Rock Band 3 (Publisher: MTV Games, Format: Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii)

If 2009 overwhelmed rhythm game fans with sequels and band-centric content, 2010 has seen a leaner line up of releases in the genre but real effort at innovation. Rock Band 3 is the most successful of these innovators, especially with its addition of the keyboard peripheral into your band’s repertoire. Featuring a strong, ecletic track list representing five decades of music, the game also features robust new tutorials for “Pro” versions of its instrumentation. The keyboard tutorials are stripped down and basic but amazingly accessible. Even this musically impaired gamer found that I might be able to learn something very much like real keyboard (albeit I am becoming a masterful one-handed piano player, but still). Come to play The Doors’s “Break on Through” but stay to play through the charmingly kitschy opening and closing bars of Night Ranger’s “Sister Christian”.