Rock Band Unplugged – Demo Released

[xtop]

http://www.primotechnology.com/2009/...d-for-the-psp/

Gamespot may have turned the very concept of it into an April Fool’s gag, but EA will indeed be releasing a PSP-exclusive entry in its Rock Band franchise later this year. Primotech has learned that Rock Band Unplugged, as it’s titled, is currently in development at Backbone Entertainment (Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix, 1942: Joint Strike) and will mark the third release in MTV Games and EA’s burgeoning series of music video games.

The gameplay is largely the same as that of Rock Band and Rock Band 2; players must hit corresponding buttons in-time as they scroll by on-screen. There will not be a peripheral attachment available, like that which Activision produced for Guitar Hero: On Tour for the Nintendo DS. Instead, all input is handled by the ‘Left,’ ‘Up,’ ‘Triangle,’ and ‘Circle’ buttons. The player can switch between guitar, drums, bass, and “vocals” (although he won’t physically be singing, merely tapping buttons) using the L and R shoulder buttons.

Tracks are broken down into what are called “phrases.” Play a phrase perfectly to earn a multiplier boost and a prompt to switch to a different instrument. The player can actually choose to switch instruments at anytime, but switching prematurely will cause him to lose his multiplier. “Overdrive,” used to rack up big points and avoid failing a track, is of course included as always.

The game will ship with tracks from Blink 182, Boston, AFI, Kansas, Lit, and The Police. DLC tracks will be made available through the PlayStation Network and can be accessed through the game’s own built-in store. Multiplayer functionality will not be available. Visually, the style and feel of Rock Band is maintained perfectly, with only a drop-off in the polygon count.

Look for an official announcement soon. Based on its current development progress, we surmise the game should ship to retail by year’s end.

June 9 release date

[Maximus]

Looks good. No shitty spin off like DS GH:DS, could be built ground up for PSP.

[PA_Kid]

Shame no multiplayer, but that won't stop me from getting it.

Little concerned on the DLC side though - sounds like the DLC will be totally different for RB Unplugged - that may stop me. If you have to pay for seperately and keep seperately a totally different list of songs, it's missing out on some cool PS3-PSP interactivity.

I was hoping we'd hear things like the songs in it can be transfered to RB2 (and that's the only way to get those) and that you could effectively buy the same song for both in one purchase.

I know it's still early, so that's all still very possible - I just hope that the "game's own built in store" is the store we already have.

[sega_smasher]

if this plays anything like frequency i'm all over it.

[caliblue15]

We have to thank the ESRB website for dishing out more specific details on game content. From the ESRB website, we learn a little more about the PSP's upcoming Rock Band Unplugged. There's a brief mention of the inclusion of guitar, bass and drums in the game. There's also four songs that can be confirmed for Rock Band Unplugged, based on the ESRB descriptions.

From the ESRB ratings info, these tracks will be in Rock Band Unplugged:
"What's My Age Again?" by Blink 182
"Lump" by The Presidents Of The USA
"My Own Worst Enemy" by Lit
"Chop Suey" by System of a Down

These tracks are currently available on the Rock Band Music Store (or were released in Rock Band 2), except "What's My Age Again?" by Blink 182. There's a bit more information on Rock Band Unplugged on ShackNews. We should be hearing more from Harmonix soon! See the previous announcement from Sony Computer Entertainment America here.

http://www.gamingbits.com/content/view/5418/1/

[Mr. Al]

I have been playing DJ Max Fever and it's totally INSANE!!!! Enybody that can get over 80% on the Enemy Storm song is toally GOD!!

This has to be the most fun game I have played on my PSP so far.

Any music games to come out this year, I am definitely buying.

[foots]

Partial track list:

3 Doors Down -- Kryptonite

AFI -- Miss Murder

Alice in Chains -- Would

Billy Idol -- White Wedding, Part 1

Blink-182 -- What's My Age Again?

Bon Jovi -- Livin' On A Prayer

Boston -- More Than A Feeling

Foo Fighters -- Everlong

Jackson 5 -- ABC

Modest Mouse -- Float On

Nirvana -- Drain You

Pearl Jam -- Alive

The Police -- Message in a Bottle

Weezer -- Buddy Holly

The Who -- Pinball Wizard



Source:
http://psp.ign.com/articles/968/968421p1.html

[xtop]

http://www.joystiq.com/2009/04/08/ro...ced-and-dated/

What better way to start the mid-week than with a hefty dose of Rock Band Unplugged info? The game will be available in the US and Europe on June 9, making this the first Rock Band game to be released in both regions during the same six-month period on a Sony system. There's no word on a European price yet, but Americans will need to part with $39.99 in order to grab the game.

A limited edition PSP package will also be released on June 9 and will include Rock Band Unplugged, a download voucher for School of Rock, a 4GB memory stick and a Piano Black PSP for $199.99. Rock Band Unplugged will be the first PSP title to have a "fully-featured in-game store," through which several songs -- listed below -- will be made available exclusively for a limited time before being released across the entire Rock Band platform. And yes, your existing PlayStation Network ID will be supported.

3 Doors Down - "Kryptonite"
AFI - "Miss Murder"
Alice in Chains - "Would?"
Audioslave - "Gasoline"
Black Tide - "Show Me the Way"
Blink 182 - "What's My Age Again"
Freezepop - "Less Talk More Rokk"
Jackson 5 - "ABC"
Tenacious D - "Rock Your Socks"

[foots]

Trailer: http://blog.us.playstation.com/2009/...tainment-pack/

Announcement: http://www.rockband.com/news/rockband_psp

[cathexist]

Kind of wish there was some sort of peripheral like Guitar Hero on DS

[becomingwater]

Maybe there is a little guitar that will be available.. lol

[Simplayer]

Originally Posted by PA_Kid

Shame no multiplayer, but that won't stop me from getting it.

Little concerned on the DLC side though - sounds like the DLC will be totally different for RB Unplugged - that may stop me. If you have to pay for seperately and keep seperately a totally different list of songs, it's missing out on some cool PS3-PSP interactivity.

I was hoping we'd hear things like the songs in it can be transfered to RB2 (and that's the only way to get those) and that you could effectively buy the same song for both in one purchase.

I know it's still early, so that's all still very possible - I just hope that the "game's own built in store" is the store we already have.

Could we not have ad-hoc multiplayer? It would be a shame if it didn't have any.

And ya, hopefully the content bought on either system is cross-compatible.

[xtop]

http://media.psp.ign.com/media/143/14324828/vids_1.html

[foots]

Here is another:

http://www.gamespot.com/psp/puzzle/r...opslot;thumb;1

Looks fun.


Here is another walk through with a Harmonix publicist

http://g4tv.com/thepile/videos/37725...lkthrough.html

[Mr. Al]

Looks like the switching of the instruments might be a challenge.

Anyways, I am so getting this. I have been playing my DJ Max Fever for almost a month now and am totally loving it!

[Goodintentions]

whats the point without an instruiment peripheral ??? otherwise its just a storyless version of parappa the rapper .... and those graphics are horrible .. come on games have come out with far superior graphics than that already on PSP and with deeper game mechanics involved ..

[Simplayer]

Originally Posted by Goodintentions

whats the point without an instruiment peripheral ???

And what sort of peripheral are they supposed to make for the psp?

[Goodintentions]

i didnt say they should but whats the point of this game without one .. the instruments are what making playing these games fun .. otherwise we would have had 30 versions of parappa the rapper and a dozen other clones already ..

[Simplayer]

There are other rhythm games out there. In fact, this game is based off of one of Harmonix's first rhythm games.

And it looks fun to me.

[toef]

I posted some stuff in the RB2 thread, but I'll repost it here:

I had a chance to play RB Unplugged, and it was surprisingly fun. I was confused how it would work, since you are only using four buttons, and have to play all 4 instruments, but the song starts you off on whatever instrument will start playing first (you can switch, but there's no reason to), and then you have to complete a "phrase" of notes, which will make the instrument play by itself for a while.

So then for the rest of the song you are frantically switching between instruments, to get phrases done so they'll play on their own. You can use your ears to hear which instruments are fading away to realize that they're not playing on their own anymore, or use the visual cues given on the individual note-chart things.

Jackson 5's ABC is the best song in the game, and I can't wait for it to be added as DLC for the regular game.

I was playing it on expert, and hard a hard time getting 4 stars. Most of the time I had 3. To get high scores, you have to link together "phrases" from each instrument, and it's sometimes pretty hard to switch to a new instrument and start playing before already missing the first note you were supposed to hit.

Also, the 3-button chords can be a pain if your fingers aren't ready for them, and even drums and vocals include them sometimes.

~~~

It's pretty addicting, and the tour mode is more or less what's in RB2 (move from city to city, hire staff, etc). The clothing options are much more limited, but obviously that shouldn't really bother anyone.

The game might get old after a while, if you play it all day, when you realize it's just the same songs over and over, but as a portable game it's fun to have around to play to kill some time, and I don't think should be intended to play for hours at a time.