The Rockband and Guitar Hero war has been going on since the dawn of plastic instrument time. No one is really sure who is winning, both games have their ups and downs.
Back in the early part of last year. Neversoft thought it would be great idea to go down the rout of portable gaming and release Guitar Hero On tour for the Nintendo DS. This game had a small four button peripheral and a pic shaped stylus for you to rock out with. Even though I seemed to get hand cramps from the thing I could definitely see the appeal for the casual gamer on the go. I mean come on even my mother owns the game so it must work on some level.
Harmonix have now gone down the portable rout with Rockband Unplugged, a new title for the PlayStation Portable. I gotta say, for me it doesn’t cut the cake, more like takes the cake, puts it in a blender in an attempt to make a really nice smoothie for everyone but fails, miserably.
The idea behind this game is to control the whole band, with no peripheral of any kind either. You have to use the up and left arrows accompanied with the triangle and square buttons which is OK but nothing special (and sometimes a little confusing with the other buttons). Then when the song kicks in you have to control each instrument one at a time, how is this done? Well you have to hit a certain amount of points on each instrument before switching with the L and R buttons. Very odd indeed, the challenge in it is all the instruments gradually start spewing gems for you to hit and if you muck the slightest bit up you find yourself sprawled over each instrument like some sort of mad man. Not the greatest way to enjoy your favorite songs on the go. But yu never know, as this is only a demo maybe in the full game you will get single instrument play, if so then I could definitely see this game working quite well.
OK this may be me being picky here but the demo doesn’t even let you play one whole song! Mid way through your instrument fumbling, the song fades out and then says buy the full game! *Hurls PSP*, maybe its because I’m used to 360 demo’s I’m not sure, but surly at least one whole song wouldn’t hurt.
So if you want a good-ish portable music experience I suggest getting GH on tour or similar for DS. Just leave Rockband Unplugged … well unplugged.
