Seeing how your entourage can be see on stage while you're playing, there's plenty of incentive to keep them looking their finest. The customization is carried through into the cut scenes as well which is a nice touch. Unfortunately all of this customization comes at a price as you'll see the loading screen a lot as you move from performances to your Rock Den and back again which will try the patience of the younger gamers in the band.

The game sports a collection of new features that make the Rock Band experience in general a better one. First is the ability to have multiple staff members active at one time meaning that you never have to choose between more studs (the game's currency) or more fans. Second is the addition of your final score being what you earned for the song. Gone are the days of slamming home an awesome five star performance on expert to take in a measly 500 bucks. The flip side to this is that you have to buy everything in the game from new vehicles to entourage members however with your score as your earnings there's extra incentive to eek out as high a score as possible once you've gotten that fifth star.

Also new is the concept of albums, multiple song sets recorded as you make your way through the tour. As you record more and more albums you'll get to gigs where you can choose which record to play for extra studs and fans. Finally the new Super Easy difficulty mode and the ability to turn off the foot pedal when drumming make the game even more accessible to new gamers. In Super Easy mode you just have to hit a drum or strum in time with the music without having to worry about the colored buttons. Plus, No Fail is automatically turned on. For kids with limited attentiion spans you have the ability to play shortened versions of all of the songs but the edits are jarring. Better you tell Timmy to man up and play through all of "Kung-Fu Fighting".

As a 37 year old father of two with a varied music collection, memories of when the world premeire of a new Whitesnake video was a grand event and a Lego Ultimate Collector's Edition Batmobile in his bedroom, it's hard not to think that the game was made specifically for me. If so, then mission accomplished. Amazingly the game succeeds at providing an entertaining, albeit less serious, musical experience, the goofy joy of having a band full of wolfmen and pirates and a send up of the dumb excesses of rock and roll. Grab your sense of humor and your plastic axe and give Lego Rock Band a try. Your hovercraft awaits.