Nothing in the world can fill us frugal gamers with a combination of irritation, annoyance and jealousy like the Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises. When Guitar Hero 2 launched, the game and guitar cost £70. Guitar Hero 3 followed with the same launch price. We could just about cope with this – it was pricy but great arcade gaming.

Then something happened that was just a step too far for most of us: Rock Band was announced. Delayed by a year in the UK, it eventually emerged almost double the price of the USA equivalent: an eye-watering £180 for the instruments (microphone, guitar and drumkit) and game. There were all kinds of excuses for this at the time, but most of us were decidedly unimpressed – myself included.

Since then, Rock Band 2 has appeared, and Guitar Hero World Tour has brazenly copied the same formula, with a marginally cheaper full bundle. Just the £150 to you gov’.

Feeling your vice-like grip on the wallet weakening by visions of annoying your neighbour with guitar in hand? Hold on a little longer – there are cheaper ways of getting the full kit and here’s what I see as the best value solution.

Unless you see it cheap, forget the full bundle

At £180/£150 full RRP, it’s safe to say the GHWT/Rock Band bundles aren’t just things you can add to your weekly shop. Stick with the games alone unless you see a very good deal. How good a deal? Well, when Zavvi was shutting down in London, I saw you could pick up the full GHWT bundle for £112 – that’s probably worth it. You can get close to this with Guitar Hero World Tour if your console isn’t high definition. HMV have the Wii GHWT full band kit for £119.99, and Play.com have the PS2 one for the same price.

EA have just cut the price of the Rock Band instruments, but it’s still nothing to shout about… especially when the GHWT instruments are significantly better quality, and crucially a little quieter in the drums department.

Guitar Hero or Rock Band?

While you could make arguments based on quality of title or tracklisting in favour of either of the games (my personal preference goes to Rock Band, which just feels more right to play), things take a different perspective when you look at it from the frugal gamers’ beady bargain hunting eyes.

GHWT solus has taken a price cut more quickly than Rock Band 2. According to the ever helpfulGamestracker website, at the time of writing the 360 and PS3 versions will set you back £24.99 (Play.com), Wii £19.99 (Shopto) and PS2 £16.99(Gameplay.com).

Rock Band 2 struggles by contrast – in part because it hasn’t yet been released on any formats but 360, so the majority of these prices are pre-orders: 360 – £37.98 (Shopto), PS3 – £39.99, Wii – £29.99 and PS2 – £17.99 (Play.com and Gameplay).

But just when it looks like the balance is tipping towards Guitar Hero, I’d put one last point in Rock Band’s favour: the huge array of tracks. Guitar Hero World Tour offers 86 songs on the disk, while Rock Band 2 has 84 on the disk, plus 20 free downloadable songs AND the ability to export an additional 63 songs from the first Rock Band game for a mere 400 points on the 360 version.

Theoretically you could borrow or rent the original, rip the tracks and add a great deal more longevity to your game, something which the Guitar Hero series currently has no plans to offer. Note that this doesn’t work on the Wii version, thanks to its limited memory so feel free to disregard this argument.

Geetars

Before I begin, I should point out that this cross-compatibility does not always apply to the Wii, where gamers are a bit stuck with which novelty instrument controllers will work with each game. Beware, and be sure to consult this chart.

The best solution for most people who succumbed to temptation long ago and bought Guitar Hero 2 or 3 is to stick with the guitar you got with that. Sure, you won’t be able to nail the solos with the slider in GHWT or the finger tapping in RB2, but it will save you a lot of money.

If this is your first foray into the world of guitar music, there are some decent bargains to be had. It’s best to look out for the Guitar Hero 3 bundles as the shops are trying to get rid of the space-filling things – as a result their prices are typically well below the £69.99 price mark, and the guitars work with almost every game (check the chart to double check this!). Choices UK currently sell the PS3 Guitar Hero 3 + Wireless Guitar bundle for just £32.99 delivered, the Wii version for £34.99 and the PS2 bundle for a startling £21.99.

The 360 version doesn’t match unfortunately, but if buying an Aerosmith product doesn’t shame you to your core, then the Guitar Hero Aerosmith guitar bundle on 360 can be had for just £34.99.

This is a great approach to take if you want an extra guitar to work as a bass too, for the full experience. You’re basically getting a free game to practice with (and GH3 will be brutal in making you a better player) and some variety in the look of your peripherals.

Microphones

Well, after that mini-essay on guitars, the microphone answer is thankfully a lot simpler: you don’t need one. On 360 at least, the headset which comes with every console but the core/arcade can work as a perfectly good microphone – as can almost any generic USB mic you may have kicking around.

Another alternative for Rock Band is the Lips microphones, which are apparently being patched to work with the game.

For Playstation 3 (not my area, but bare with me) I believe a headset should work in the same way as the 360 one – as in as a makeshift mic. Alternatively, the stuff about any USB microphone working is true, and that includes the Singstar ones!

The Wii obviously doesn’t have a headset, but the USB microphone trick should work. I think that includes the Boogie one, too…

Drums

The drums are the hardest of all to source for bargain hunters, quite simply because there’s not many to choose from. One drumkit that won’t be on most frugal gamers’ radar is the ION Rocker Drumkit which will set you back somewhere in the region of $300 – more than the full band model.

So where does that leave you? Well, the most desirable reasonably priced drumkit – the one from GHWT – isn’t available on its own yet, which is a bit of a kick in the teeth. You may strike it lucky and find it pre-owned in CEX for around £40, but it’s a bit of a long-shot at the moment.

Then there’s the Rock Band 1 drums, which have recently had a price cut to £49.99, with some room for manoeuvre in shops – Play.com stock the Wii and Playstation models for £45, and you can fully expect these prices to slip a little when the new RB2 sets appear, and retailers realise they have a lot of massive boxes they can’t shift in the warehouse. If pre-owned doesn’t bother you, try CEX again where depending on format you can get the kit for between £30 and £35.

But my pick of the lot goes to a third party answer if you’re an Xbox 360 owner. The MadCatz portable drumkit for Rock Band 1 and 2 does pretty much exactly what it says on the tin. Using four drum plates, a pedal, a controller and some sticks it really is a bare bones answer, but provided you have a table of roughly the right height, you’ll find it a quieter, easy to store and comfortable solution. I can confirm pretty much all Kotaku have to say on this one and it apparently works with GHWT. It retails for £50ish, but you can buy it through the MadCatz store for just £29.99.

You’re Now Ready to Rock

I hope that has helped someone, and I’m sorry I can’t be of more help for Playstation and Wii versions, where I’m a little more patchy and relying on hearsay (definitely not the band – not very rawk).

The good thing about doing things this way is that you can build up a collection over time for considerably less initial outlay. Rock Band/GHWT don’t  need the full set of instruments to be a lot of fun, but it certainly adds to it…

Alan P. Martin.

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