Rock Band takes the Guitar Hero experience one step further. Instead of merely giving you a plastic guitar to riff away on, matching the coloured notes in time as they drift down the screen, it provides you with a set of drums and a microphone as well.

This means that three people can rock out together, forming a band and taking on the campaign tour mode (or four people if you've already got a Guitar Hero guitar, as they're compatible and can be used as a fourth instrument, the bass).

So in essence it's a rock version of SingStar meets Guitar Hero, with the big fat bonus of the drums thrown in. And, unsurprisingly, there's been a lot of buzz generated by the game across various Web forums, although sadly not all of it's been about the wonders of playing in a virtual rock band. Much of the chin-wagging has centred on the cost of the experience.

Which is a rather eye-watering £180: that's £40 for the game itself and £140 for the instrument pack, which is the same price as a Nintendo Wii console. And many are complaining that this is just too much, and that in the US it's relatively much cheaper than this.

We have two points to make on this issue. Firstly, you can actually pick it all up for around £140 online. Secondly, you've got to remember that you're getting a full set of drums, a guitar and a mic for that money. No, it's not cheap, but at the same time we'd argue it isn't wallet-gougingly expensive for all this. That's not to say we didn't have some issues with Rock Band, though.

Let's start with the singing, as this is the weakest area of the game. Not that there's anything wrong with the microphone; it's nicely weighted and a quality piece of kit. The problem is that even on the higher difficulty levels, Rock Band doesn't really make much distinction between good and bad singers. We're tone deaf (not to mention tone blind and tone dumb): if we sang at a cat's birthday party we'd be booed, or rather meowed, off the stage.

Yet we could finish a song on expert level, if we knew it, and friends of ours who could sing didn't do discernibly better than us. That's because as long as you're familiar with the intonations and timing of the vocals, you'll be fine. It doesn't matter that the results coming through your TV's speakers sound out of tune, as long as you're in relative pitch to the song. On the plus side, anyone can have a go at the singing and have fun.

Moving on to the drums, these are a quality replica set. There are four drum pads, supported on two height-adjustable struts. A pedal for the virtual bass drum hooks over the base that the struts lock into, and it's all solidly built. You get a nice pair of drumsticks, too.

Playing the drums is tricky to begin with, even on the easiest level. Unless you've done a bit of drumming before, playing the pads with your sticks and independently pumping the bass pedal with your foot is a bit like rubbing your tummy and patting your head simultaneously. Although it's far more rewarding when you get it right, and you'll get the hang of it after a couple of hours' practice.

Then you'll begin to feel like a real drummer, crashing the cymbal (the far right pad) with a flourish and bashing out freeform drum solos to activate your power-ups. These improvised fills are rather noisy, and do tend to drown out the other instruments, but they're damn good fun and an excuse to bash the pads like some deranged rabid animal (which brought back fond memories of The Muppets for us).

Guitar playing is pretty similar to Guitar Hero, with a couple of subtle differences, such as being allowed to improvise a big rock finish on some songs, and the game scoring you on the quality of your solos. Rock Band's note patterns are less complex than the stuff Guitar Hero 3 throws at you, but on the flipside the newer game does demand more precise timing of your strums.

The Rock Band guitar itself has much bigger fret buttons than the Guitar Hero instrument, along with an extra set of soloing buttons at the bottom of the fretboard which can be used to tap out solos (i.e. play without strumming). These are thoughtful touches, and the strum bar itself is slightly different, too, playing with a soft action rather than the hard-clicking Guitar Hero Les Paul imitation.

However, the Rock Band guitar is lighter and feels more plasticky and flimsy. We preferred our Guitar Hero axe, partly because we're just so used to it, but also due to the more solid feel and stiffer strum action.

Even though we felt the guitar was a bit of a let-down, there's no doubting the level of enjoyment to be had from Rock Band. Playing co-operatively with friends, forming your own band and taking on the world tour is an extremely enjoyable experience. The tour itself offers some interesting twists, such as basic management decisions, set lists to put together and so on. Plus your rockers can be customised with all sorts of different clothes, accessories, tattoos and instruments.

There's more depth than the Guitar Hero career mode, and we'll stick our neck out and say the track list is also superior. There's a wide mix of metal, a few old rock classics, plus some punk and indie style tracks. Hardcore metallers probably won't appreciate the inclusion of songs from The Pixies, Garbage, Blur and Oasis, but on the other hand, those with a more rounded taste in music certainly will.

The singing isn't brilliantly implemented and the Rock Band guitar is a little disappointing. Yet we still love the co-op band experience and feel that the game's worth every penny, with a well fleshed-out career mode and excellent track list. Just make sure you shop around online when you buy.