The world tour starts in your hands.
Once in a while, I'll get asked if there's a review score I wish I could change. While I back everything I write, there is one rating that I wish I could go back and change -- Rock Band Unplugged. A PSP game released in 2009, Rock Band Unplugged boiled down the four-instrument formula to the PSP's face buttons. It rocked, but I got hung up on a few minor issues and gave the game an 8.2. For the next six months, I played Rock Band Unplugged on the way to work each day and marveled at how much fun it was. Since then, I've been kicking myself that I didn't give the game an 8.5 and an Editor's Choice Award. It's haunted me.
Well, while I cried over three-tenths of a point, Backbone took its formula to the DS for LEGO Rock Band and now Rock Band 3. If you're familiar with either of the previous handheld music games, the gameplay formula here isn't breaking the mold. You have four music highways that represent the four instruments in your band. Notes fall on one of these highways with a "phrase box" around a certain section. As the notes cross an onscreen line, you tap one of four buttons to make the music play. Nail the phrase, and you clear the highway for a bit and get to jump to the next instrument that has notes on its highway. If you flub a note during the phrase, you have to keep trying until you complete a phrase perfectly -- of course, notes begin falling on the other highways while this happens.
Although the guitar and drums feel like you're pounding out the rhythm of a song, no one's ever argued that tapping buttons mimics singing in a band. Still, I don't care because this gameplay setup is so solid. I've never been one to be anything but passable at real Rock Band guitar, but playing Rock Band 3 makes me feel like a badass. I get in these zones and just rock section after section of these songs. My fingers fly around the left, right, X and A buttons, and I make awesome songs come to life. It's addictive and rewarding -- a great way to spend some time with a handheld.
What's impressive about Rock Band 3 is that it takes this tried and true gameplay structure and combines it with the streamlined career/challenge mash-up that has redefined the Rock Band experience on the consoles. Once you create your band, you're playing as them in every mode of the game and earning fans and stars on your way to the usual Rock Band objectives such as busses and planes. Jump into Quickplay, and you're them and setting high scores. Jump into your tour, and there are Road Challenges with set songs and so on. No matter what mode you're playing, you're always working toward one of the more than 165 in-game goals.
There's a ton to do here, and it all fleshes out the fun and gives you something to strive for. Can you get good enough to master the game's Pro Mode, which eliminates phrase boxes and has notes falling on every highway? This stuff gives you a reason to keep coming back and try stuff you might normally skip -- like the multiplayer that includes two-player competitive and up to four player co-op.
Thing is, all of this isn't the most intuitive setup. You get to the Road Challenges that chronicle your band's career by going into the Play Now Mode. While you're here, you can't scope the goals you could be accomplishing by doing certain things in certain songs. To see the goals that could further your band's career, you have to leave Play Now (where you're playing gigs for your career) and hop into Career.
Needless to say, it's a bit convoluted. I don't fully understand why the developers couldn't have made it so I could view goals from the Play Now section or at least song-specific goals from the song selection screen.
Still, this just takes some getting used to. If you don't put off putting the pieces of this Rock Band 3 puzzle together, you can get the hang of it and see how the setup functions. It definitely was a bit frustrating when I first started -- I thought Road Challenges were the only way to advance my career for a while because the game never tells you they aren't, and some of those gigs can be lengthy endeavors -- but once the light bulb went off, I was happy to know the setup was always benefiting my group.
What's impressive about Rock Band 3 is that it takes this tried and true gameplay structure and combines it with the streamlined career/challenge mash-up that has redefined the Rock Band experience on the consoles. Once you create your band, you're playing as them in every mode of the game and earning fans and stars on your way to the usual Rock Band objectives such as busses and planes. Jump into Quickplay, and you're them and setting high scores. Jump into your tour, and there are Road Challenges with set songs and so on. No matter what mode you're playing, you're always working toward one of the more than 165 in-game goals.
There's a ton to do here, and it all fleshes out the fun and gives you something to strive for. Can you get good enough to master the game's Pro Mode, which eliminates phrase boxes and has notes falling on every highway? This stuff gives you a reason to keep coming back and try stuff you might normally skip -- like the multiplayer that includes two-player competitive and up to four player co-op.
Thing is, all of this isn't the most intuitive setup. You get to the Road Challenges that chronicle your band's career by going into the Play Now Mode. While you're here, you can't scope the goals you could be accomplishing by doing certain things in certain songs. To see the goals that could further your band's career, you have to leave Play Now (where you're playing gigs for your career) and hop into Career.
Needless to say, it's a bit convoluted. I don't fully understand why the developers couldn't have made it so I could view goals from the Play Now section or at least song-specific goals from the song selection screen.
None of this matters if the songs you're playing in Rock Band 3 suck, and luckily, I don't think they do. The game packs classics such as Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" and the Doobie Brothers' "China Grove" and tosses them in with contemporary hits such as "Get Free" by the Vines and "Oh My God" by Ida Maria. It's a good mix that goes from goofy stuff like "Rock Lobster" to "Cold as Ice."
The problem? It's just 33 songs. That's not bad, but when I was doing lengthy Road Challenges that play a lot of songs, some stuff can began to wear on me. Similarly sad, co-op got framey a bunch of times and there's no plan for downloadable content, so you won't be able to expand your library or goal list.
The problem? It's just 33 songs. That's not bad, but when I was doing lengthy Road Challenges that play a lot of songs, some stuff can began to wear on me. Similarly sad, co-op got framey a bunch of times and there's no plan for downloadable content, so you won't be able to expand your library or goal list.
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