Why Rock Band Rivals is The Best Family Video Game

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I’m really excited to be partnering with Rock Band Rivals for this sponsored post, since Rock Band is hands down my favorite of all of the guitar games, and has been for almost a decade. Rock Band Rivals is an expansion for last year’s Rock Band 4 game. Even if you’ve never played music games before, Rock Band Rivals will have you acting like you’re in a band in no time.

If you’re not familiar with Rock Band, you play “instruments” like guitar, bass, or drums, or you sing. The instruments are really video game controllers that look like instruments, so not only do you get to totally rock out, but you can also earn points and do other video-gamey stuff (if you so choose).

Different Skill Levels

My family has been playing Rock Band since it first came out, when my kids were little (they’re now a tween and a teen). It is the only video game that we play together, all four of us. The reason why Rock Band has always been the best family game out there is that each player can be at a totally different skill level. For every song and every instrument, each player gets to choose between Easy, Medium, Hard, or Expert. People who’ve never played before can drop in and start at the easiest level, even if the rest of the band is on Expert.

[bctt tweet=”#RockBandRivals is perfect for families, because everyone can play at a different level!” username=”AmyOztan”]

And if you’re a very advanced player, you can try a new thing called Brutal Mode, where the better you play, the more difficult the game gets.

If you start a song and realize you’ve made a mistake (I frequently start out on Expert and quickly change to Medium!) it only takes a few seconds to change difficulty levels, and then you can either continue the song or start over. In Show Mode you don’t even have to stop the song to change difficulty. Players can drop in and out and change difficulty without interrupting everybody else’s play. This would be perfect during a party!

You can even choose a “no fail” mode where the song goes to the end no matter what. This is especially great with smaller children, who just want to play and don’t care so much about the score.

Band Kit

I was sent the Rock Band Rivals Band Kit for XBox One (it’s also available for PlayStation 4). The kit comes with:

The Rock Band 4 game disc
A code to download the Rivals expansion
A wireless Fender Jaguar Guitar Controller (which folds up for easy storage or for bringing to a friend’s house!)
A wireless drum kit with drumsticks and kick pedal
A microphone

Putting the drum set together was easy enough that the kids did it. That’s Fiona “supervising” while her friend Maggie and her brother Jake did the work.

Getting started takes a little bit of time, because you have to calibrate the instruments to what’s happening on your screen. It’s very easy and the game leads you through the steps, but if you have antsy kids who just want to get started, you should do this part first without them. You only have to calibrate once.

The game comes with more than 60 songs representing a variety of eras and genres, from U2, The Cure, the Foo Fighters, The Killers, Brad Paisley, Elvis Presley, The Black Keys, and many, many more.

Rock Band Rivals Expansion

New with the Rivals expansion are two main features: Rockumentary and Rivals Mode.

Rockumentary Mode

I started my own Rockumentary over the weekend, and if you’re familiar with VH1’s Behind the Music, this mode will look familiar (although the game’s documentary, “Behind the Tunage,” is mean to be tongue-in-cheek).

You start a band, and you can design how each band member looks. Then your band votes on a set list, and you start. There’s video commentary about your band interspersed throughout from old teachers, ex band members, fans, etc. It’s pretty funny. My band’s first show had one audience member, who would cheer like crazy after each song. Earn enough points and you can move onto other levels.

Rivals Mode

In Rivals Mode you can hook up with other players online to form a crew of up to ten people, and try to beat other crews in points and challenges. At the end of each challenge, your crew can either be bumped up to a new tier and earn in-game prizes, or get bumped down.

More To Come

There’s another exciting upgrade coming to the game in December: the ability to actually play a song with other people online, in real time. That’s going to be crazy. I’m getting teary imagining sending my son off to college in a couple of years with his own Rock Band Rivals game, and being able to play a song with him online, wherever he is in the world.

My son already invited someone over to play Rock Band Rivals yesterday, but most of his friends don’t live nearby. It will be great for him to be able to play songs with them online!

While the rest of us played a fair amount over the weekend, Jake definitely played the most. If you’re looking for a way to connect with your teenager, this could be it.

The Rock Band Rivals Band Kit would make an excellent gift for your own family. Especially with colder weather upon us, finding things to do together indoors will help keep you from getting on each other’s nerves all winter! In fact, Rock Band is one of the few things in life that my kids can agree on. That’s priceless.