With the announcement of Rockband 4's DLC support ending in favor of Fortnite Festival, I'm feeling pretty nostalgic of my time spent with the series. Rockband is easily one of my favorite games of all time, and I'm currently sitting here with mixed emotions over the whole thing... But that's besides the point! Today I wanted to share my story of how I was introduced into the series, and I'd also love to hear from you guys as well! This series is truly special, and I feel like many out there will have just as good (heck, most likely better) stories about it like me! So anyway, with that being said... Here's my story:
My journey with Rockband actually began way back in the mid 2000s with none other than Guitar Hero 2. This was the first time I had heard of the company Harmonix, and first time I had even heard of Guitar Hero! Obviously it was the second entry, but it was my friend Keith who even brought it to my attention. He got the game for Christmas, and I remember him inviting me over to play it. I was honestly pretty bad at it at the time, and could hardly even play easy mode, but I did think the game was pretty fun. I felt like he was the only person who knew it existed, but before long I realized just how wrong I was! Moving forward, GH2 was up for demo at every major store around me, and kids even began bringing it into school! It was something we'd play on free days, but again, I was really bad at it. Eventually GH3 would come out and the crazy continued on, and it wasn't long before EVERYONE in school was talking about it.
Of course, I never expected to own it myself. It was expensive, and I was pretty lacking on musical knowledge at the time. So it just didn't seem worth it to me to own it at the time... But I still really liked playing it. I still remember when my cousin got GH3 for his 360 on Christmas Eve and we spent the night playing it! It was a lot of fun! I remember my uncle had some issues with the songs for whatever reason, but who cares -- everyone else really enjoyed it. That next school semester was filled with kids talking about the game, and it was great being able to be a part of those discussions! But then something happened... Something "new" began making it's rounds.
When I first heard about Rockband, I'll admit that I thought it was a knock off. I didn't realize it was Harmonix, so I just thought someone was trying to cash in on GH's success! But then I had friends talking about it, and how it offered a full band experience, so eventually I became interested in it as well. I started playing it at a friend's house, and before I knew it, it had replaced GH at our school! We even had it at post prom! Of course I was still bad at it, but I found myself enjoying it even more than GH. This is when I knew I had to have it... Someday.
While I missed out on owning RB1 and 2, The Beatles Rockband was the perfect entry point for me! Me and another cousin of mine ran across it's demo at our local Best Buy, and I remember we spent something like an hour playing it. I was in college at this point, but I knew it would be a perfect Christmas gift if my parents were willing to buy it for me. So I asked them, and to my surprise they bought it! My dad also grabbed me the Country Track Pack, and that Christmas me and my parents spent most of the day just going through both the Beatles songs, as well as the country songs. I pushed myself to get better as I played, so I quickly found myself working my way up to hard mode that day, while my parents were content with sticking to easy. By the time New Years came around, I had also bought Lego Rockband as well (it had some great songs!), and me and my entire family who came to stay with us for the night spent all night playing it! It was amazing, and easily one of my favorite memories period!
Eventually I would get RB1, however the disc was busted, and RB3. Meanwhile my cousins had a copy of RB2, but I just bought DLC songs from it I liked. I was obsessed with the series up until the day my Xbox 360 broke, and I thought I would retire from it for good. But then in 2014 I got an Xbox One (already had a PS4), and by 2015 I was returning to RB4 -- which was once again a Christmas gift from my parents!
That Christmas Eve we spent all night playing the game together, just like we had many many years before. Again it's such a great memory, and it's something we would keep coming back to do together as a family as the years went on! Sadly I wasn't able to bring all of my songs forward (poor college kid me didn't buy the Lego RB export), but we still had plenty to play. I continued buying DLC songs pretty much every month, and before I knew it years went by and I had a massive library of songs to enjoy! It's something I was hoping to last forever.
Still to this day, RB is something I continue to come back to. Again, it's one of my all time favorite games, and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon. The end of DLC is sad news, but it's not like I own anywhere near every song. In fact my current wish list has well over 100 titles that I'd like to buy at some point! So the game has plenty let to offer me, but at the same time it's sad to see the end of an era. While Fortnite Festival is Rockband in all but name (and the characters), it's sad to see the RB brand fade away. It's been a fun ride though, and I do look forward to seeing what's to come. Who knows? Maybe that Rockband 5 will happen someday?
Well anyway that's my story of how I got into RB. What about you guys?
