Even though it was released almost a year after its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 brothers, Rock Band finally came to the Wii and gave Wii gamers the chance to experience what 360 and PS3 owners had known and loved for a while. The full band kit includes a set of drums, which you can easily set up and use. In fact, if you have some free time, you have all you need to use the Wii Rock Band drums (apart from the game, obviously).

Set up the Rock Band Wii drum set. The Rock Band instruction manual offers detailed instructions on how to assemble the drum kit. Once you have assembled the drum set, connect the drum USB cable to the USB hub, which plugs into any free USB port on the Wii.

Configure the Rock Band Wii drums by starting the game and navigating, either with the Drum Kit D-Pad or with a standard controller, to "Options." Inside the Options menu, select "Calibration Settings." If you want to manually calibrate the drums, strike the yellow pad. If you want the game to calibrate automatically, hit the green pad.

  • Even though it was released almost a year after its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 brothers, Rock Band finally came to the Wii and gave Wii gamers the chance to experience what 360 and PS3 owners had known and loved for a while.
  • Configure the Rock Band Wii drums by starting the game and navigating, either with the Drum Kit D-Pad or with a standard controller, to "Options."

Use the drums in-game to play along with the songs. Strike each colour-coded pad when the corresponding fret reaches the bottom of the screen. When you see four solid vertical lines, beat the drum pads wildly for a freestyle bonus. When you see a thin, horizontal orange line across the full fret board, strike the foot pedal to keep your note streak going.

TIP

Invest in a couple of rechargeable batteries so you don't have to replace the batteries in the drums every few weeks.

WARNING

Use some care when assembling the drums. After all, they are only plastic.