Rock Band isn’t as hyped nowadays as it used to be, but the fact remains that for the musically-inclined and the musical layman alike, it creates a neat full band gameplay experience that doesn’t do a bad job representing what it’s like to actually play with a band. Yes, you can argue that it’s not really like playing music. That might be true to an extent for guitar and bass, although those certainly will increase your dexterity. But the drums and keyboard options don’t differ too much from their real life counterparts. If you get good at Rock Band drums, for the most part, you know how to play drums. This is the reason I enjoy Rock Band so much.

I was incredibly excited when I got my copy of Rock Band 3, along with the full Mad Catz drum set, cymbals included. I set it up as quickly as possible and started playing, when I noticed that there was some faulty wiring. When I would hit either the blue or green drum heads, they would both activate. Depressed but undeterred, I found the nearest place that had another set and exchanged it.

For almost three months, we had joyous times together. Then, the inevitable happened – the kick pedal broke. If you’ve ever owned a rhythm game drum set before and play on any difficulty above medium, chances are this has happened to you. However, in the few months I’ve had the kit, I’ve been able to put together what I think is an accurate assessment of its general quality.

The kit has a solid feel to it. The legs that hold up the drums and the cymbals may feel a bit wobbly, but I’ve never had a problem with them. The drum heads themselves are built slightly differently on this model than previously. Instead of a solid pad, it’s a pad with a sensor on top of another, with a slight amount of space in between to dampen the pressure of bashing it with a stick. This was a good idea, but the snare drum (red pad) is still going to be used much more often than the others, especially with the cymbal expansion, so it’s going to go much more quickly than the rest. After a few months, the pad on my snare is poofing up, like there’s air under it. It lessens the accuracy significantly, rendering drum rolls of all types basically useless. I haven’t come across a kit where this hasn’t happened, so it’s probably something we’ll just have to deal with.

The cymbals were a brilliant addition to the kit, but there’s something slightly off about them sometimes. They’re not as accurate as they should be. Most of the time I can play through songs with no issues using the cymbals, but sometimes even the most simple songs that I thoroughly know will be ruined because the hi-hat cymbal isn’t working correctly. When this happens, sometimes twisting the cymbal so that I’m hitting a different part of it makes a difference, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s kind of a pain, though, since the cymbals are angled, making it awkward to play on them if you have to turn them. Furthermore, you can’t really hit the top of the cymbals, it reads much more accurately if you hit directly on the edge. And occasionally, the clamps that hold the cymbals up will slide down in the middle of a song from being repeatedly bashed, which makes sense but is not very fun.

Then we get to the bass/kick pedal. The thing you mash your foot on wildly while trying to play that Dance Gavin Dance song on expert. Unless you’ve got petite feet or something, it doesn’t have the longest life expectancy. Until that time comes, however, this iteration is considerably more solid and reliable than any previous. I never really had a problem with it; when I messed up, I knew it was my fault. It’s a shame it goes so quickly, but at least the Blockhead kit from Best Buy comes with a new pedal, as well as drum head pads so your blast beats don’t disturb your family, and even a new pair of drum sticks all for $20. As far as I can tell, that’s probably the best option, considering the Mad Catz pedal by itself costs $35 used on Amazon. The Blockhead Kit has some pretty bad reviews, though.

The Mad Catz Rock Band 3 Drum Set is the most practical full kit you can buy. For all its flaws that I’ve listed, I’ve also Gold 5 Star’d multiple songs on expert, so it is definitely a viable product. I suppose the bottom line is that if you play Rock Band drums gently and cautiously, these will probably last you a long time. If you actually get into it when you play, or play some of those crazy metal songs you can buy, it’s a good kit for a while. However, if that’s the case there probably aren’t too many other kits that could withstand that type of abuse, either. If anyone knows of some sort of superkit, like the Cobalt Flux of the Rock Band world or something, please let me know in the comments.