For those willing to make the investment, Rock Band 3 is one of the best multiplayer experiences around. I shudder to think how much money I’ve spent on Rock Band games, instruments and song downloads since I first got into it, but few games are as purely joyful to play as Rock Band 3. Far from being just a new songlist, Rock Band 3 represents a great leap forward for music rhythm gaming.

Activision recently announced that it is discontinuing the Guitar Hero franchise, and while it’s easy to see this as unfortunate, it was nonetheless predictable. Activision released more than 10 Guitar Hero titles in three years. With such rapid output, it should come as no surprise that most games were simply a new list of songs without much refinement or updates to gameplay.

Harmonix, on the other hand, has taken a completely different approach to the Rock Band series. Each main installment of the game has had massive improvements over its predecessor, and Rock Band 3 is the biggest and best update thus far. While the core gameplay — tapping a series of colored buttons on the plastic instrument of your choice — is still intact, the number of add-ons and improvements in this one game is staggering.

First and foremost, Harmonix has added a keyboard peripheral to the lineup. While still able to play in the classic five-button mode, the keyboard also brings with it the all-new “Pro” mode. In short, Pro mode has you playing the actual notes to the song on the keyboard, instead of colored buttons. There are still four difficulty levels, so on Easy you’ll be striking single notes, while Medium and Hard slowly introduce two- and three-note chords, and Expert throws in four-note chords to create a perfect note-for-note recreation of songs like “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Imagine.”

Vocal harmonies were introduced in The Beatles: Rock Band, and they likewise return here. That means, with a keyboardist and up to three vocalists, Rock Band 3 supports a total of seven people playing at one time. Yes, that’s right, seven people at one time. To my knowledge, no other console game has ever supported this many simultaneous players.

Pro mode extends to drums, guitar and bass as well. For drums, you need to buy cymbals for your drum set, but once you do, a whole other world opens up to percussionists. The cymbals are colored to match the drums, so as you play, a colored lane will either show a drum or a cymbal where appropriate. The player, then, will have to strike the correct drum or cymbal for the hit to count. It’s an extra layer of challenge that also makes the drums feel much more authentic.

Pro guitar, though, is perhaps the most exciting new feature in Rock Band 3. Similar to Pro keyboard, in which you play actual notes, Pro guitar has you playing the actual guitar parts to each song. To accomplish this, accessory manufacturer MadCatz and guitar maker Fender each introduced new guitars of their own, each specially designed for use with Rock Band 3.

The MadCatz Mustang Pro guitar controller retails for $150 and features a neck with 102 buttons organized into six lanes and 17 frets to imitate a real guitar. The body of the guitar has six strings so you can realistically strum with one hand while your other hand presses the fret buttons. Unfortunately, this is the one Rock Band accessory I have yet to try for myself.

But for those who demand that extra bit of realism, and are willing to pay top dollar for it, Fender is making its own Squier Stratocaster guitar that can interface with the game. Sensors built into the neck detect where your hands are placed, and an extra accessory called the Midi Pro Adapter (sold separately, and in frustratingly short supply) translates your playing into gameplay. I was practically drooling over the Squier at E3 last year, and I can’t wait to get my hands on it when it’s released on March 1.

Aside from all the new innovations, Rock Band 3 makes several refinements to general gameplay. Adding and subtracting players is a snap, since players can now join in or drop out at any time. You can change the difficulty in the middle of a song without having to exit out first. “No fail” mode returns, and it no longer hinders you from making in-game progress or playing online. The song selection screen has a ton of options for organizing and filtering your music.

For hardcore Rock Band players like myself, this is a godsend. Suppose I’m playing keyboard. Well, only Rock Band 3 songs have keyboard parts, so I filter my songlist to only show those songs. Now, I don’t have to scroll through my 600 other songs to find the ones that have what I’m looking for. A genius move on Harmonix’s part.

All this, and only now can I get around to talking about the music itself. Rock Band 3’s soundtrack is without a doubt the most varied song selection for any band game I’ve ever seen. There’s the usual guitar-driven rock and heavy metal, ’80s new wave and electro-pop, and classic sing-along favorites. But Rock Band 3 came with lots of indie and obscure music that I was unfamiliar with. French electronica band Poni Hoax, indie singer-songwriters Tegan and Sara, and Spanish punk-rockers Dover were just a few of the bands I can thank Rock Band 3 for introducing me to. When you consider the 2,000+ songs available for download online, there’s plenty for anyone to create the ultimate Rock Band soundtrack.

Taken as a whole, Rock Band 3 is an amazing achievement. Not only that, but with the addition of “Pro” mode, Rock Band may transcend the videogame medium altogether. It’s easy to imagine music teachers in the near future using “Pro” mode to teach new students the basics of how to play guitar, keyboard and drums. Hopefully, Harmonix will succeed where Activision fell, and Rock Band may become recognized for what it is — the best music game anywhere.