Konami Really Screwed the Pooch

How could the makers of DrumMania and GuitarFreaks, have screwed up so bad in the American console market, to let Rock Band and Guitar Hero take over?

Did you know that Konami made an arcade game called, GuitarFreaks in 1998.  WHAT!!! 1998!!  Yes, 10 years ago there was an arcade version of Guitar Hero, called GuitarFreaks.  It was a big Japanese arcade game and led the path for what Harmonix and others would go on to do with Guitar Hero on consoles six years later.

Not to stop there, Konami also made a game called DrumMania, which was a full drum game (like we see today on Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour).  DrumMania came to Japanese arcades on 1999.  WHAT!!! 1999!! Yes, nine years ago.  Look at the photo above.  The hardware looks quite solid too.

Konami took it one step further and linked GuitarFreaks and DrumMania into a single gaming experience.  So, drums, guitar, and bass all on one arcade system.  They didn’t capitalize on the U.S. arcade market (expect in some niche arcades) and never did anything on consoles until 2008 with Rock Revolution.

With Rock Revolution, it basically is the home version of GuitarFreaks and DrumMania.  They offer a full drum kit like you see with Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour.  We are looking to review the Rock Revolution kit, since it is very oddly shaped, and has many extra drum pads than the other games.

Rock Revolution didn’t build new guitars for the home game.  They figure with all the Guitar Hero, Rock Band and 3rd party guitars, there are plenty out there.  We agree with that.

Konami also stayed true to their arcade games by not including vocals.  I see how they wanted to stay true, but we don’t agree there.  Vocals are intricate to rhythm games these days.

The game play for Rock Revolution is getting so-so reviews.  Definitely looking to be sub-par with Rock Band 2, and still awaiting word on Guitar Hero World Tour.  Plus all but 2 songs on Rock Revolution are covers.  Only Linkin Park and one other band submitted masters to the game.  Though, covers aside, the set list is quite good.  I digress.

This post is not a review of Rock Revolution.  It’s is the realization that Konami really owned this category pre-Y2K and just blew it.  They handed it over to Guitar Hero and then Rock Band (of course, there were some law suits in the years).  Now Konami enters the console world years late and with a non-Earth shattering release.

It’s just too bad, and poor planning on Konami’s part.  That said, I’m hoping we can get a review out to you soon on the game and possibly the drums too.  On a good note, the game is priced more than $10 less than Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World tour.  So, I guess it’s a steal.