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Rock Band: Unplugged
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Graphics & Sound:
Imagine Rock Band shrunk down and injected into your PSP. Well, that's what Rock Band: Unplugged looks like. You have your customizable band members, with a multitude of clothing and instrument options, the same look and feel as Rock Band from the consoles, the manager/staff element that allows you to hire different staff members to give you bonuses in popularity or income or access to certain venues... it's all there. Mostly.
Upon further scrutiny, you'll notice that you can't do makeup or tattoos and that there are fewer options to help create your rockers just like you want them, but it still feels right and there are still enough purchasable items that you'll want to come back from time to time and spend your earnings.
The music is always an important part of any rhythm game and Rock Band: Unplugged has what it takes in this department, with a wide variety of songs for varied musical tastes, and with original recordings, to boot. There are a handful of songs available at the beginning of the game, and more that are unlocked as you make progress. If you're not the patient sort, there is a "cheat" option that will allow you to make all 41 of the songs that ship with Rock Band: Unplugged available, but if you opt to use this, the save feature is disabled for that gaming session, so it's good for showing the game off to someone or just having fun, but it's not going to help you move your Tour mode game along.
Still more music is available via the Music Store, which requires that you first sign up for the PlayStation Network. Signing up for PSN is free, however, and once you have, you can browse the library of downloadable content for Rock Band: Unplugged and purchase your favorite songs over a Wi-Fi connection. As of this writing, there are 14 tracks available as downloadable content, each for $1.99 USD. |
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Gameplay:
When I heard about Rock Band: Unplugged for the PSP, I had to wonder how the game could work without guitar controllers, a drum controller or a microphone. When I got a chance to try it out at E3, I found that it was, essentially Frequency, with a Rock Band make-over. This isn't a bad thing, however, as it plays quite nicely, building on the solid, fun gameplay of Frequency and integrating aspects of Rock Band that will please fans of this series.
Basically, you play Rock Band: Unplugged as you would any rhythm game, by pressing the correct buttons at the correct times. I suppose that, functionally, playing Unplugged is closest to playing the drum part of Rock Band, if you were playing using the D-pad and action buttons instead of using a drum controller. The only guitar element are that some notes need to be held longer. To do this, you simply continue to hold the button down after pressing it.
Star Power works the same as in Rock Band games, in that you build up a meter by completing special (white) sequences and then your score is heightened when you activate the Star Power. The button to activate Star Power in Unplugged is the (X) button, so you can simply slip your right thumb down onto that to activate it when you have enough and want to use it.
An added complexity in Rock Band: Unplugged is the fact that, although there are four band members, you are solely responsible for playing all of the parts. In order to accomplish this, you will have to switch back and forth between the lanes using your left and right shoulder buttons. In addition to having to switch lanes, I found that I would have to "switch gears" sometimes, as some songs have very different rhythms on the different parts. While this is different from the other Rock Band games, it gives Unplugged its own unique challenges. |
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Difficulty:
There are four difficulty settings in Rock Band: Unplugged: Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. I can attest that Easy is appropriately named; I actually played through a song (successfully) in what I called "co-op mode" with J.R. Nip, who, if you read a lot of our reviews you already know, has little to no rhythm. Our make-shift "co-op" mode involved me using the controls on the left side of the PSP and him using the ones on the right side. This was, in a word, "hilarious" as we not only had to play the notes at the right time, but when switching tracks, I could only make us change towards the left and he could only make us change towards the right. The fact that we actually made it all the way through the song means that Easy is extremely easy. Most of my gameplay was done on Medium difficulty. Different songs (and different parts of different instrument's tracks) present different challenges, but, overall, I found I could make my way through the songs without failing. Hard ramps up the difficulty and features a lot of "chords" that require you to push multiple buttons at the same time, which can be tricky, when the controls are split between your two hands and you're also holding the PSP. I also tried Expert. Once. Please don't make me talk about it. My therapist says it's still early, yet...
In addition to the difficulty levels, the songs themselves have varying difficulty. To aid you in selecting songs in your skill range, the songs are divided into groups. There are 5 "Warmup" songs, 6 "Apprentice" songs, 6 "Solid" songs, 6 "Moderate" songs, 6 "Challenging" songs, 6 "Nightmare" songs and 6 "Impossibles" songs. These range from "ABC" and "Buddy Holly" on up to "Pinball Wizard," "Chop Suey" and, my favorite, Tenacious D's "Rock Your Socks." The difficulty is managed a bit when you're playing in Tour mode, since you unlock more difficult songs by mastering easier ones. When you choose to unlock all songs, however, you can end up jumping in over your head, so use the song difficulty ratings as a guide... or, if you prefer, you can use the feature in Extras that keeps you from failing out, no matter how many notes you miss. The choice is yours. |
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Game Mechanics:
Rock Band: Unplugged is an interesting case study. At its core, it is obviously a re-release (perhaps, re-envisioning?) of Frequency, one of Harmonix's early hits on the PS2. And, if it's spine is made of Frequency, then its skin is all Rock Band. Unplugged does an excellent job of staying true to the series' branding, from the UI to the customizable characters and right down to the DLC.
You can't simply throw a skin over a spine and expect the masses to find your new brainchild as cute and lovable as you do. You have to add a bit of muscle mass, to help "fill-out" the form and give it more appealing curves. In the case of Rock Band: Unplugged, the meat of the game is high quality audio and, quite possibly most importantly, original masters of the songs. Gamers are tired of (often poor) covers of songs, and the gaming (and music) industries have heard our cries and made the necessary license agreements to give us what we want. Rock Band: Unplugged comes at a great time, when actually having the original tracks is new and exciting. Hopefully, this will eventually become commonplace. For now, however, it helps to round-out a likeable game, making Rock Band: Unplugged not just likeable, but loveable. (It's so cute... look at the ittie-bittie Rock Band... awwwww....)
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-Geck0, GameVortex Communications AKA Robert Perkins |
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