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Konami’s Rock Revolution has arrived in Europe
with minimal fanfare. From the publisher many deem the grandfather
of the Rhythm Action genre and developers Zoë Mode, famed for the
performance of their peripheral-based games, you would be forgiven
for thinking that Rock Revolution is an
 attempt
to reclaim the public eye from Guitar Hero and Rock Band.
Launched without its own peripherals (instead, compatible with all
existing Guitar and Drum Controllers), microphone support or a
single original recording, however, it’s already quite clear that
Rock Revolution isn’t so much an attempt to reclaim the throne,
as claw back some territory.
And this sense of being the underdog is even
more evident once in play. Though with practice the delivery does
reveal itself to be just as competent as either of the two
mainstream competitor series, at first the visual instructions can
appear to be unnecessarily fiddly. Allowing for up to three players
– Guitar, Bass and Drums – the fret boards are delivered vertically
and remain small enough to host three on-screen even when in
single-player. The gameplay layer is presented in a more prescribed
videogame format than the stand-out strategies of the aforementioned
pair, and is weaker because of it. That which worked for the
Gitaroo Man generation doesn’t necessarily relate to the
Guitar Hero fanbase.
The Career Mode is in itself a worthwhile attempt at
expanding the formula without trying to fix what isn’t really broken
in the first place. Delivering the option to decide
your difficulty with each new performance across a single career –
though still rewarding greater achievements – and adding a little
flair with differing objectives, the gameplay mode is structured as
a series of Discs, each containing a preset number of challenges;
“Poison Note” tracks, increasing difficulty settings, perfecting a
specific part of a track and High Score targets being a handful of
the more flavourful activities.
The online multi-player is as would be expected. Battles
for up to six players across two bands are present in a relatively
trouble free set-up, and co-op is also available. Downloadable
Content is promised, though
Electronic Theatre is not currently aware of any announced
plans for release dates, volume or pricing. A Studio Mode is also
available, allowing you to lay down your own tracks to replay, but
its implementation is limited and the mode acts as little more than
a small added attraction.
With the “Rock” in the title referring directly to the music genre,
the track list accordingly reflects this. Less of the Pop spectrum
is included in Rock Revolution – though it does still have a
few tracks obviously designed to please the masses – and the
majority is the well-known end
of all things Rock; Foo Fighters, The Killers, KoRn and FallOut Boy
being predominant entries, alongside artists such as System of a
Down, Soundgarden and Heart. However, all of these tracks are of
course covers, with no master recordings by the original artists
present on the disc and even no mention of them within gameplay or
the track selection procedure.
The visual implantation is decidedly lacking when compared to recent
releases in the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises,
with less encouraging band presentation (the lead singer decidedly
unanimated) and disappointing lighting effects. For the most part
the covers are respectable to the level that you would expect of a
videogame – somewhat better than a local pub band but far from
earning the right to a recording contract on a major record label –
though there is the odd track which seems to play at a slightly
different tempo to the original, and a few in which the singer has
tried to imitate the original artist as opposed to concentrating on
their own vocal strengths.
Rock Revolution does have many flaws, but none
stop it from being a worthwhile companion to the already existing
instrument-based Rhythm Action games. With a far more respectable
Recommended Retail Price than the solo disc releases of competing
series - £24.99 - the above flaws become even more excusable, and
Rock Revolution begins to look like an incredibly attractive
proposition. There’s no denying it’s still the underdog, but it’s
often the underdog that earns the most respect. |
