One Hour With: Rock Band Unplugged

Music games are the latest trend in the gaming industry generating a lot of profit for the companies involved in making them. Players are also delighted with the high-quality entertainment they receive for their hard earned money and try to envision themselves holding real not plastic guitars and rocking out on the biggest stages around the world.

Rock Band has revolutionized this genre by introducing multiple instruments and has since then filled the living rooms of many would-be rockers with plastic instruments such as guitars or drums. But now the team at Harmonix has devised a way to prevent this clutter and take your rocking experience everywhere you go, thanks to Rock Band Unplugged. The PSP exclusive title promises to bring the whole Rock Band music game experience to players who don't have time to rock out in their living rooms without the need of other peripherals, such as the ones needed by Guitar Hero for the Nintendo DS.

But is the Rock Band portable iteration a success or does it need to be booed off stage? Check out my one hour spent with Rock Band Unplugged for the PlayStation Portable.

15:00 I start up the game not really knowing what to expect from this new title. I only got a chance to play Rock Band on the PlayStation 2 a few times so I'm not very skilled at it. Hopefully the game will have a good tutorial stage.

15:10 It looks pretty good, with menus and tips looking fairly similar to the bigger console versions. Let's hope that the gameplay won't be very different due to the lack of dedicated instruments, which would have hampered the whole portable side of it.

15:20 After going through the tutorial, the basics seem pretty simple as you will use the Up and Left D-Pad buttons in combination with the Triangle and Square buttons from the Face-Pad in order to nail the notes that are scrolling on the screen. Don't think that you will play a single instrument though, as all of them have certain chunks that, when played flawlessly, will set the specific instrument on autoplay for some time. Once this happens, you can use the shoulder buttons to go to the other instruments and play them also.

15:25 It's time to use the lengthy band creator in the World Tour mode and create my own rock group. From the name to the overall attitude of the band mates, including their look and gestures, everything can be customized, which is a very handy feature for this PSP title.

15:30 After choosing your home city, you get the chance to start touring the local clubs and venues in order to showcase your mad rocking skills. My first test was Bon Jovi's “Livin' on a Prayer.” Hopefully, it would be easy and my band would take the first steps towards fame, fortune and living the rock life.

15:40 It's been quite a tense experience as, even though the song was relatively easy to play, you get detached from reality and you focus on getting all the right notes. The phase system is interesting, but it means that if you fail one of them, you need to wait for the next one to start, during which time the other instruments finish autoplay and you need to take care of them also. Luckily, the Overdrive option will save them and your band from failing.

15:50 The set list of tracks is pretty extensive, ranging from Bon Jovi to System of a Down or even the Jackson 5. With plenty more artists set to appear via DLC, it seems that Rock Band Unplugged will be a very popular game.

16:00 My one hour with the game is now over, but it was truly an interesting experience. The tailor-made game for the PSP uses its abilities and features to the max so in the end you get almost the same Rock Band experience as on normal consoles but without the bothering bulky plastic instruments.

Overall, Rock Band Unplugged is a very interesting game, which might make a lot of music lovers get it for their PlayStation Portable.