"Rock Band 2" looks essentially the same as the first version. "Guitar Hero: World Tour," on the other hand, is a step below. It's not necessary to have a great-looking game to have fun, but "GHWT" doesn't appear to care much about graphics.

THE WRAP-UP:

Final word: In the battle of the two blockbuster video game kits, "Rock Band 2" wins. "Rock Band 2" doesn't demolish "Guitar Hero: World Tour" on all fronts, but its massive downloadable song list and the fact that you can carry your downloaded songs and 55 previous releases from "Rock Band" to "Rock Band 2" gives you a massive library of songs. I don't care how good the game is, if you've performed every song 30 times they start to get old and with "Rock Band 2" it takes a long time to run out. "Guitar Hero: World Tour" is a lot of fun, but you can live without the huge kit. If you have a guitar from previous "Guitar Hero" releases then you will be fine with the "Rock Band" drums and mic and the old "Guitar Hero" guitar. "Rock Band 2," on the other hand, makes sense to buy the kit for the wireless drums alone.

E-mail: ccraine@desnews.com