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| The Entertainment Review |
| Genre: Music Developer: Backbone Entertainment Publisher: Electronic Arts |
“Rock Band Unplugged” brings back all of the red, green, yellow and blue notes and smashes them into the tiny UMD screen of the
PlayStation Portable. Instead of playing with a tiny guitar and drumsticks, players will control the onscreen action with the Left, Up,
Triangle and Circle buttons. This means that the guitar, bass, microphone and drums are all available in this game. Notes will fall on a
specific instrument’s track; players tap them as they cross the indicator line and earn points. Once one instrument gets old, players
can use the shoulder buttons to scroll to the next instrument. It is the exact same concept as before, just in a lot smaller format.
As players work their way through the game, they will notice a white box around the track. This is the phrase indicator. When players hit
every note in the phrase indicator the multiplier increases by one and the track that they were on plays by itself for a while so players can
jump to the next track that has notes falling on it. Just like other versions in the Rock Band series, players can save an instrument that
has failed by using Overdrive. Players are allowed to fail three times in a song before the music is cut short. Unlike other games in the
series, if the drums prove to be too difficult, players can jump to another track. This proves to be one of the keys of getting five star
performances.
Making the transition from one track to the next and their different note configurations is a bit easier is the fact that whatever instrument
players are playing at a given moment is a bit louder than the rest. For those that may be a little tone deaf, it is very helpful to hear the
guitar rather than getting lost in the vocals. This of course is a double-edged sword at times. When players start to mess up, the track
drops out. This can make it difficult to try and play one song correctly when players are only hearing a small amount of the song.
The game looks great with the bright colors, different venues to play in and a large amount of action on the screen, as well as the
customization options for the band is available with haircuts, logos and much more. Fans of the previous Rock Band games might be a
little bit disappointed to find that the dynamic animations of the band members don’t exist in this title. Instead, the guitarist will strum
along and the drummer will keep the beat at random no matter what buttons are being hit.
This portable game’s controls is very impressive, but players will also find it somewhat empowering. When players play the original
version of the game, players will stick to certain instruments because of their amount or lack of coordination. There is a bit of a learning
curve that goes along with “Rock Band Unplugged” but once they get the four button controls down, they will find themselves pulling off
crazy taps that would never have been able to be done on the real thing. This will make it easier for players to move from one city to the
next with much greater ease.
This time around players are going to get 41 songs on the PlayStation Portable and that is quite a large number of songs, but only nine
of the titles have never appeared in a Rock Band games before. Of course there is a number of titles that players wouldn’t mind playing
in the portable format, but most players would like to see new titles to play instead.
Of course this game does hold quite a few flaws, but there aren’t any bigger than the fact that the game doesn’t offer any form of
multiplayer. The absence of any head to head play and the ability to team up is a little bit hard to believe because of the fact that this is
what made the game so popular. It is also the part of the game that set the game apart from its Guitar Hero challenger. This omission
hurts the game’s lasting appeal as well as the reason to download new tracks to play. If players are unable to play against friends, and
most of the titles have been in previous titles, the downloading of new titles is the only way that players will get an replay value out of the
game.
“Rock band Unplugged” is a lot of fun to play and is highly recommended to people looking to play on the go, but players do need to
look into the cost versus benefit side of things. Of course the game play is amazing and is a lot of fun, but this has all been seen before
by anyone that is a fan of the franchise. If playing through a variety of songs all alone instead of playing with a group of friends on
multiplayer is what a player enjoys most, this is a great game. The exclusion of multiplayer hurts the game overall, but there is still a lot
offered here. Overall the game is impressive, but it still falls a bit short of the bar that was set by the franchise in the past.
PlayStation Portable. Instead of playing with a tiny guitar and drumsticks, players will control the onscreen action with the Left, Up,
Triangle and Circle buttons. This means that the guitar, bass, microphone and drums are all available in this game. Notes will fall on a
specific instrument’s track; players tap them as they cross the indicator line and earn points. Once one instrument gets old, players
can use the shoulder buttons to scroll to the next instrument. It is the exact same concept as before, just in a lot smaller format.
As players work their way through the game, they will notice a white box around the track. This is the phrase indicator. When players hit
every note in the phrase indicator the multiplier increases by one and the track that they were on plays by itself for a while so players can
jump to the next track that has notes falling on it. Just like other versions in the Rock Band series, players can save an instrument that
has failed by using Overdrive. Players are allowed to fail three times in a song before the music is cut short. Unlike other games in the
series, if the drums prove to be too difficult, players can jump to another track. This proves to be one of the keys of getting five star
performances.
Making the transition from one track to the next and their different note configurations is a bit easier is the fact that whatever instrument
players are playing at a given moment is a bit louder than the rest. For those that may be a little tone deaf, it is very helpful to hear the
guitar rather than getting lost in the vocals. This of course is a double-edged sword at times. When players start to mess up, the track
drops out. This can make it difficult to try and play one song correctly when players are only hearing a small amount of the song.
The game looks great with the bright colors, different venues to play in and a large amount of action on the screen, as well as the
customization options for the band is available with haircuts, logos and much more. Fans of the previous Rock Band games might be a
little bit disappointed to find that the dynamic animations of the band members don’t exist in this title. Instead, the guitarist will strum
along and the drummer will keep the beat at random no matter what buttons are being hit.
This portable game’s controls is very impressive, but players will also find it somewhat empowering. When players play the original
version of the game, players will stick to certain instruments because of their amount or lack of coordination. There is a bit of a learning
curve that goes along with “Rock Band Unplugged” but once they get the four button controls down, they will find themselves pulling off
crazy taps that would never have been able to be done on the real thing. This will make it easier for players to move from one city to the
next with much greater ease.
This time around players are going to get 41 songs on the PlayStation Portable and that is quite a large number of songs, but only nine
of the titles have never appeared in a Rock Band games before. Of course there is a number of titles that players wouldn’t mind playing
in the portable format, but most players would like to see new titles to play instead.
Of course this game does hold quite a few flaws, but there aren’t any bigger than the fact that the game doesn’t offer any form of
multiplayer. The absence of any head to head play and the ability to team up is a little bit hard to believe because of the fact that this is
what made the game so popular. It is also the part of the game that set the game apart from its Guitar Hero challenger. This omission
hurts the game’s lasting appeal as well as the reason to download new tracks to play. If players are unable to play against friends, and
most of the titles have been in previous titles, the downloading of new titles is the only way that players will get an replay value out of the
game.
“Rock band Unplugged” is a lot of fun to play and is highly recommended to people looking to play on the go, but players do need to
look into the cost versus benefit side of things. Of course the game play is amazing and is a lot of fun, but this has all been seen before
by anyone that is a fan of the franchise. If playing through a variety of songs all alone instead of playing with a group of friends on
multiplayer is what a player enjoys most, this is a great game. The exclusion of multiplayer hurts the game overall, but there is still a lot
offered here. Overall the game is impressive, but it still falls a bit short of the bar that was set by the franchise in the past.
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