"Mississippi Queen, if you know what I mean

Mississippi Queen, she taught me everything."

It was a Sunday night and I was wailing along to the lyrics of '70s rockers Mountain. As an objective journalist, it's my responsibility to tell you that I was not sounding good. The song, far out of my range, forced my voice into a screechy falsetto. Most days, those Minnie Mouse vocal stylings would get me thrown out of a karaoke bar. Even singing from the comforts of my sofa (which I was), I would expect merciless ridicule from friends. My sanity, not to mention pitch, would be seriously questioned.

Instead, my performance was greeted with cheers and thumbs-ups.

Welcome to the crazy new world of Rock Band.

In this video game, the rules are different. You don't play alone, wrapped in the television's warm glow as you jab at buttons. You certainly don't play against someone, cursing under your breath as you attempt to destroy him or her.

Created by Cambridge, Mass.-based Harmonix, Rock Band (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3) emphasizes community above all. You can play with friends at home, creating a mock band and embarking upon an imaginary tour. You can play with folks through an internet connection. Whatever the case, you need people.

It is, after all, a rock band.

Bridging the gap

Rock Band descends from the Guitar Hero series, which has been difficult to avoid the past few years. In those games, you pressed buttons on a guitar-shaped controller in time with a scrolling bar on the TV screen. The games were hits because they straddled the most contentious line in modern gaming - between casual and hardcore.

In other words, people who don't often play games (casual) could pick up the guitar, watch the screen, hit the notes and have a good time. People who play games night and day (the hardcore) could plow through the most advanced levels, hitting a barrage of notes in perfect time and racking up high scores.

Rock Band takes this basic idea to a higher plane. Harmonix, the creator of the first two Guitar Hero games, wanted to simulate playing in a full rock ensemble. So for their latest project, the developers not only included a guitar (which can also be used as a bass), but a drum set and microphone.

The goal, again, is community. The game can technically be played solo, using one of the instruments and allowing the game to fill in the rest. But that experience doesn't compare with the more complex play offered by the Guitar Hero games.

Instead, Rock Band comes alive when there is a person available to play each instrument. Your band needs members. When they strap on their guitars, get behind their drum sets, hoist their microphones to quivering lips - that's when the fun begins.

The game offers incentives to do this. If the guitar player and drummer hit their notes in unison, they receive extra points. If one band member does particularly poorly and flunks out by missing too many notes in a row, another player can bring him back to life. But if no one does that, the band's score will rapidly drop. After all, who wants to hear only part of a band?

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