The third title in the Rock Band series is here; however, it’s not out on consoles. In fact, it was built from the ground up for the Playstation Portable. In fact, even Rock Band veterans may have trouble figuring out Unplugged, because, quite frankly, it’s gameplay shares more similarities with Harmonix’s PS2 games Frequency and Amplitude than with Rock Band. This is made plain in the form of some interesting gameplay additions that most fans of rhythm games would not expect.
For those that have never played Frequency, it was a rhythm game released in 2001, long before Guitar Hero or Rock Band. In it, players hit notes as they roll down the screen by pressing the shoulder buttons(L1, L2, R1, and R2; that or you can use the face buttons). There is only room for four notes to roll down the screen at a time, but other than that it’s quite similar to Guitar Hero, but for one thing: the players were forced to manage every element of the song while it was playing. Like in GH, if you miss so many notes you lose, but in Frequency you had to switch back and forth between playing guitar, bass, drums, and synthesizers in order to keep things rolling. Amplitude continued this tradition and now it’s Rock Band Unplugged’s turn.
Unplugged is especially reminiscent of Amplitude considering that it controls the same way. Since the PSP version of Rock Band will not be implementing a peripheral like it’s console counterparts, the notes are activated using the face buttons: Triangle, Square, X, and Circle. The familiar Rock Band fail meter on the right let’s the player know which instruments are doing well and which one’s are failing. By using the shoulder buttons you can switch instruments at will, between guitar, bass, drums, and mimicking vocals. While the gameplay is very similar to Amplitude, it features everything Rock Band has been known for in the past, such as band customization and World Tour mode.
The game will ship with about 40 songs, and will also feature downloadable content, starting with about 10 available songs at the time of release, which is slated for June 9. Any veteran of Rock Band should certainly give it a chance, and any fan of Frequency and Amplitude will get their first shot at the same style of gameplay in about six years.
