Rock Band Unplugged – A Mini-review
June 11, 2009 by
Filed under Blog, PSP, Playstation, Review
Along with the rise of the current generation of consoles we’ve seen the rise of a few other things: HD graphics, downloadable content, motion controllers and rhythm games. No longer is the latter considered as a niche genre only played by Japanese in their fancy Japanese arcades. No, music and rhythm games are one of the most popular video game genres with games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band in the top 10 sales charts every year. With artists spanning generations everyone is bound to get involved. I mean, who doesn’t want to pretend they’re Kurt Cobain or Lars Ulrich jamming to the tracks from Nirvana and Metallica to Bullet for My Valentine and Trivium? It’s clear that a revolution is in progress, a rock revolution!
This brings us to the game in question: Rock Band Unplugged for PSP.
How can you get the same experience with a rhythm game if you take away the cool guitar and drum controllers? Yes, this isn’t exactly the same experience but believe it when I say, this is very much a Rock Band game. Everything from the minute you press the start button looks and feels the same as its big brothers. The band customization, the World Tour mode and downloadable content are all present. The biggest yet understandable exclusion is the multiplayer component, so no jamming The Offspring online or via ad-hoc with your buddies.
Okay I’m listening, tell me more… You’re given control over all the components of the band, consisting of lead guitar, bass, drums and vocals which are split into its separate highways. Very much like Harmonix’ previous games Frequency and Amplitude you use the face buttons, left, up, triangle and circle, to match the notes at the given time. As you successfully complete a phrase, a set of about 8 to 10 notes, that instrument continues on its own allowing you to switch to other instruments using the L and R buttons. Complete another phrase and switch to another instrument etc. When you have all the instruments going you enter Band Groove mode which ups your score multiplier to X5. It’s a little confusing at first but veteran Rock Band players will get the hang of it soon enough. It does feel great when you get the hang of it and it’s just then when you realize that this is the Rock Band we know.
So, what’s the track list like? The retail version contains no less than 40 tracks spanning bands such as Queens of the Stone Age, Jackson 5, Weezer, The Police, AFI and Blink 182: A great combination of tracks from the 80’s, 90’s and more modern bands. A further ten songs are available for download off PSN.
Overall I’m pretty pleased with Rock Band Unplugged. The lack of multiplayer does take away some of the enjoyment but as a standalone game it’s a purchase well worth your time.
Rock Band Unplugged is out now in the US and will be released on the 19th of June this year in European regions.
Related posts: