Rock Band was responsible for starting a huge new trend in gaming, where music played the center stage — literally. Since then, a rivalry ensued between Rock Band and Activision’s Guitar Hero, which jumped on the band wagon, so to say. Now MTV Games and Harmonix are back with the third installment of Guitar Hero.

Rock Band 3 follows the same path as the Rock Bands of the past, and it does it in style. Put simply, if you were into Rock Band before, the third installment will satisfy your music needs. However cliched that sounds. In addition to the guitars, drums and mics, Rock Band 3 brings the keyboard as well, for the complete band package with support for up to 7 players. 83 songs are included in Rock Band 3, and all vary quite a bit. The campaign, called “Road Challenges”, gets you and your band on the road to complete a series of ever escalating challenges. Your performance is tracked through out the game and you get awards for completing certain tasks, which offers great replay value, even though a game like Rock Back has plenty of replay value, as long as you got folks to play with.

The new addition is the keyboard, which is sold separately at $80 or $130 with the game. The keyboard is a bit more complex, with 25 keys, and even has Pro challenges, where your keyboard skills are tested, and where you can learn some new tunes as well. There are Pro challenges for other instruments, like drums and guitar as well. However, the instruments are still quite expensive — the drums will run you $40, a guitar for the Pro challenge will run you a steep $150 — although the new guitar is quite a bit more complex, and offers over 100 buttons instead of the strings. But it’s still quite an investment your looking into: to make a complete set for a few friends can easily cost more than you spend on an Xbox 360 or PS3 console.

Overall, Rock Band 3 follows the tradition of previous Rock Band offerings, and adds a few new features, and refines others. It also follows the Rock Band tradition of costing quite a lot to get a few instruments.

The Good:
Follows the Rock Band tradition
Lots of different tracks
Great campaign and many modes
Awesome in multiplayer

The Bad:
Still pricey
Not as good in singleplayer

Overall score: 8/10