In order to switch between the different instruments, you simply press either the L or R shoulder button.

The default controls for the actual notes are Left and Up on the D-pad, and the Triangle and Circle face buttons. Make one small slip up, however, and you can find yourself being overwhelmed by notes streaming down all four instrument tracks, at which point you will have to work quickly to get them all in sync again before you fail the song. By successfully completing an instrument you’re granted a brief reprieve and that instrument will play itself for a while, allowing you to move on to the others. As soon as you’ve successfully completed the string of notes for the instrument you’re currently working on, you have to skip to the next instrument that has notes appearing on it. The idea is to press the buttons in time with the music as the notes fall to the bottom of the screen. All four instruments (bass guitar, drums, vocals and lead guitar) are present on screen and you’ll find notes for each one streaming down towards you one after the other. When it comes to gameplay you’re presented with the familiar sight of notes scrolling down the screen towards you. You get to spend the money you earn from these gigs on the band members themselves, and they’re all fully customisable, so you can select their attitudes, names, clothing, instruments etc. Here you create and mould every single member of your band and tour around some of the major cities, building up your fan base, earning money and winning stars in order to unlock new songs, gigs, staff and cities. The main focus of the game is obviously on the career-based World Tour mode (I’ll detail the other modes and extras towards the end of the review). But if you don’t care for the age of peripherals, and you quite like the idea of a purely single player focus, then Rock Band Unplugged might be the game for you. That’s mostly what it isn’t, and for those of you who find either the idea of a peripheral or some form of multiplayer integral to a music game then this title is almost certainly not for you. There’s no peripheral, there’s a relatively simplistic control system, and no multiplayer of any sort (online or otherwise), though curiously there is a music store. In a way Unplugged seems to harken back towards a more traditional take on the rhythm genre. I was pretty excited to hear the news that the PSP would be getting its very own iteration of Rock Band.

By Craig Snow, posted on 26 July 2009 / 5,148 Views

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