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jp's Rock Band Unplugged (PSP)

[November 15, 2011 05:12:45 PM]

The idea of a "band" game in which each player controls a different instrument on a handheld device seemed counter-intuitive. How would the game work? Do you pick an instrument and then play that while the other tracks "auto-play"? Is it supposed to be an exciting in-person multiplayer experience? Maybe. I was intrigued enough to get this at a low price...

So, as I expected, half the fun of the game is learning some new songs. I'm not a big rock music fan, so playing these kinds of games is always neat. Especially when I get to hear a song from a band I know, but never really thought about much. Cool stuff. Anyone who thinks that playing these games doesn't drive music sales is a moron. Really.

The easiest way for me to describe this game is by alluding to an earlier Harmonix game: Frequency. The gameplay is essentially that of Frequency but instead of a "tube" with different channels you surf, it's a flat table with only four tracks. It works really well, and I'm glad to see that the idea (from Frequency) was resurrected here. In many ways, Guitar Hero and sequels sort of dumbed down the music game: you only got one instrument/track to play with. Frequency let you choose which track to lock down, effectively letting you create your own mixes! Rock Band Unplugged is sort of in the middle. Yes, there are 4 tracks, but you basically lock them all down...most of the time you're essentially choosing to lock down the only track available before switching over to another as it opens up. It works and its fun, but it hasn't quite reached the sophistication/flexibility seen in Frequency (which, arguably, wasn't perfect...but hey). Isn't it strange for the genre to have devolved in so many ways such that it's only now perhaps catching up?