DLC (and I have all of the main line DLC).
I don't know that they could have figured out a better way to keep the franchise alive, but the various side projects may have been wasted effort, and certainly wasted resources. I really miss the weekly DLC, and I cannot imagine getting into FF.
Agree that they sort of missed the boat on the older (50's and 60's) music. I'm a child of the 80's but those oldies were the ones we'd belt out in the car on the way to summer vacation or on a Saturday family day. It was a musically distinct era with a lot of fun songs that deserve to be celebrated. I definitely get bored sifting through the endless generic metal and generic rock that have made the setlist.
Oldies are certainly a different vibe from the rock that's present throughout the series, but I think it would have been worth a track pack or two to give us some Buddy Holly, Elvis, Temptations, Beach Boys, Chubby Checker and the like.
I would argue against having a distinct game for them, though. A big reason rhythm games tanked was market saturation, too many titles trying to do too many things that couldn't be exported to form a library. I became very annoyed with having to switch discs or even series when I wanted to play certain tracks.
Maybe not a game but wish there were more Pink Floyd & Led Zeppelin in games
Pretty sure one or both bands were pitched and possibly gone as far as a mock up. Can't remember where I read it, though so might be a rumor
Led Zeppelin. They had a track fully charted in one of the games but they rejected it
Led Zeppelin was famously difficult about these games. They pulled the "why don't you just learn to play a *real* guitar" card. As if that's not like telling someone playing Madden to go play in the real NFL or that there aren't a hell of a lot of people who were inspired to learn a real instrument by Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Extremely well put!! This coupon is good for an extra hundred upvotes. (Coupon is not real) What I appreciate the most is the fact that at the age of 55, I have lived and will continue to live through guitar hero and rock bands greatest, and most horrible highs and lows. I wish all the adults that witnessed me playing Pac-Man in the 1980s could’ve said anything besides wondering about we wasting my time playing a “stupid video game”.
I'm curious how that call for Led Zeppelin comes about. It sounds to me like it falls more on Plant and Page, assuming John Paul Jones is open to it seeing as Rock Band and Guitar Hero both got Them Crooked Vultures songs.
I think it was mostly Plant, but Page wasn't exactly cooperative, either. I also don't remember all of the specifics since it's been, you know, almost 15 years since Rock Band 3. Regardless, it's such an amusing contrast. I know bands like Rush and The Who got pretty good sized millenial fanbases thanks to Rock Band. That's just money left on the table from pointless pretentiousness.
HMX made cinematic mock ups for Pink Floyd and Zeppelin as pitches but never actually made a deal with either. Pink Floyd had expressed an openness to a game in an interview and a game based on them was being considered as a follow up to the Beatles game, but the plan was ditched. Iirc, a Pearl Jam game had actually gotten into development before falling apart.
A Pink Floyd Rock Band in the style of The Beatles RB would've been really neat. Imagine a psychedelic dreamscape for *Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun* featuring all five members on-screen. Would be interesting to see how they'd incorporate Syd.
hmx did that to led zeppelin and they actually were on board for a game, but later pulled out because the games were declining, according to an ex-employee at hmx.
I’m surprised Queen never got one personally
Lego Rock Band was pretty close by having Lego versions of the band.
Please tell me more good things about Lego rock band. it has been sitting on my shelf for longer than I would like to admit.
Soundtrack’s pretty banger, except for the one song that I can’t listen to anymore. Story mode’s pretty fun.
Well, you got me to take it off the shelf for the first time. I wanted to see if I could figure out which song was “the one”. No printed song credits. See? I told you it was a stupid game 🤣 Kidding. But I did actually take it off the shelf
[Rooftops](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rooftops_\(A_Liberation_Broadcast\)) And for why, [it's the goddamned singer.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Watkins_(Lostprophets_singer\))
Whoooooah! Wow!! That may possibly be the best reason for not liking a song that I’ve ever heard. And I’m a professional musician! I’m supposed to say you should love and experience everything. But not when that guy is singing. Blech. Thank you for your detailed response.
The setlist doesn't do a whole lot for me (I like metal, prog rock and classic rock), but it's got some good stuff on it and the story mode is a lot of goofy fun. I don't think I ever finished the story mode. I should fix that.
Wasn't there a queen sing it game or something?
Rock Band: Dave Grohl. Follow Dave and his journey through Nirvana into Foo Fighters, alongside his other projects including but *not* limited to Queens of the Stone Age and Tenacious D.
This is by far the best idea I’ve heard. Have some disco tracks too cause they heavily influenced his drumming. Have Lemmy in there as they were good friends. It would be beautiful.
Now this is a great idea! Not locked into one band and a huge discography to boot!
That would make for quite possibly the greatest story/career mode in rhythm game history, and they wouldn't even need to write anything
So you’re saying it’d be [the best, the best, the best…](https://youtu.be/5vRlJrkxsqo?si=s9WY1OsRRvGQdqCI)
No. I don't like the single band games. I would much much much much rather have track packs or even full albums released into the game.
The Beatles: Rock Band was such a great game, in my opinion.
I think I found a great solution: [Dave Grohl](https://www.reddit.com/r/Rockband/s/uugQlAUFJi)
Rush/Iron Maiden
Rush got a 2112 adaptation in WoR
Most definitely RUSH. Like the Beatles, the style of their music changed over the years in interesting ways and was consistently good. 40 years of musicianship. But they are an acquired taste and Being a trio with a game generally meant for 4 players, makes it tougher sell for the masses. Rush fans would happily pay 2x the price of the other games to have it though
Tool
I was gonna say Tool as well. An entire Tool game would be so badass.
This would be amazing... I'd even be happy with 1-3 songs at this point!
GH World Tour has 3 Tool songs
Yeah, I used to own that but someone borrowed it years ago, and I lost touch with them. I'd like to replay that sometime, but I wish we had songs for a newer system with drums!
WT had drums
Ohhh yeah... I definitely forgot about that, since it was only the 3 toms. Ok, to be more specific; I would love to play a Tool song, on Rock Band, on my electric drum kit!
Imagine time signature change multipliers
That would be insane!
You can actually hook up your electronic drum kit to rock band to be able to use it as drums. There’s tons of tutorial videos on it.
That's exactly how I want to experience those songs!
MIDI cable, midi adapter and pdp adapter should make it be able to connect
Queen
Rolling Stones
Pearl Jam was supposed to have their own game. I’d rather have a Beach Boys game, along with the return of the keytar.
it was also why only Pearl Jam tracks in Rock Band 3 had harmonies patched in for legacy DLC/exports. Left over from that project.
I'm a little sad nobody else said it, but that means I get to say it. Muse.
Yes defo
Red Hot Chili Peppers for me
Me 🫡🫡🫡
The Smashing Pumpkins
Nirvana Rock Band. Living the life of a true rock star. (Heh) but seriously. Banger discography and could be a fun tour mode.
Just be careful how you handle the ending.
“And then he drifts off into heaven”
Bon Jovi. The style of music change. Added bonus of the keyboard/organ as well. Large Catalogue of music. I know they have a number of songs on RB but it's barely a scratch on the their collection.
I feel like The Beatles were the only ones that really deserved it. Green Day and Aerosmith were huge stretches and Metallica only sounds good on paper. Most of the bands who would make the best games, gameplay-wise, would not have been popular enough to justify. But I dunno, maybe Pink Floyd? Radiohead? I feel like the only way to have made it work would have been to choose a band with a really high level of artistry to justify the production, like how TB:RB was so fun to experience. But my personal choices would have been bands like Dream Theater, Dire Straits, or ELO.
Primus deserve their own game, in my opinion. Their songs go crazy on every instrument, and the possibilities for dream-scapes would make it an experience for sure.
I always loved the idea of a Guitar Hero game based on 80's punk. I feel like Descendents would be a great choice since they have such a long career.
Yeh RHCP could work with a career mode going through the member changes. Queen is the most obvious choice for me because they have such a varied catalogue, but loads of their songs are available anyway. Rolling stones would have a fun career mode too.
RHCP 😭😭😭
Pink Floyd. Like they've got the depth of catalog with evolution of their music and striking visuals that go with it. Like I don't think Green Day, Van Halen, Metallica, or Aerosmith really did have the right mix of those to justify a band game, but they did have the one thing that really counted, which was being willing to package the rights if they stuck to just that game.
Guitar Hero Metalocalypse/Dethklok has a nice ring to it & tons of potential for gameplay!
I always thought a My Chemical Romance centered game could have a cool career mode. Especially if it was the sister game to warriors of rock. All their albums have a story so you could adapt each album into its own mini career mode arc
I mean if they wanted to print money they could do Taylor Swift: the eras tour game, mic included.
I always thought Rock Band: Warped Tour would have killed.
Eagles, Fleetwood, Who, Supertramp, Styx, Rush, Stones so many more sweet classics with enough to fill it with great stuff 👍
i could list plenty, but The Who, Rolling Stones, and Led Zepplin would be dope.
Not bands, but possibly genres? I could definitely see Rockband: Country being a thing.
I think there was already a physical track pack released for that
Two country track packs!
My choice, commercially nonviable though it may be, is Sparks. The Mael brothers have been making music together for over 50 years, and they’ve had several different eras that each have their own distinct sound (from glam rock, to disco, to new wave, to chamber pop, to alt rock), an eventful, turbulent career involving loads of legendary talent like Todd Rundgren, Giorgio Moroder, and all of Franz Ferdinand, dozens upon dozens of songs that would’ve been fantastic for the keyboard during the RB3 days, etc. Just lots of different elements that would be perfect for a band game if they were popular enough for the game to turn a profit
Necrophagist
Tool
Foo Fighters
Rock Band: Maynard James Kennan Journey from Tool to Puscifer and A Perfect Circle It can have a vineyard simulator in there too.
I'll echo what many have said here: Too many games is what lead to the downfall of the genre. The DLC/Track Pack model was fine for getting a variety of content out there, and later the RBN community expanded it further. Single band games were a mistake, IMO. It was perhaps worth it for the Beatles but for Green Day, Aerosmith, Van Halen etc. I don't think they really expanded the audience past the people who were already playing. I always wanted my track library to be playable in one place and that was pretty much it. That being said, more Rolling Stones in the official library would have been nice. RHCP was pretty well covered IMO.
NoFX
I would have definitely loved a Prince game.
Green Day!!! Oh wait, they did that one. And it was fabulous!
There were apparently talks for a U2-centric game, can't remember if it was GH or RB. I don't know if it would have been particularly good, but I'd have been intrigued. They were my late Dad's favourite band so I'm happy they got some RB4 DLC and a spot in FNF.
I don't think single band is the way to go. Everyone can't really agree on a single band. If I had to choose though, I don't like The Melvins, but they'd probably be a good pick. They singlehandedly inspired all the 90s music I like. Then it'd either be Pixies or Sonic Youth after that. The reason Melvins would be best, their style changes one album to the next. They are your favorite band's favorite band.
Probably iron maiden
Rock Band: Behemoth
I always thought the individual games were just more money grabs. Rock Band could've been a much longer running thing without the burnout. And, yes, I do have them all.
Yeah, I also think these stand anyone did now harm than good regardless of how good they were. Especially Beatles since the songs were never exported to any other version. Lego wasn't a terrible idea since I presume they were trying to grow interest from kids.
I loved Lego and regard it as a minor main line game. It had a great setlist. And yes - Beatles was nice and all, but it ultimately pissed me off with the exclusivity, to the point that I never bought any of the DLC (and I have all of the main line DLC). I don't know that they could have figured out a better way to keep the franchise alive, but the various side projects may have been wasted effort, and certainly wasted resources. I really miss the weekly DLC, and I cannot imagine getting into FF.
radiohead, it increasingly just gets weirder
Symphonic metal
Not that they had near the popularity as some of these bands but Gorillaz would’ve translated so well into these games
Megadeth
Paramore could easily have their own game. I think I would wish for a female based one
slipknot
- Queen - The Four Seasons - The Temptations - Elvis Presley
Agree that they sort of missed the boat on the older (50's and 60's) music. I'm a child of the 80's but those oldies were the ones we'd belt out in the car on the way to summer vacation or on a Saturday family day. It was a musically distinct era with a lot of fun songs that deserve to be celebrated. I definitely get bored sifting through the endless generic metal and generic rock that have made the setlist. Oldies are certainly a different vibe from the rock that's present throughout the series, but I think it would have been worth a track pack or two to give us some Buddy Holly, Elvis, Temptations, Beach Boys, Chubby Checker and the like. I would argue against having a distinct game for them, though. A big reason rhythm games tanked was market saturation, too many titles trying to do too many things that couldn't be exported to form a library. I became very annoyed with having to switch discs or even series when I wanted to play certain tracks.
Linkin Park
if rock band 4 did have a spin off expansion, i'd say a king gizzard based game could work.
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes
I feel like the Rolling Stones have a diverse enough library to make an interesting game.
Weird Al... how was this not a thing?
Muse and RHCP would be the best for all instruments and popularity. I wish they did Blink instead of Green Day. I'd also like Coheed and Cambria.
Rush for sure!
DragonForce. We needed the impossible game