[PSP] Rock Band Unplugged

RELEASE DATE: June 9, 2009

Gamespot article:

Quote:

It's not often that it happens, but occasionally you'll see a massively successful band at the peak of fame take time off from playing stadium concerts to treat their fans to a more intimate performance in a smaller venue. Sure, they might play some of their new songs, but it's in those smaller clubs that the band can trace their roots and show a legion of fans what the early days were like. Harmonix is in a similar situation with Rock Band Unplugged. This PSP adaptation of the popular rhythm franchise bears a more-than-passing resemblance to Amplitude, the company's 2003 PlayStation 2 rhythm game that earned critical acclaim but didn't quite light the genre aflame like its later game, Guitar Hero, would ultimately do.

Amplitude was a predecessor to the Guitar Hero/Rock Band style of gameplay in an era before plastic guitar controllers became the norm. The core of the game was similar in the way that players were given the task of pressing buttons in sync with a series of icons cascading down the screen to match the timing of a song and create the effect of playing an instrument. And though that base formula sounds awfully familiar at this point, one important gameplay feature from Amplitude that never made the transition to the next wave of rhythm games was the idea of switching instruments in midsong--something Unplugged relies very heavily upon.

That's where Rock Band Unplugged feels like Amplitude the most. With the absence of music peripherals, you use four buttons on the face of the PSP--by default, left and up on the directional pad along with triangle and circle--to match the red, yellow, blue, and green notes that make up each instrument's track. But by pressing either of the shoulder buttons, you can switch between instrument tracks at will. One second you'll be mimicking Roger Daltrey's vocal track on The Who's "Pinball Wizard," but the next moment you might be drumming as Keith Moon or strumming guitar as Pete Townshend depending on your own preference. But as a way of guiding you between the best parts of each song, the game will limit switching selections to one or two other tracks at once.

The challenge that exists with this style of play is the difficulty present in any form of multitasking. The familiar Rock Band fail meter is shown on the left of the screen to tell you which instruments are doing well and which aren't. Playing tracks while keeping a constant eye on which one needs to be played after the current guitar riff or drum fill is over is described by Harmonix as "plate-spinning"--a sort of rewarding chaos that keeps you juggling different tasks. A pair of separate gameplay modes exists to modify how you manage the tracks; Warm-Up Mode lets you choose between tracks but lets only the one you're currently playing affect the band meter, and Band Survival Mode shows notes for every instrument at once to really crank up the challenge level.

Though Unplugged feels very much like a spiritual successor to Amplitude, the game carries the Rock Band branding for a reason. Aside from the fact that the overall look and presentation of the game feel distinctly similar to its console counterparts, you'll have the option to create your own customized band and then take them on the road in World Tour mode. There are 24 venues to choose from along the way, and you can earn cash to buy new instruments and clothing while building your posse by hiring staff members.

If you're still scraping by with a 32-megabyte memory stick for your PSP, Unplugged's in-game music store--another Rock Band hallmark that's transitioned over to PSP--will probably make you consider upgrading. At launch, 10 songs will be available, and more songs will show up on a semiregular basis to cull some of the more popular numbers from the weekly console releases. The store uses your existing PlayStation Network ID, so it should be a fairly hassle-free process to get things set up if you've already done any purchasing on your PSP or PlayStation 3. (This DLC will complement an initial tracklist on the game that includes a few PSP-exclusive songs viewable here.)

Rock Band Unplugged is currently scheduled for release on June 9. Keep an eye out for future tracklist information leading up to our complete review when the game is released.

Preview video in article page.

Reading the title on the news page, I was ready to give myself a gargantuan :facepalm: because we all know how awesome other music games that cash in on their console counterpart popularity are. Am I right? But, I don't know, it looks pretty sweet based on the preview video. It's compared to Amplitude (another music game Harmonix made that was criminally overlooked) but it really looks nothing like it and the option to switch instruments on the fly seems like a nifty idea provided the difficulty doesn't scale off the wall.

Altogether, I'm fairly confident that this game won't disappoint seeing as how Harmonix actually, you know, knows how to make proper music games instead of making advertising-laden knock-offs that feel like a bunch of suits were trying to figure out what the "cool kidz" were "jamming out" to. Perhaps they'll finally do Stairway To Heaven in this game.

HAHAHAWHOTHEFUCKAREYOUKIDDING.

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I'm pretty sure Jimmy Page has been quoted somewhere saying he'll never allow any of his songs to feature in a computer game.

I quite liked Amplitude, despite being shockingly bad at it so I might pick this up after it's been out a month and the price plummets.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Both Page and Plant are notoriously adamant with their refusal to let people use their songs for, well, pretty much anything. In short: I'm not holding my breath.

How ya doing, buddy?

Back when Guitar Hero was first announced, I was fairly hopeful that it would be a spiritual successor to Amplitude, which I enjoyed playing the demo of against some of my co-workers while working at Circuit City (all those years ago...). Of course, what resulted not only a better game but a game with wheels. Whereas Amplitude had next-to-nothing in terms of familiar games and artists, Guitar Hero took music licensing to a whole new level and, as we've seen, the rampage has been unstoppable. Had Amplitude featured any of the music that has been in the Guitar Hero or Rock Band games, the landscape would be much different.

That said, I still hold a special place in my heart for Amplitude's gameplay (flipping tracks at manic speed is a good way to drive oneself crazy) and this looks like the spiritual successor I was waiting for back in 2005. I daresay I may want to buy this.

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Did Led Zeppelin ever record an unplugged version of "Stairway?" I haven't watched much of their live footage, but I feel like that song would lose a lot in the end.

EDIT: Nevermind I am an idiot and misinterpreted the title.

I was speaking idiomatically.

I'm not entirely sure I'm convinced by the gameplay mechanics, but I love me some Rock Band so I'll certainly keep an eye out and see what it ends up being like. The one thing that puts me off is the idea of buying songs again. If they found some way of you being able to download the tracks you'd already bought in a full release of Rock Band then that'd be top notch.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by OmagnusPrime

I'm not entirely sure I'm convinced by the gameplay mechanics, but I love me some Rock Band so I'll certainly keep an eye out and see what it ends up being like. The one thing that puts me off is the idea of buying songs again. If they found some way of you being able to download the tracks you'd already bought in a full release of Rock Band then that'd be top notch.

That would be nice, but I can't imagine that being free or convenient for Xbox 360 owners.

What else would be nice: not being limited to just four instruments. Hello keyboard/piano, sup Elton John and Billy Joel.

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by The Dopefish

That would be nice, but I can't imagine that being free or convenient for Xbox 360 owners.

Oh, it's absolutely not going to happen, but it'd be great if it did. I have no issue spending £1.50 or whatever is on the odd song here and there, but to spend that multiple times, well that'd get to the point of piss-taking really. It's an understandable limitation of such thing, but an unfortunate one that ultimately may put me off a purchase.

I really hope they stick a demo out on the PSN, because the switching instruments thing strikes me as something you need to get hands on with to see how it plays.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Well it's entirely unlikely they'd let you transfer songs across given that they'll be in a different format in terms of what you're hitting and when. If this is as similar to Amplitude as people are suggesting, you'll be flicking around between tracks and certain ones will run out sometimes, forcing you onto another one. If nothing else, you're only using four buttons in this game whereas normal Rock Band uses five on the higher skill levels doesn't it (I've only ever played Guitar Hero so I'm assuming this is the case in Rock Band too).

It's the same sort of thing as why you can't port Guitar Hero 3 tracks over to World Tour (Money grabbing not withstanding), the GH3 ones only had a lead and bass line, they would have had to add in a vocal and drum line for all of them.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Shin

It's the same sort of thing as why you can't port Guitar Hero 3 tracks over to World Tour (Money grabbing not withstanding), the GH3 ones only had a lead and bass line, they would have had to add in a vocal and drum line for all of them.

Well, Activision could have done it if they wanted to, but you may be too right about your "money grabbing" comment. They are remaking several old tracks with vocals/drums/bass for Guitar Hero: Smash Hits, so.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Rock Band Unplugged demo goes live at Playstation Store. You can access it through the PSP Store browser but the store online at the official site doesn't seem to have it.

It's also STUPID hard the first time you try it. I'm LOVING this! It only has 3 songs on start the demo with (A.F.I. - Miss Murder, Jimmy Eat World - The Middle and Foo Fighters - Everlong) but, you know, what can you expect from a rushed demo?

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I hate how the demo cuts you off mid-song, so you can't even see how you did on it. I'd rather have one complete song than three half-finished ones.

Anyway, I played this a couple of days ago, and it was alright. My main gripe is that it's hard to find a good control scheme. I was able to find one that was playable, but it still wasn't ideal. Anyway, seems like a good bargain bin pickup at the most, so I'll probably pick it up when it's less than $20.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Isn't the control scheme for Unplugged reminiscent of Amplitude and Frequency?

I was speaking idiomatically.

It's EXACTLY like both of those. The thing is that both of those were kind of like "follow this line and switch tracks if you need to". This actually has all 4 tracks (guitar, bass, drums and vocals) running at any given time and they cut off at random so you have to switch back to another track on the fly and they never really stop or start at exactly the same. Or at least I presume they do when you play a perfect run.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

(Never mind, I updated my PSP. My Memory Stick is too small.)

FELIPE NO

I just downloaded and tried out the demo for this game. I find it pretty stupid that they cut you off halfway through any of the songs. I think Rockgamer already said it above, but I would have much rather preferred a full song over 3 half songs.

I had the initial impression that a Rock Band using a conventional controller (as opposed to a guitar in hand) would be really weird. Well, the first 5 minutes with the game were indeed weird. But after that, I got used to using the PSP as the controller. It still feels a bit awkward, but it works well enough.

The switching of instruments through the song is interesting. Though it feels like if you miss even one, you're bound to miss quite a bit more afterwards too since the other parts come down, even if you're not ready.

Reading reviews, I only have one major gripe about this game and that's that it doesn't support multiplayer, which I found to be an odd decision, personally.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?