Rock Band developer Harmonix is turning the legal tables on Konami, slapping the publisher-developer with a lawsuit of its own. No, not for pain and suffering caused by Rock Revolution, but for patent infringement.
Don’t get me wrong, Rockband and Guitar hero (with the right drunk friends) are both a blast, but I’m really on the fence about Konami’s Rock Revolution. It’s not that the game looks bad – the drumset looks fun to play. It’s that there doesn’t seem to be anything really new about it and there isn’t a guitar controller for it. Regardless, we have a new trailer for the game featuring Scars on Broadway you guys are more than welcome to take a look at.
The game will be hitting shelves on October 14th for Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS.
It was refreshing to sit down at an actual drum set this time around after trying get by with nothing but air a few days ago. After jamming out to a few songs with them, I have to say these are better than the original four-head Rock Band drum set. Now, that’s not to say the RB2 or Guitar Hero sets won’t better (and they probably will), but I like the setup of these drum heads much better. It’s too bad, however, the actual game makes drumming on this particular set very frustrating.
After sitting on genre-establishing properties GuitarFreaks and DrumMania for close to a decade, never releasing a single console title in either series in the West, Konami decided — after watching Guitar Hero become a billion-dollar franchise — to get into the rhythm game. It announced Rock Revolution in May, an oddly timed Rock Band downgrade that came with a limp soundtrack and an awkward coming out party.
It would appear that Konami’s curious decision making hasn’t stopped, as the company confirmed to MTV today that it would not be shipping its own guitar controller with the game. You’ll have to use someone else’s.
Jim Reilly, Kotaku New York intern and closet Saved By the Bell fanboy, hit up a Nintendo party and fundraiser for the Starlight Children’s Foundation at the Nintendo World Store Friday night.
Not only did he get to hang out with Kyle Massey of Cory in the House and get hands on with some unreleased games, he also had a chance to talk to Mark-Paul “Zack” Gosselaar about Rock Band. Specifically the former Bell star told Reilly that he really needs a singer for his Rock Band band. Preferably “chicks”. And then, right there, in mid sentence, it seemed to dawn on Gossellar that what he was saying was going to be printed and he suddenly recalled his wife of 12 years. Smoooooooth.
Oh boy, Rock Revolution for the Wii. With Guitar Hero and Rock Band solidifying the upper echelon of music console gaming, and with Wii Music looking more like it’s geared toward a much younger audience, where does Konami’s new game fit? Well, right in the middle, in fact. But in this case, I’m not so sure that’s necessarily a good thing. There was a demo set up at Nintendo’s party on Friday. There were no Konami representatives on hand, and the game was tucked away behind a pillar of DS games. Is that a good sign?
Yesterday we reported Sony’s annoucement via the PlayStation Blog that all the major upcoming PS3 music games (Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution) will be able to share instruments.
Not to be outdone (and concerned that the PS3 claim might imply the opposite for rivals) Chris Paladino from Microsoft used the Gamerscore Blog to confirm that the same was true of the XBox version of those games as well.
For the record, we also do that, so consider this an official announcement.
All the instruments from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution will be cross-compatible.
Let’s hear it for common sense and compatibility. Up next — world peace.
Speaking of Instrument Compatibility… [Gamerscore Blog]
Is there anything more annoying than having to buy all these expensive music games only to find out that some instrument peripherals aren’t compatible with the other games? I mean, who has room for two or three drum sets? Well, it looks like we’re one step closer to complete harmony on that front as Sony made an announcement on their official blog today stating all instruments for the upcoming PS3 versions of Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution will be compatible with each other.
A tipster who chooses to remain anonymous forwarded us an official Konami product availability email this morning, which came complete with an XLS file with the full track listing for their upcoming stab at the band-based rhythm genre, Rock Revolution. The good news? It’s one of the more appealing track lists I’ve seen coming out of a rhythm game in quite awhile. It’s only got 41 songs on it, but there are some real gems. Quiet Riot’s “Cum On Feel The Noise”, Ratt’s “Round and Round”, “Magic Man” by Heart, um..”.Sk8er Boi”?
The bad news? I already have a set of instruments in my living room, and two games that have already explored many of these artists, if not the songs themselves. A very nice line up, but not enough to get me to take up more of my living room real estate. Hit the jump for the full set list, copied and pasted from the XLS file for that all-screwed up formatting feel.
