Rock Revolution is a music video game developed by Zoë Mode and HB Studios for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Wii and Xbox 360. The game is published by Konami. It was first revealed on May 15, 2008.^[1]

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. The gameplay is an evolution of Rock Revolution's ancestors, GuitarFreaks and DrumMania, which went on to inspire contemporary music games such as Guitar Hero and Rock Band; however, the console versions of game will not feature karaoke type singing with the band as seen in Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour.

For the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, the game is played using guitar and drum set peripherals. Konami will release a drumkit for the game, but players will have to use guitar controllers from Rock Band and Guitar Hero as a Rock Revolution guitar controller will not be released. Rock Band and Guitar Hero drumkits are also compatible with the game.^[2]

On the Wii, instead of the specialized controllers players use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk for "an air-drum and air-guitar experience" similar to Ultimate Band.^[1] The game will be simplified for the Wii control scheme, and Wii guitar and drum controllers will not be compatible.^[3] The DS version will utilize gestures performed on the touch screen, and will also support vocals using the system's internal microphone.

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.

Setlist

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, and are performed by Steve Ouimette. The only songs which are master recordings are the songs by Finger Eleven and Linkin Park.

In the console versions, the tracklisting is grouped into tiers of songs based on their relative difficulty for each instrument. These tiers are notated in game by a range of one to five skulls; one denoting the easiest songs, five being the hardest.

The Scars On Broadway single "World Long Gone" appears in the game's trailer, but is not a playable song in the game itself.

Downloadable content

In addition to the 41 songs in the main setlist, the console versions of the game also support new songs as downloadable content.

Reception

Template:VG Reviews Rock Revolution has been universally panned by critics. Pre-release reviews of Rock Revolution critiqued the drum set peripheral layout as being well-built, but some criticized the actual layout of the drum pads themselves, and the presentation of the notes in comparison to Guitar Hero and Rock Band's tilted viewpoint.^[4][5]

1UP.com's Justin Haywald gave the final version of Rock Revolution a D rating, criticizing the drum controller's layout and size (preferring the drum set layout used by DrumMania over it), and labelling the 41 track song list of purely covers as "so-so". The game was also criticized for the lack of additional content in the game beyond basic gameplay and a story mode with "no narrative", and the lack of vocal-based modes as seen in "Guitar Hero: World Tour". However, the Studio mode was praised for being more fleshed out than the main game and being a lot of fun, but noting that it was the "only real fun" in the game overall.^[6]

RewiredMind.com's Ken Barnes gave the final Nintendo DS version of Rock Revolution a score of 2 out of 5^[7], citing inaccurate controls and the limitations of the Nintendo DS hardware in the vocal sections for the low score.

The NPD Group reported that Rock Revolution sold fewer than 3,000 copies in October 2008, the game's first month of release.^[8]

See also

• DrumMania
• GuitarFreaks
• Guitar Hero World Tour
• Rock Band (series)
• Ultimate Band

References

Template:Reflist

External links

• Official Web Site
• Rock Revolution Information Page

Template:Konami music gamesit:Rock Revolution