Peripherals for music-band games once again popular at CES

By Levi Chronister

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2009 | 6:23 p.m.

Last year at CES, Rock Band and Guitar Hero peripherals were all over the place, trying to capitalize on the popularity of Rock Band and the group dynamic it brought to gaming.

This year, with the newest version of both games being able to share instruments, accessories for them are a hot topic yet again.

The most useful peripheral seems to be a Rock Band 2-branded memory card from SanDisk for the Wii. The 2GB card will allow players to download far more songs than the console's 512MB of internal memory.

With 30 million songs downloaded so far, according to Harmonix publicist John Drake, it sounds like Wii owners could benefit greatly from this new product. SanDisk already has a Wii-branded card on the market, but the Rock Band 2 version won't be available until the spring.

NVIDIA didn't announce a specific accessory for either game, but the graphics company did use Guitar Hero as its showcase game for a new 3D-gaming technology.

GeForce 3D Vision is an add-on that turns nearly any recent computer game into a three-dimensional experience, as long as you have the following three items:

1) The 3D Vision pack, which includes a pair of glasses, device drivers and the necessary cables.

2) A GeForce graphics card

3) A 120 Hz monitor

The company used a Mitsubishi DLP HD television that's already on the market to show off its new product, but said that the new 120 Hz LDC monitors that were being announced at CES by other companies would work, as well.

As great as the tricked-out graphics looked, the 3D Vision pack only works on computer games, so anyone who prefers to rock out console style will have to settle for the 2D version they're used to.

Speaking of disappointing visuals, CTA digital displayed a whole slew of plain-looking accessories for both games. The peripherals were so new they weren't even in the 2009 product catalog, so maybe their unimpressive appearance was a by-product of rushing them to market.

The Shred Axe guitar controller for the Wii remote comes in both wood-grain and white, and they also offer a number of kits with multiple pieces in each. There's a 3-in-1 guitar bag kit that comes with a bag, stand and strap for a Shred Axe; a 3-in-1 mic stand that also includes two drumsticks and a holder to connect them to the stand; and an 8-in-1 starter kit with three windscreens (black, red and yellow), a rechargeable battery for the guitar, a sleeve for the bass pedal, two drum sticks, and a mic stand with a drumstick holder. The company also showcased a mic stand with stands for two guitars and a drum stool.

It's not that the Wii itself is the most ornate or awe-inspiring machine ever made. But when the wood-grain Shred Axe looks like a glossy photo of Photoshopped wood at best, and three of the pieces in the 8-in-1 starter kit are pretty but unnecessary wind screens (when's the last time someone played Guitar Hero outdoors or Rock Band within inches of a ceiling fan?) the accessories seem destined as Christmas gifts from someone who doesn't know you very well.