What a Wii Rip Off

I have been a gaming enthusiast for many years now, having written games reviews for almost a decade, but never have I been so disappointed as I was when I played the Nintendo Wii version of Rock Band.

I had waited months for the game to come out and rushed out to get it as soon as I was able, but this weekend was the first opportunity I have had to play it. I wish I hadn't bothered. For those of you who don't know, the game enables up to four people to pretend they are in a real rock band - playing guitar, bass, drums and singing - to a range of well know (and some not so well know) songs. To play, you just follow the instructions on the TV screen.

The game itself was not a patch on the Xbox 360 version, and to top it off, the instruments from Guitar Hero are not compatible with this game (something the retailer cleverly didn't tell me when I handed over £150). Meaning if you want four people to play the game, you have to buy an extra instrument, despite already owning one for the Guitar Hero franchise. All instruments are compatible in the Xbox 360 versions by the way.

Now those of you who are not gamers will not be that interested - but my point is about yet another rip off that people face.

In times of financial crisis, and due to the runaway success of the Wii, thousands of people will have invested their hard earned cash in Rock Band - expecting all the instruments to be compatible with other music-based games. And many more will be about to make that same mistake.

But unbeknown to them, there is another game (which incidentally is much better) launching next month called Guitar Hero World Tour, which has a whole new set of instruments, again which are not compatible with Rock Band. So you have to either pick one franchise, or buy both sets. Not exactly a cheap option - but if like me, you have to have both - you have no choice.

This is all down to a spat between the two different makers of the two game franchises - Nintendo has washed its hands of the matter apparently.

I just think that Nintendo should have stepped in a stopped its millions of loyal customers getting ripped off royally. It should hang its head in shame.