Rock Band 2 (Xbox 360 version)

Cool Yule Rating: 5 stars

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Cool Yule Rating: 5 stars

Price: $190 (premium set, includes game, drum kit, guitar and microphone); stand-alone game is $60 (works with original Rock Band equipment); other accessories sold separately.

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Description: One of the coolest video games for the holiday season has to be Rock Band 2, the sequel to last year's video game from Harmonix that lets you create your own rock and roll fantasy.

Similar to music games like Guitar Hero, the Rock Band series includes a guitar controller, but then kicks it up a notch by adding drums and a microphone for lead volcals. You and three friends can play along with you in your band as you try to master more than 100 on-disc and downloadable tracks from some of the greatest bands in rock and roll history. The range of artists and songs is very impressive, considering that many of the songs are the original tracks, not cover songs like with some earlier Guitar Hero games. Songs and bands going all the way back to the '60s are included, with songs and bands from today as well.

The guitar part is easiest – if you've played games like Guitar Hero, you know that to play the song correctly, you have to hit the right buttons on the controller and strum the guitar at the moment the colored bars cross the bottom line on the screen. There's not much differentiation with the guitar parts, so if you're good at that game, you'll be good on this game too.

Drums are a bit harder – while the colors on your drum kit relatively match those on the screen, the addition of a foot bass pedal can trick you up, especially if you've never played the drums before. The coolest part of the drum mode is the ability to add your own fills during certain parts of the song – it's the chance you get to just go crazy on the drum set. In addition, the game includes a "drum trainer mode" to teach you the basics, and you can also just enter "Freestyle Drum" that lets you play the drums without the game part, which can actually teach you how to play the drums if you practice hard enough.

The vocal parts are just like performing in karaoke – lyrics to the song appear on the screen and you sing along with the words and try to get the right pitch and tone. The cool part about it is that you don't have to sing at the same octave as the singer in the song, you can drop your voice down if you want, just try to get the same note sung, and at the proper time. The only downside of playing the vocal parts is whether you know the song that your band will be playing. With the guitar and drum parts, you can play an unfamiliar song by just following the notes on the screen and hitting the buttons or drum pad at the appropriate moment. With the lead vocals, you can't do that – you should at least know the song and the melody so you can get close with the notes – again, the lyrics are there, but you should know the rhythm and the melody.

Because I'm a Guitar Hero veteran, I immediately felt comfortable with the guitar parts in Rock Band 2 – the game lets you choose from either lead guitar or bass guitar – yes, even bass guitar can be fun depending on the song chosen.