Deciding between Guitar Hero III, Rock Band and Band Geek was a really tough choice. In the end I decided to go with Band Geek because it had the most instruments, and for a mere $399, that’s less than $30 per instrument. What a deal! The box arrived in the mail and it was HUGE! I expected it to be big but I guess packing the game and twelve instruments into a container is harder than it sounds. I quickly unpacked it all. Everything was there; the trombone, oboe, clarinet, trumpet, tuba, violin, cello, snare, triangle, cymbals, bass drum and xylophone all looked great! It was just a matter of calling up 11 of my closest friends to come over and start jamming.

Once I had bribed everyone with Mountain Dew and Doritos, we got down to playing. The first negative aspect of the game I noticed was that you have to wait an hour and a half before you get to play the song. While this is certainly realistic, some sort of an after school practice mode would be welcome so you don’t have to wait that long. This was easily forgivable after we started the song however. We started with “Anchors Aweigh” which was a rousing disaster. Matt forgot to turn on his oboe along with four others who forgot to sync them (not naming any names!). After enduring the humiliating muffled whispers of negativity from the crowd, we started the next song, “You’ve Got To Be A Football Hero”. We nailed it! Everyone seemed to be on their game for this one. At one point Vinny was falling behind on the triangle, but there is a feature in the game where the woodwind section can tilt their instruments back and forth to give a falling player a boost and pull them back into the game, avoiding the opposing team’s jeering. Another thing we noticed was how loud a dozen people clicking and smacking the plastic controllers can be. I bet if we turned off the sound we would sound like a busy hive of alien bipedal insectoids! After our fourth successful piece we were challenged by none other than Ohio State University! We were in the big leagues now!

We have not tried online play but a lot of us really felt that the camaraderie of being in the same room together was a much more powerful experience than we could imagine being split across the planet trying to ply our trade. The experience was not only fulfilling but it was such a social event that there is no question the twelve of us are hooked. With plans on meeting every Wednesday night and a new vacuum cleaner to get the Doritos out of the carpet, I am sure this game will have a place on top of the game stack for years to come.

Lots of instruments	Hard to gather a whole band
Awesome game play	Feeding said band members
Fantastic social camaraderie	Cleaning up after said band members

-Groggy