Monster of the Week

Welcome to Monster of the Week, a Monday feature that looks at a monster from a game we really love. Whether you have to shoot at it, knock it out of the park, punch it in the face or RUN AWAY!, it'll be in this column if it impressed us. There might be spoilers in here, so if you haven't played the game, you have been warned.

Week 2: Green Grass and High Tides (Hard or Expert), Rock Band


Well this week's monster isn't really what you might consider a true enemy in a game, but it's evil enough.



Here's a video of a really great band playing in expert, which is something I and the members of the F# Belles are completely unable to do. The song is quite long, so you don't have to watch the whole thing. It has some amazing guitar solos in it though, so if you want to have a better idea of what I'm talking about, it might not hurt to watch a minute or so after the singing starts.

Location: If you sort songs by difficulty.... IT IS AT THE BOTTOM.
Audio: The Outlaws (and eventually a booing crowd)
Kill?: Myself and Amy of Thwomp Factory make it a point to attempt this game at least once a week (including a bassist and a drummer--I sing) with everyone playing on at least Hard. I've probably played this song a total of 15+ times, and have only seen it to its end once: during the 58-song marathon, when all played on Medium. We're not really the kind of Rock Band-playin' folk who are all hard-core and extremely dedicated. [Failing] this song sort of exemplifies our mentality--fail a couple times, lose some fans, then give up. The song is something like 9 minutes long and has at least three guitar solos within. Suffice to say, I'm sure once this song is successfully beaten, it won't be played for a long time.
Other: Just thinking about this song's length, the ridiculous rate at which it speeds up and the irritating random "Awesome" for singing is enough to make me hate playing this song forever. I will admit, besides the pointless tamborining and the very sparse star power (or whatever it's called) activation windows, the challenge gets a teeny bit easier every time. I believe when we first started, we were lucky to get 50% of the way through...now we're getting into the 70's or 80's before someone craps out and takes us with them. In-fighting!