Just in time for our Holiday wish list… Harmonix announced today that the Wii version of Rock Band 2 will be hitting stores on December 18th.  This includes the Wii Rock Band 2 Special Edition bundle, the individual game, standalone drums, and standalone guitar.  Harmonix also confirmed that the Wii will eventually see all the downloadable songs that are currently available on the xBox 360 version of the game.  They will start releasing songs shortly after the release on a weekly basis.  Harmonix will start with the 20 free songs already released on other consoles.

Rock Band 2 should be a very different experience from the first version on the Wii according to the IGN game preview.  The first Rock Band release on the Wii was a quick port of the feature-lacking PS2 game.  Rock Band 2 for the Wii will have a lot more in common with the xBox 360 and Playstation 3 versions.  The game will have tour challenges, quickplay, customizable set lists, drum trainer, and a character creator.  Best of all, Rock Band 2 will have the downloadable content and online tournaments, “Battle of the Bands”, that were missing from the previous installment.

Why is Rock Band 2 a big deal on the Wii?  The music game catagory has been wildly popular among a wide array of games including hard-core players, first-time gamers, and families.  This fits the Wii demographics pretty well and sales for music games have shown it.  Guitar Hero: World Tour, Rock Band’s biggest competitor, sold just slightly more xBox 360 units than the Wii version of the game.  However, it does appear that sales of music games are slowing from the peak experienced around Guitar Hero III.  Punch Jump reported that initial sales for Rock Band 2 for Wii are starting to climb:

Advanced sales for MTV Games and Harmonix Inc.’s Rock Band 2 for Nintendo Co.’s Wii soared at retailer Amazon.com on Wed. prior to the title’s Dec. 18 release.  On Wed., sales for Rock Band 2 Wii increased 4,199 percent to rank as the No. 132 product in Amazon’s Video Games division.

Check out the Wii Rock Band 2 action below:

Check out the Rock Band 2 Wii list of songs:

1. The Main Drag - A Jagged Gorgeous Winter
2. Motörhead - Ace of Spades ‘08
3. Grateful Dead - Alabama Getaway
4. The Replacements - Alex Chilton
5. Pearl Jam - Alive
6. Avenged Sevenfold - Almost Easy
7. The Guess Who - American Woman
8. Journey - Any Way You Want It
9. Jethro Tull - Aqualung
10. Joan Jett - Bad Reputation
11. Metallica - Battery
12. Steely Dan - Bodhisattva
13. Kansas - Carry On Wayward Son
14. System of a Down - Chop Suey!
15. Mastodon - Colony of Birchmen
16. The Offspring - Come Out and Play (Keep ‘Em Separated)
17. Speck - Conventional Lovera
18. Squeeze - Cool for Cats
19. Lush - De-Luxe
20. Disturbed - Down with the Sickness
21. Nirvana - Drain You
22. Beck - E-Pro
23. Foo Fighters - Everlong
24. Survivor - Eye of the Tiger
25. Dinosaur Jr. - Feel the Pain
26. Modest Mouse - Float On
27. Anarchy Club - Get Clean
28. AFI - Girl’s Not Grey
29. Rise Against - Give It All
30. Red Hot Chili Peppers - Give It Away
31. Fleetwood Mac - Go Your Own Way
32. Cheap Trick - Hello There
33. Duran Duran - Hungry Like the Wolf
34. Social Distortion - I Was Wrong
35. The Muffs - Kids in America
36. Silversun Pickups - Lazy Eye
37. AC/DC - Let There Be Rock
38. Bon Jovi - Livin’ on a Prayer
39. Presidents of the United States of America - Lump
40. Alice in Chains - Man in the Box
41. Tenacious D - Master Exploder
42. Jane’s Addiction - Mountain Song
43. Lit - My Own Worst Enemy
44. The Donnas - New Kid in School
45. Bang Camaro - Night Lies
46. Panic at the Disco - Nine in the Afternoon
47. Linkin Park - One Step Closer
48. Blondie - One Way or Another
49. Lacuna Coil - Our Truth
50. Judas Priest - Painkiller
51. Dream Theater - Panic Attack
52. Interpol - PDA
53. Megadeth - Peace Sells
54. The Who - Pinball Wizard
55. L7 - Pretend We’re Dead
56. Talking Heads - Psycho Killer
57. Elvis Costello - Pump It Up
58. The Allman Brothers Band - Ramblin’ Man
59. Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl
60. That Handsome Devil - Rob the Prez-O-Dent
61. Steve Miller Band - Rock’n Me
62. Ratt - Round and Round
63. Guns N’ Roses - Shackler’s Revenge
64. Bad Company - Shooting Star
65. Breaking Wheel - Shoulder to the Plow
66. Beastie Boys - So What’cha Want
67. Testament - Souls of Black
68. Norman Greenbaum - Spirit in the Sky
69. Soundgarden - Spoonman
70. The Sterns - Supreme Girl
71. Bob Dylan - Tangled Up in Blue
72. Sonic Youth - Teen Age Riot
73. Rage Against the Machine - Testify
74. Paramore - That’s What You Get
75. Jimmy Eat World - The Middle
76. Rush - The Trees (Vault Edition)
77. Smashing Pumpkins - Today
78. Devo - Uncontrollable Urgea
79. Abnormality - Visions
80. The Go-Go’s - We Got the Beat
81. Libyans - Welcome to the Neighborhood
82. The Mighty Mighty Bosstones - Where’d You Go?
83. Billy Idol - White Wedding (Part 1)
84. Alanis Morissette - You Oughta Know

Related posts:

1. Rock Band 2: Where’s the DLC Songs? Rock Band 2 squeezed through a release date right...