Did I mention that I have over 450 songs in Rockband? It was a close 2nd for my pick for game of the year in 2007 and I do have 4 sets of plastic drums in my house. All that being said, I really, really tried to like Rockband Unplugged for PSP but the game makes it rather hard.
The core structure of the game is the same as the console versions. Notes scroll down and you have to hit them in time with the music to get a combo going. The difference here is that you are responsible for all 4 tracks at the same time. The instrument tracks are divided into phrases and when you combo a phrase correctly that one instrument will play by itself for a short time while you jump to another instrument's phrase. If you've ever been to a circus and seen the guy running back and forth trying to keep 20 or so plates spinning on sticks, that's basically what your doing in this game. When you're able to combo everything all the time it works great, but if you get a little off beat and miss a few notes the game not only punishes you by removing the audio from the instrument you're playing, it also removes the audio from ones you're supposed to be playing had you completed the phrase correctly. It is possible to lose audio from two or all three portions of the song while you're trying to get one instrument back on rhythm. This is a humongous problem because (and anyone who plays in a real band will tell you) when someone can't find the beat in the middle of the song and the bass or drummer is also off beat, it's incredibly difficult to get back on beat even if you have the notes in front of you.
The other huge problem that game has is the way it's played. When you play the guitar part you're thinking about what the rhythm of the guitar is, but as soon as the phrase is finished you have to immediately switch the rhythm of what you were playing to another instrument which makes it quite easy for you to lose the overall rhythm of the song and end up in that awful situation I described above.
I have major issues with this game. For one when you are playing the console version and you miss a few notes, the game doesn't punish you by removing the rest of the song until you get back on rhythm. The main mode of this game feels more like a bonus challenge mode of the game that developers would drop in saying "see if you can play every instrument now" while if you want to just play one track the entire song you have to go into the extras menu and play survival mode. The other thing that is wrong with this game is the lack of multi-player. Rockband is a game about where everyone can get together and have fun making fools of themselves and they've completely removed that aspect from the game. Last time I checked all PSPs are capable of both ad hock and wifi infrastructure. There is no reason why it shouldn't at the very least have a mode where two PSPs can link together through ad-hock and play a song together.
There are some good spots in the game though. You are still able to create and customize your 4 band members. I'm surprised by how many options were kept in the game. World tour mode is done the exact same way it's done in the console game and manages to give you the same feel of its big brother when it doesn't make you want to toss you PSP across the room. The track list is great and features songs I'm still waiting to show up in the console version like Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down and Would by Alice in Chains, and ABC by the Jackson 5. It's a shame they're all in a game I don't want to play much more. I couldn't possibly recommend buying this game though which is unfortunate because some very talented music savvy people made it. I hope there's a sequel that can fix the issues I had with it. The track list is the only reason it doesn't get an F.
Grade D-
Meta Grade 33
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