Take Your Show on the Road with 'Rock Band'
posted by Eli Hodapp on October 19th, 2009 1:53 AM EDT in $9.99, 4 stars, Games, Music / Rhythm, Reviews, iPhone games, iPod touch games
Rhythm games have been a part of gamer culture since Bemani popularized them outside of Japan with Dance Dance Revolution in the late 90's. Since then, the core game concept of DDR has varied widely from things as obscure as shaking maracas in Samba de Amigo on the Dreamcast to emulating a full band in EA's newly released Rock Band [App Store] on the iPhone.
Rock Band allows gamers to choose from playing the guitar, bass guitar, drums, and even singingwhile rocking out to a particular song. In console versions, you use plastic guitar, drum kit, and microphone. On the iPhone and iPod Touch, each of these instruments are played by tapping four areas on the screen to match up with the musical notes coming down the screen.
We extensively previewed the game, and preferred it to the other available rhythm games:
Where Rock Band pulls ahead of the pack of rhythm games on the iPhone is when it comes to overall immersion while you're playing the songs.
Obviously there's only so much immersion that you can achieve when you're pretending to play a guitar by tapping on the screen of your iPhone, but playing the tracks in the iPhone Rock Band works just like its console big brother in that every note you miss causes the music to be interrupted. This seems to add so much more to the game than just tapping along to a song like other similar games on the platform with music that just keeps playing regardless of how poorly you're doing.
Rock Band for the iPhone comes loaded with 20 songs, and additional songs can be purchased in game in packs of two for 99¢. This is not only cheaper than buying the songs themselves from iTunes, but also significantly cheaper than buying them inside of any other iteration of Rock Band.
Also included is four player local bluetooth multiplayer, achievements, Facebook connectivity, and along with both single song game modes and a "World Tour" career mode. Keep in mind, because of the in-game DLC, Rock Band requires the 3.0 OS.
The iPhone version of Rock Band does a great job at emulating some of the feel of the console original, and thanks to the four distinct playable tracks in each song, the game also offers an experience not found in competing games on the App Store. With the cheapest DLC to be found in the Rock Band series, the iPhone version will be hard for fans to pass up. Reactions so far seem positive in the thread our forums, with the main complaints relating to veterans of Rock Band finding the iPhone version to be too easy, along with the somewhat expected complaint regarding the track selection.
App Store Link: Rock Band, $9.99
TouchArcade Rating:
What about Parapa The Rapper?!?! That game started it all!!! Hahahahaha
actually there were games even before that
I remember playing this rhythm break dancing game on the Commodore 64…the name escapes me, but it was amazing
Dance Dance Revolution started the rhythm game boom…
In America. Japan had lots of music games before DDR started.
EA, Phish would be Phantastic.
sorry to say but i dont wanna pay for songs twice. Not for me, Sticking to audiosurf when i get home
Being able to buy it in Europe would be nice, too.
Quite of a few songs in this game are available for DLC in TTR3..
I'll be getting this and especially the 30 Seconds To Mars/OK Go pack
$10 for a tap tap clone? They're mental.
Rockband existed waaaaaay before Tap Tap buddy.
uh actually they came out around the same time (tap tap revolution came out in 2007?).
Really? Did you just start playing games yesterday? I hope that was a joke…
LMAO @ Tap Tap Clone. I never knew Tap Tap Revenge was the first rhythm game ever.
I think Rock Band is awesome because of the great and well-known classic songs. TTR3 is nice but seriously, I don't know even a third of all those free songs. Not fun playing what you don't know.
well tap tap revolution was the first 'guitar hero' style rhythm game on iphone..
I won't take nothing away from TTR but isn't this what all the TTR fans wanted…..Rockband on your iPhone. The way they integrated multiplayer is genius! I wish you could play online with others on 3g or against others but this is definitely a great step forward. I enjoy the feedback of missing notes as it gives you more incentive to get the notes correct and the vibration feedback for bonus points is perfectly done. Great job EA! I hope more songs will be coming as DLC!
I just bought the game this evening, and so far the only song in my solo tour is Ace of Spades! I played it twice in Boston to unlock New York, but it's the only song in New York as well. It doesn't appear once in the song list for each venue, but it appears several times, making up the entire song list. I'm guessing this is a strange bug. Is anyone else experiencing this? What songs regularly show up in the song list for Boston and New York in the solo tour?
I already tried restarting my iPhone and that didn't fix the problem.
I reset my progress in the game and restarted my iPhone. This fixed my problem.
I imagine a game from a company this big has an actual website for their games…
you want to throw that in the post somewhere Eli?
I'd really like to know what the 20 preloaded songs are and what I can add in…
also, do they offer any bulk discounts, like, 10 songs for $4 or something?
My main complaint is that the Rock Band games are supposed to be a simulation of being in a real band, and this is NOTHING like being in a real band. I can imagine it's fun in that simplified, time-wasting kinda way that a lot of apps are, but it has absolutely zero of the fun that the other Rock Band games have, because their fun stems almost entirely from being able to use the instruments.
I think rhythm games on the iPhone are fine, but they should stick to games like Mevo, where your actions are actually having an effect and not trying to simulate something that's more or less impossible to simulate on the platform. Parappa The Rapper would also be a good idea, but having a game based around pretending to play a guitar just doesn't work.
Yes it is fun using the instruments, but that shouldn't mean that there shouldn't be an iPhone version. It is still fun without the instruments, just like Tap Tap.
I love the game I just wish you could play in landscape mode. Also to the people saying it's easy, for some reason I fail on medium. And I can play on hard on the console ones. I think my thumbs are just too big for the 4 buttons. I can play Tap Tap at the highest level…so I think this is harder then Tap Tap.
Rock Band is not a band simulator, it is a music game.
Just posted this in the thread too:
Well I got the game last night and have since played through all of the tracks in quickplay once on guitar on medium. To be honest… I love it! It's even better than I thought. Some of you more hardcore RockBand-ers seem to think it's too easy but I got a nice little challenge once or twice on Medium and was actually struggling on one song I tried on hard. My guess is it will be different for different people but I can definitely recommend this. Tap Tap is gone from my iPod now.
Its heavily overpriced. They think that the name will sell the game for 10 bucks, but not for me. Don't believe the hype…
Just uploading the high-quality, HD, stereo (not just the average-quality YouTube videos you'll run into) multiplayer demo to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPef_QqyN_k
Uploading will be finished exactly in an hour.
Also note that, recently, I've published a LOT of other multiplayer game demo videos. See the main chart of the multiplayer bible ( http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=419463 ) for the direct links.
(Re-posting it because the YouTube link caused the message to br put in the moderation queue, which can be quite long. Just use text selection and Ctrl-C / V to see visit the YouTube video.)
Just uploading the high-quality, HD, stereo (not just the average-quality YouTube videos you'll run into) multiplayer demo to youtube.com/watch?v=nPef_QqyN_k
Uploading will be finished exactly in an hour.
Also note that, recently, I've published a LOT of other multiplayer game demo videos. See the main chart of the multiplayer bible ( http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=419463 ) for the direct links.
I just hope that they released a free (or very cheap) version that only lets you download the songs that you want. I love the Rock Band series, I have 1, 2, and Beatles on my 360, but I'm not going to pay for a bunch of songs I already have there, especially when I don't really care for most of them. If they support RB: iPhone with as much DLC as they do the console versions, I think it makes sense to have that DLC be the entire business model…kind of like TTR3, right?
Dammit, I meant "release", not "released"…hope for the future, not for what is already out.
For some reason, some of my touches aren't being detected at all–especially with two notes at the same time. No matter how centered I plant my thumbs on the frets, most often only one gets registered.
In terms of difficulty factor, once you somewhat master Beatrider, it's all over. I was smashing TTR3 on extreme from basically the beginning and I've never played a TTR game. I complained when Rock Band was announced that they keep pushing out new versions on difference systems with the same fricken songs. Over and over and over again, I play these songs. These exact songs. However, .50 a song for premium music does seem to be the going rate. It's the same price Tapulous charges. 20 songs at .50 a piece equals 9.99. The game really isn't overpriced.
The main difference and complaint by most here is the lack of the library of free songs that TTR3 offers.
As some might say, Rock Band offers too little, too late at this point in time. I've played it personally (PS3 and iPhone versions) and the experience differs too much. I would've expected them to utilize the microphone of most newer devices, but they didn't do so.
Also, having skins like guitar buttons, etc. will be more interesting than four circles.
Doesnt anyone remember Guitar Rock Tour 1 & 2 both of those interrupted the music if you missed a note. Just saying cause everyone compares this to ttr but it seem more like GRT
Unfortunately it has not enough FPS, so it plays kind of choppy, even on the 3GS.
And it's WAY too easy too…
Not to mention the small buttons and the ridiculous "vocal mode"…
But I am happy about that the big companies also release their music games.
Now we have Harmonix & Konami. Whats up with the Guitar Hero makers – wake up.
Multiplayer demo video is finally out – see youtube.com/watch?v=nPef_QqyN_k
NOTE: It's just a quick (albeit, technically, very high-quality: HD, stereo, uncompressed, 30 fps etc.) demo of the multiplayer mode; NOT that of the single player one. It doesn't show how many songs the game has, either.
Wait, vocals are done with button presses too?
I'd also like to know if this changed from the preview…
Try Cherub Rock and you´ll see how awesome this game is…and how TTR sucks bad! Really, the fact the music keeps playing the same no matter what you do…how can anyone suggest that is good?
now when are they gonna release PHASE (ipod classic) for iphone/touch?!? now that apps can access music library, that would simply be the best in the genre…
i broke my ipod classic, but i would still be playing that, simply cause i could pick a 25 min long song, or whatever i felt like.. now these pre-defined rythm games are not for me, i'd only enjoy like 2 or 3 tracks from each game ever released (guitar hero/rock band/ tap tap etc)
How does it compare to Guitar Rock Tour and Guitar Rock Tour 2?
man do i despise these rhytm/music games with a passion. i'd rather play another regurgitated EA sports title, and i despise those as well.
just had to get that off my chest, carry on.
Overpriced… I think there is something to be said for raising the price of iPhone games so that developers can spend more on getting the quality right but I think this is going over the top to be fair. It really isnt worth that price when there are other cheaper clones around
While I like rhythm games, and Rock Band being my favorite, my only comment at this point is the price. Way too expensive for a game that will invariably require the user to purchase songs as well. Otherwise, I'm very much looking forward to it.
Oh, and for the record… Parrapa the Rapper was awesome!
How are you supposed to hold the phone and play this?
With your thumbs????? If you're playing this with your thumbs, how do you hold the phone???????????
Lol…is not that hard dude xD
Do you have grown up hands?
I played Tap Tap with fingers, because with thumbs is rather death gripish or you barely have a grip at all, depending on how you hold it when trying to play with thumbs.
Apparently there will be free songs cuz I just got two freezpop songs for free
There are FREE songs! yep, i did download 2 free songs, so that's great
yay!
Having played Rock band on the PSP, I will be passing on this. There are NO avatars therefore NO band just tapping…tapping tapping which is not a bad thing but I expected more from this game. Very disappointing