While on a routine shopping trip for my next external hard drive, I happened by Best Buy’s “Guitar Heroâ€Â displays. The guitar-and-TV with “Guitar Heroâ€Â playing setup has been a mainstay for as long as I remember.

This time, right next to “Guitar Heroâ€Â was the demo for “Rock Band,â€Â a game officially released more than a week ago still labeled as “upcoming releaseâ€Â at the store.

Let̢۪s compare the two.

The latest iteration of the “Guitar Heroâ€Â series, “Guitar Hero IIIâ€Â is a pretty awesome game. It features a guitar-shaped controller, four difficulty levels and a whole bunch of awesome songs. “Sunshine of Your Loveâ€Â has never been so satisfying.

With controller, it’ll cost you a good $79.99, plus tax. Without controller, its MSRP stands at the standard new-release cost of $49.99. “Guitar Hero IIIâ€Â is or will be available for PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC and Mac.

“Rock Bandâ€Â includes not only playable guitar and bass parts in its songs, but also drumset and vocals. From playing the demo, I could tell that it has a good amount of visual panache, like the “Guitar Heroâ€Â games. However, when compared to the “Guitar Heroâ€Â series, the graphics are nothing special.

“Rock Bandâ€Â costs about twice as much as “Guitar Hero IIIâ€Â packaged with the faux guitar — its MSRP is high at $169.99. “Rock Bandâ€Â is available for PS3 and Xbox 360.

Both games are musical rhythm games, and both are fun to play. Both feature some sort of guitar-shaped controller.

While I played the demo, a passerby commented that “Rock Bandâ€Â is ripping off “Guitar Hero.â€Â That depends on how you look at it.

“Guitar Hero IIIâ€Â was developed by a different studio than either of the previous two games in the series. Harmonix Music Systems, rather than develop said “Guitar Hero III,â€Â moved on to their own project — “Rock Band.â€Â

Backstory aside, comparisons to “Guitar Heroâ€Â are going to dominate any actual reviews of “Rock Band.â€Â So how does it compare?

That’s hard to say from the short demo I played at Best Buy, but the game would be almost worth it for the drumset alone. The drumset there at the store was half-broken and had parts missing, but it was still fun and probably more satisfying than “Guitar Hero,â€Â for my money.

The set of songs available in “Rock Bandâ€Â is just as strong as any “Guitar Heroâ€Â game, with a number of more recent popular hits — “Here it Goes Againâ€Â and “Dani Californiaâ€Â — sharing time with Deep Purple and The Who.

The karaoke microphone was unavailable — who could blame Best Buy for that one — but if it’s anything like the one from “Karaoke Revolutionâ€Â — another Harmonix game — then it’s responsive and unforgiving. More over, it’s a whole lot of fun.

Having sampled both guitar and bass parts, the guitar-shaped parts of the solo game are certainly the weakest part of “Rock Band.â€Â The controllers have a completely different feel than that of the guitars from the “Guitar Heroâ€Â games — more nebulous and not quite as responsive.

Good thing the “Guitar Heroâ€Â guitars are rumored to be fully compatible. I couldn’t quite test that in the middle of Best Buy, though.

Once they sell drum set and game separately, I̢۪m going to get one of my friends to buy it. Unfortunately, I can̢۪t afford even this much fun.

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