Rock Band 2 [X360]

Move over, air guitar -- if you're looking to fake rock, you're looking to play Rock Band. The stunning debut from the power trio of MTV, Harmonix and EA blew open the music game genre by turning living rooms into practice pads, delivering not only the first legit contender to perennial blockbuster Guitar Hero, but possibly the best party game of all time. That's a tough act to follow.

So Harmonix did what any smart band would do after releasing a hugely successful first album: buy a rad house, have a panic attack, and hit the studio to tighten up the act. And that's exactly what they did. Though Rock Band 2 doesn't do much to change the formula, it throws in enough catchy hooks to avoid the sophomore slump and once again go gold.

Scanning the wildly eclectic song list is like sifting through Rick Rubin's iTunes collection, featuring a whopping 84 tracks that run the gamut from classic rock (Bad Company's "Shooting Star"; The Guess Who's "American Woman") to 80's pop (Duran Duran's "Hungry Like The Wolf"; Billy Idol's "White Wedding" ) to, astoundingly enough, meditative folk (Bob Dylan's "Tangled Up In Blue"). They've even managed to score a track from the forthcoming (yeah, right) Guns n' Roses album Chinese Democracy, the unfortunately boring "Shackler's Revenge." Plus, any tracks players of the original Rock Band downloaded from the game's massive store are automatically added free of charge, and for five more bucks, the 55 tracks from the first game can be imported into this one. There's no lack of content here.

Playing those tunes is mostly handled the same way as before, as there have been precious few changes to the actual gameplay. You still strum, drum and hum in time with the music, raise your guitar to the heavens to trigger Overdrive, and cringe when your buddy mangles Boston. Even the graphics are mostly identical. If you're playing one of the songs from the original game, you could forget you're playing Rock Band 2.

That's because the focus this time is on fixing the bad notes rather than writing new ones. For starters, they've untied the knot of characters, bands and users that made starting a group with friends such a pain. Any character you create can play any instrument and can join any band, giving the game the drop-in, drop-out mechanic it desperately needed the first time around.

The Band World Tour mode, previously only playable locally, has now been opened up to full online play. Players can quickly hop in and out of bands, helping one another through the World Tour without leaving the comfort of home. It works like a charm, making playing as a one-man band significantly less depressing.

Though largely unchanged, the World Tour is bolstered by a few new wrinkles. A Challenge mode offers an unlockable tree of tasks based in part on your specific song collection; download tons of The Police and it will whip up a Police challenge. It's a nice dynamic twist, but pales next to the terrific new Battle of the Bands feature. Updated daily by the Harmonix team, Battle of the Bands pits your scores in specific band challenges against those of your friends -- and, of course, the rest of the world. If a friend beats your score, you'll be notified the next time you log on, perpetuating a nigh endless (and entirely cool) rock-off.

Tons of smaller tweaks improve the game immeasurably. A 'No Fail' option is perfect for casual parties, while the 'Performance' mode strips out the note tracks for the hardest of the hardcore. Players can now customize set lists in the basic Quick Play mode, erasing the originals' habit of harshing everyone's mellow by slipping marathon tunes like "Green Grass and High Tides" into the middle of a random set. And at long last they've seen fit to include a simple Drum Trainer that, if you're not careful, might actually turn you into a real drummer.

Though fully compatible with the first game's breakthrough gear, Rock Band 2 offers new wireless guitar and drum peripherals. The former sees mostly cosmetic fixes, adding no significant new functionality for guitarists. Drummers, on the other hand, will enjoy the reinforced bass drum pedal, quieter, velocity-sensitive heads, extra ports for potential cymbal expansion, and generally sturdier design.

Whether or not you grab the new hardware, there is no question that the stand-alone Rock Band 2 game is worth its $60 price tag. Heck, you'd pay twice that just to download the 84 new songs; toss in the new online functionality, Battle of the Bands and the Drum Trainer and you get another desert island classic. Let there be rock, again.