Konami Tries to Take on Rock Band and Guitar Hero

Yesterday, I talked about how successful games tend to spawn clones, when writing about the Namco Bandai attempt at creating a Wii Fit-like game for the Nintendo Wii. Today, Konami announced that it intended to create and sell a music simulation game following the concept of the ever popular Rock Band.

The name of the new game will be Zoe Mode's Rock Revolution and a completely different drum kit will be used, one that will put current attempts, like creating a drum kit simulation, to shame. Of course, you will also be able to play guitar and bass guitar in the game, thus forming a band. No details on whether voice will also be simulated, but we think it will be because otherwise the game will be at a disadvantage.

Konami representatives claim that the game will have the "the most realistic drum peripheral available". It will have six drums and a kick pedal, which means it will be bigger than the Harmonix designed drum kit. The high hat will be oriented to the left, so that the traditional drumming stance, with the arms crossed, will be replicated on the Konami designed drum kit.

While the hardware element seems interesting, the software element is a bit of a disappointment even before launch, because the tracks will all be covers rather than master tracks. No other details regarding the track listing are available.

The Dance Dance revolution franchise is also getting some updates. Three new games were announced, named Dance Dance Revolution X for the PlayStation 2, Dance Dance Revolution Hottest Party 2 for the Nintendo Wii, and Dance Dance Revolution Universe 3 for the Xbox 360 gaming console.

Zoe Mode's Rock Revolution is in development for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS, and will be launched sometime during the fall.