Rock Revolution is a
music video game developed by
Zoë Mode and
HB
Studios and published by
Konami. It was
first revealed on
May 15,
2008, and released on October 15, 2008 for the
Nintendo DS,
PlayStation 3, and
Xbox
360. As with similar titles, the game simulates the performance
of
rock music using specially designed
drumkit and guitar peripherals.
The
Wii version of this game was released on
November 11, 2008.
Rock Revolution was published by Japanese game publisher
and developer Konami, who is well known for their
Bemani series of music video games, such as
their band simulation games
GuitarFreaks and
DrumMania.
Rock Revolution received
generally negative reviews due to its overall lower quality in
comparison to the
Guitar Hero
and
Rock Band games, with
GameSpot's Aaron Thomas noting that the
game brought nothing new to the genre of music video games and was
considered to have "lousy" gameplay throughout. The game also
experienced low sales numbers in its first month in comparison to
Rock Band 2 and
Guitar Hero World Tour.
Gameplay
Gameplay in
Rock Revolution revolves around players
attempting to simulate the playing of
rock
music using special instrument shaped controllers. Scrolling
notes onscreen indicate the pattern and timing of buttons that must
be pushed on the guitar or pads hit on the drumkit. Songs can
feature "
fill boxes" and "
roll boxes" on drum charts, and
hammer-on/
pull-off's and
"shread boxes" (must be strummed constantly for the duration) on
guitar charts. Score multipliers are increased through larger
combos, and a temporary bonus period can be activated when the
player's lifebar, the "atmosphere meter", is maxed out. For the
Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the game is played using guitar and
drum set peripherals. Konami released a drumkit for the game using
a 7-pad layout, but a dedicated guitar was not manufactured for the
game. Instead, the game is compatible with
Guitar Hero and
Rock Band's guitar controllers. Drumkits from the
Rock
Band series and
Guitar Hero World Tour are also
compatible with the game, reducing charts down to the correct
number of drum pads for their setup.
On the Wii version, instead of the specialized controllers players
use the
Wii Remote and
Nunchuk for "an air-drum and air-guitar
experience", which utilizes gestures and movements performed with
the controllers. Guitar and drum controllers for the Wii are not
compatible with the game. The DS version utilizes the touch screen
and microphone, utilizing gestured movements for guitar play,
playing a virtual drumkit on the touch screen itself with the
stylus for drums, and the system's internal microphone for vocals.
Vocal modes were not included in the console versions of the game,
as Konami determined that such modes would "potentially cannibalize
the
Karaoke Revolution
series", which is developed by
Harmonix for
Konami.
Game modes
Rock Revolution features various modes of play. The career
mode follows the career of the player's band, recording albums and
playing live shows. Challenges in career mode feature tasks such as
reaching specific score levels, performing a song without seeing
the notes, avoiding false "poison notes", and completing songs with
a limited number of mistakes. As with
Guitar Hero World Tour, the game
includes a mode in which players can create their own tracks, along
with a free-form mode that lets players experiment with their
musical instrument of choice; however, this is not included in the
DS version. Online play is also offered on the console versions,
including co-op and battle modes.
Pre-release and development
On July 10th, 2006,
Gamespot reported that
Konami had filed
trademark registration in
the United States on the name "Guitar Revolution" on June 29th -
initiating rumors that Konami was planning on creating a competitor
to
Harmonix's
Guitar Hero games, which in turn
was inspired by Konami's other guitar simulation series,
GuitarFreaks and
DrumMania.
Rock
Revolution was officially announced at a press event in
San
Francisco
on May 15, 2008.. A demo
build was also presented at the event, featuring songs by
Twisted Sister,
Avril Lavigne,
The
Ramones, and
Quiet Riot, among other
tracks. Guitar and drum controllers for the Xbox 360 and PS3
versions were also announced, while the Wii and DS versions would
use the stock features of their respective consoles instead, such
as the
Wii Remote, microphone, and touch
screen respectively. The dedicated drum controller for the game was
demoed as well, utilizing a layout with 6 pads (in comparison to
the 4 used by the
Rock Band games and the 5 used by
Guitar Hero World
Tour/DrumMania) Associate product
manager Mondona Akhazan stated that
Rock Revolution would
be a more "drum-focused" game, in response to other band games
putting more focus on the role of the guitarists.
Controller compatibility
In an interview with
MTV News in June,
Konami associate producer Keith Matejka commented on the
compatibility issues between games for the peripherals employed by
Guitar Hero and
Rock Band:
It was later announced that there would be no specific guitar
controller made for
Rock Revolution, and that the
peripherals utilized by the
Guitar Hero and
Rock
Band series would be compatible with the game. Controllers
from
Guitar Hero had been previously used in pre-release
demonstrations of the game. Michael Shorrock of
Sony Computer Entertainment
confirmed that the peripherals utilized by the
PlayStation 3 versions of
Guitar Hero World Tour,
Rock Band 2,
SingStar, and
Rock
Revolution would be interchangeable between games where
compatible - as the
first Guitar Hero game
on the console could not use the controller used by the PS3
version of
Rock Band and
vice-versa. Chris Paladino also confirmed that the controllers used
by the
Xbox 360 versions would also be
supported.
Soundtrack
Rock Revolution contains 41 songs on the Xbox 360, Wii and
PlayStation 3 and 20 songs on the Nintendo DS. The majority of the
songs are covers of original recordings.These songs are all covered
by
Steve Ouimette except "Paralyzer"
by Finger Eleven and "Given Up" by Linkin Park.
Console song list
Recording studio
Rock Revolution also features a "
recording studio" mode, where players can
create their own songs with various options, such as different
guitar and drum styles, chords, fills, and beats. However unlike
Guitar Hero World Tour, the recording studio is purely a
"
sandbox"; songs created in this mode
cannot be played as an actual in-game track or be shared with other
users online.
Downloadable content
In addition to the 41 songs in the main setlist, the PlayStation 3
and Xbox 360 versions of the game also support new songs as
downloadable content. Also, all
songs in packs can be downloaded individually. All songs are $1.50
(120
MSP), and all packs are $5.50
(440 MSP), and available on both
PlayStation Network and
Xbox Live unless otherwise noted.
Only two packs have been released, one featuring music by artists
from Konami's
Bemani music games, and one
featuring music by heavy metal band
Pantera.
Reception
Rock Revolution has been
widely panned by
critics for various reasons. Many have criticized the game's
drumkit peripheral, criticizing the abnormal layout and design of
its pads and the effects of these flaws on typical gameplay, most
harshly by an
IGN reviewer who referred to it as
"an abomination that must be destroyed lest it breed and multiply."
Most reviews also criticized the game's use of a non-slanted
perspective of oncoming notes and a dedicated lane for the bass
drum pedal like in
DrumMania,
rather than a bar stretching across the length of the note display
like in
Rock Band. The compatibility of other guitar and
drum controllers with
Rock Revolution was also noted by
some reviewers as a positive feature.
The gameplay and presentation of
Rock Revolution was also
criticized, with complaints of a an "underwhelming" career mode
lacking any narrative, the lack of character customization, and
lower-quality graphics than its competitors. The lack of
vocal-based modes in the console versions of
Rock
Revolution was also noted as a major flaw. The soundtrack was
given mixed reviews, with some considering smaller soundtrack of
mostly covers being a step backwards from a push by
Guitar
Hero and
Rock Band to only use master tracks,
although IGN considered some of the song choices themselves to be
"genuinely good" however. The studio mode was praised by some to be
one of the only good parts of the entire game and was also
complimented for having more depth than the main game itself,
although an IGN reviewer criticized its user interface, saying that
it was as "intuitive as a
tax form"
RewiredMind.com's Ken Barnes cited inaccurate controls and the
limitations of the Nintendo DS hardware in the vocal sections for a
low score in his review of the Nintendo DS version, although the
developers were applauded for even attempting to do vocals. The DS
version was specifically reviewed by him due to "the prohibitive
cost of importing the awful-looking PS3 or Xbox 360 drum
'kit'."
The NPD Group reported that
Rock Revolution sold fewer
than 3,000 copies in October 2008 in the United States across the
Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo DS versions in the game's
first month of release.
Patent litigation
Bloomberg reported on July 10, 2008
that Konami had filed a
lawsuit against
Harmonix and
Viacom
for
patent infringement over
Rock Band at the
United
States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas,
claiming it infringed on Konami's patents on music simulation
games. They also requested cash compensation and an order to stop
sales of
Rock Band. In February 2009, Harmonix sued Konami
for infringing on their patents, which actually cited some of
Konami's patents on music simulation games as references.
Konami had licensed their patents to
Activision for use in the
Guitar Hero series.
See also
References
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