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Partridge Families, assemble! Harmonix grows the genre with addictive group play.

You can't put a price on rock camaraderie.

Guitar Hero banked on our collective dream of being six-string superheroes; a no-brainer and, frankly, we’re surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. But rocking out as a group? Brilliant. If Guitar Hero cast us as music’s proverbial Spider-Man, Rock Band makes us the Fantastic Four — an experience that thrives on teamwork and only improves when played with friends.

Your little bro’ strumming bass with you on Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun;” your mom half-laughing through the lines of “Learn to Fly;” your boyfriend clapping cymbals on “Sabotage” like he’s an actual Beastie Boy: these are the moments when Rock Band’s at its best. The feelings of playful reliance, cooperation and momentum that arise when you’re tapping out notes on your pseudo-instruments feel authentic. Is it worth dropping $170 for the whole guitar, drum and microphone she-bang? Depends. If you’ve got enough virtual musicians in and out of your living room, chipping in for the set should be worthwhile.

Unfortunately, if you’re guitaring-for-one, the same can’t be said for solo play. In terms of being a high-skill, nuanced experience, Guitar Hero seems to have the code under lock and key. Gunning through Rock Band’s 58 songs by yourself lacks the fluid feel that Guitar Hero’s honed. A handful of design decisions make Rock Band’s solo play feel less fleshed-out, beginning with an interface that accommodates a quartet nicely, but doesn’t fare as well when you’re strumming, singing or keeping the beat alone.

Colored notes stream down the screen just like we’ve seen before, albeit as slimmer bars. It may seem insignificant, but Guitar Hero’s rounded icons communicate the pace of a rhythm game a lot better — having to hit tinier targets is less intuitive, but especially when you’re in single-player, the narrow notes leave a lot of empty, uninteresting space on the screen. In terms of modes, too, Rock Band is best played within its multiplayer Band World Tour, where a duet or more hop between cities, jamming through set lists, earning cash, roadies and fans, and unlocking new tracks and flashy attire for their on-stage avatars. The single-player career feels much more abbreviated. You still rack up funds and items for your rocker, but instead of road-tripping through tour spots to unlock songs, you perform them in a linear path.