Today we dive into one of my favorite games of all time, on one of the mobile devices I use daily. How do you think Rock Band will hold up on BlackBerry? Will it rock or not? Read on… 

NAME: Rock Band Reloaded

PUBLISHER: Electronic Arts

PLATFORM: BlackBerry

GENRE: Rhythm Game

PRICE: $6.99

TRY IT: N/A

BUY IT: http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/22193?lang=en

WHAT IT DOES: Are you aware of that console game with plastic guitars, plastic drums, and karaoke style vocals? If you are on this site, I’m sure you are aware of Rock Band. Well, this is a BlackBerry mobile version of that game. It’s actually, the second version of Rock Band for BlackBerry, the first being titled Rock Band Mobile. Rock Band Reloaded does not actually use any plastic instruments or karaoke vocals. In their place, are dots scrolling across or down the screen that you need to tap in syncronization with the music. For touchscreen BlackBerry’s, all the commands work well on-screen.  For non-touchscreen BlackBerry’s the keyboard has commands to simulate screen touches.

As for the music, you do not actually the real songs, or the full songs. What you do get is 16-bit renditions of the songs without vocals. Think of the sounds from Sega Genesis games. As for song lengths, after about 2 minutes, the in-game songs fade out and end.

Graphically, the game is fine. The background looks like what is on Rock Band 1 on consoles. The notes coming at you look nearly identical to what you get on consoles too.  Instead of having your band rocking out on stage in the background, you just get a static image of a band or a player.

Now, let’s talk gameplay. With easy, medium, and hard modes available, you get the ability to tap a few or a lot of bars coming at you. I found it ok in tapping the screen for guitar, bass, and drums. It’s not overly responsive, but not frustratingly poor either.  For the simulated vocals, you tap notes on-screen due to the lack of real vocals. I found the side-scrolling of vocals impossible to get the full 4-stars (and difficult to get 3-stars).

There are single song playlists and a World Tour mode like in Rock Band 1 for consoles. With World Tour mode there are achievements encouraging you play the songs multiple times to achieve the necessary score or goal to gain the achievement and unlock other songs.

You won’t find any DLC available for Rock Band Reloaded. You get 20 songs.

DO I WANT IT: As an extremely hardcore Rock Band player on Xbox 360, I have played Rock Band Reloaded many times. I have also played the iPhone and Android versions as well (those have full-length real versions of the songs, high resolution graphics, and DLC). This BlackBerry version is no comparison to its Xbox, Android, or iPhone brethren. This game is better to play with the audio turned off, since the lo-fi audio is terrible and does not always sync to the notes on-screen.

I almost wish Harmonix did not put their name on this version of Rock Band, as it is by far the worst implementation of a Rock Band game on any platform. Unfortunately, there is not a free version to try first, so I did buy the app at the steep $7 price point.

In summary, stay away from this abomination. BlackBerry has never been known as a good gaming platform, and this game proves why.

Others agree:

“Worst game you could ever buy for your phone”

“It doesn’t hav full songs and no singing”

“I’m a Rock Band fanboy…And this version of the game is an embarrassment.  The music is all MIDI renditions of the original (think 8-bit Super Mario Bros theme song). Songs fade out about 3/4 through the song. There are no vocals, they are all replaced with synth MIDI sounds. Graphics are decent, achievements are nice, menus are good…looks like the iPhone version. The music issues heavily outweigh the decent look of the game.” <– Actually I left that review in BlackBerry App World

This is the second update this week. This time 17 more Rock Band 3 DLC songs are added.

Get ready for some Johnny Cash, Linkin Park, and Stone Sour added to the Rock Band station. With this update, all available (Rock Band proper) DLC through January 25, 2011 is on the station.  Enjoy!

INCLUDES ALL SONGS THRU 1/25/2011.

NEW:

Johnny Cash - Johnny Cash 01 pack

Linkin Park - Linkin Park 01 pack

Stone Sour - Stone Sour 01 pack

Direct link to Rock Band Station on Slacker.com

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I will keep this simple. After four months, I got off my butt and added a bunch of Rock Band 3 DLC songs to the Slacker Radio Rock Band station.  More than 40 songs were added in this update. With this update, all available (Rock Band proper) DLC through January 1, 2011 is on the station.  Enjoy!

INCLUDES ALL SONGS THRU 12/28/2010.

NEW:

John Lennon - Imagine album
38 Special – “Hold On Loosely“
Bad Company – “Can’t Get Enough“
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Lynyrd Skynyrd 01 pack
Queen - Queen Extravaganza Pack 01
Billy Joel - Billy Joel: The Hits: Rock Band Edition pack
John & Yoko, The Plastic Ono Band – “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)”
Anaïs Croze – “Peut-Être une Angine”
BB Brunes – “Dis-Moi”
BAP – “Verdamp Lang Her”
Wir sind Helden – “Nur ein Wort”
Linea 77 – “Fantasma”
Litfiba – “Proibito”
Skizoo – “Dame Aire”
Caesars – “Jerk It Out“
Paul McCartney - Celebrating Band on the Run pack
Inhabited – “Open My Eyes”
Siouxsie and The Banshees – “Cities in Dust“

Direct link to Rock Band Station on Slacker.com
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This past weekend at PAX East in Boston, MA, we had the opportunity to connect with several of our industry friends from Harmonix, independent Rock Band Network (RBN) authors, popular blogs authors, and the likes.  From discussions we had over the weekend, we pieced together an interesting picture of the future of the Rock Band DLC franchise.  In the wake of recent layoffs at Harmonix and the Activision announcement to shelve Guitar Hero, our source tells us, “The times, they are a changing.”

Read the rest of this entry »

While doing a regular search of the Rock Band downloadable content page on Wikipedia, I noticed a new column titled “Add’l Rock Band 3 Features”. Upon sorting, I stumbled on a shocking bit of news. Most of the Pearl Jam DLC released between March and September 2009 has “Backing vocals”.

As a test, I fired up Rock Band 3 on Xbox 360 and confirmed, most Pearl Jam songs have 2-part harmonies. This is interesting news. Long before the release of Rock Band 3, Green Day: Rock Band, and The Beatles: Rock Band; the content authors at Harmonix were charting vocal harmonies for Pearl Jam’s Ten album (followed up by Backspacer).

This is a nice surprise for Rock Band vocalists, but what does it mean for conspiracy theorists? Since the charting was done relatively early in the Rock Band 2 life-cycle, which never had vocal harmony capabilities, there had to be a purpose for these harmonies.

Read the rest of this entry »

The latest news in the saga of Rock Band 3 hardware availability is now here.

Mad Catz, the company producing the official peripherals, has announced GameShark is now accepting pre-orders for the XBOX 360 MIDI PRO adapter, which is scheduled to ship January 20.

Xbox 360 MIDI PRO-Adapter Pre-Orders now OPEN – GameShark Store US

Exciting news! The US GameShark Store is now taking pre-orders on the Rock Band 3 MIDI Adapter for the Xbox 360:

http://store.gameshark.com/viewItem.asp?idProduct=4832&idCategory=323
Adapter orders will begin shipping out next Thursday, 1/20 from the US GameShark Store. Demand is expected to be high, so don’t miss out on your chance to order the MIDI Pro-Adapter.

For those who pre-ordered from other retail outlets, those locations are also expected to receive limited supply and hopefully begin shipments simultaneously. Needless to say, there still looks to be higher demand than availability. The eBay pricing of $100 for these $30-$40 adapters is a tell tale sign. Do not expect the supply to be available on store shelves for several more weeks, or longer.

UPDATE 1/24/2011: Mad Catz has updated their Rock Band forum post, stating all Amazon pre-orders will be filled this week.

Rock Band 3 players expecting to use their non-Rock Band keyboards and electronic drums in the game, are currently steaming at the fact the game has been out for more than two and a half months, and the adapter to allow this functionality still is not available. Fortunately, PlayStation 3 and Wii players were able to get their hands on them earlier this week at Best Buy and a couple online/brick-n-mortar retailers. Though, Xbox 360 players are still without (except for a handful of fortunate souls).

Mad Catz, the company producing the official peripherals has made a press announcement regarding the Xbox 360 version of this adapter, and it looks like positive news. I hope what they state is accurate, since Mad Catz had a very difficult time “under promising and over delivering” the hardware for Rock Band 3′s launch.

If what Mad Catz is now stating is accurate, Xbox 360 players should start seeing retail availability by the end of January. I sure hope 4,000 adapters is enough to meet immediate demand. I plan on getting two myself.

Read on for the Mad Catz press release. Read the rest of this entry »

Thanks to a failed test from our friends at Harmonix, we get early news of next weeks DLC. This is great news, in my opinion.  In fact, to me, this is the best music news from Rock Band I have heard since the announcement of Green Day Rock Band.
SIX PACK OF FAN FAVORITES FROM LINKIN PARK HEAD TOROCK BAND NEXT WEEK!

Cambridge, Mass. – Jan. 7, 2011– Harmonix today announced that Linkin Park will bring a six pack of songs to Rock Band, available beginning Jan. 11 in the Rock Band 3Music Store of downloadable content for the Xbox 360^® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation^®3 computer entertainment system and Wii^™.

Rock Band DLC Additions for Xbox 360, PlayStation®3 system and Wii
American rockers Linkin Park will drop some much-anticipated songs in the Rock Band 3Music Store next week. The band, formed in 1996 in California, has sold more than 50 million albums worldwide and holds two Grammy® Awards.  Linkin Park is touring the United States beginning Jan. 20. For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.linkinpark.com.

Linkin Park Pack 01 features “Crawling” and “In the End” from their 2000 debut album,Hybrid Theory, which was certified Diamond in 2005. From the band’s second album,Meteora, the pack features “Somewhere I Belong” and “Numb,” the biggest song of the year in 2003 on the Modern Rock charts. The pack also features “What I’ve Done,” from their third album, Minutes to Midnight, which topped the Billboard charts when it was released in 2007. And from their latest album, A Thousand Suns, which was released in September 2010, the pack features “Waiting for the End.”

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In this episode of THIS WEEK IN ROCK BAND we talk about what’s going on with the Rock Band 3 Pro accessories, Harmonix sold from Viacom, and the end of year DLC. So, here goes THIS WEEK IN ROCK BAND!

MadCatz Addresses Lack of Pro MIDI Adapter

John Drake reposted a message from MadCatz on the RockBand.com forums Christmas Eve addressing the availability of hardware for Rock Band 3. Keys, drums, mics, and guitars were all mentioned. What was left out of the announcement was anything regarding the Pro MIDI Adapter which was initially slated for an October 26 release and still is MIA. Community backlash ensued online, of course.

Fortunately, within hours, MadCatz Global PR Manager (Alex) got on the forums and addressed the missing adapter. The important piece of Alex’s message is here:

It’s probably the number one question I get asked at the moment. The Adapter IS now hitting stores on PS3 and Wii across every major territory. It’s proven a real technical challenge to get 100% right and we wanted to take our time with this and make sure we got it right. We believe we have and I personally believe this is one awesome product. More stock is arriving continually both in stores and online. Keep checking your retailer of choice (They will have more up to date info than I). Also keep checking the gamesharkstore for more stock. Again, we ARE trying to make sure we get as much stock out as quickly as possible and I am so sorry to any of you who didn’t manage to get one in time for Christmas. A very small amount of 360 stock has shipped to Best Buy. The 360 stock will be ramping up soon and should be freely available within the next couple of weeks, plenty of time for the Fender Stat. For various reasons, large amounts of the 360 stock is running a little behind the Wii and PS3 versions but rest assured, they ARE coming.

The community is now split (more backlash for late communication / appreciation for any communication), but at least there is something regarding its availability.  I can say, that I have made several specific stops at local GameStop, Best Buy, Sears, and K-Mart stores since October 26, hoping to find the Pro MIDI Adapter randomly in store.  My reason for this, is all of those retailers stated that it initially would be available October 26, and each has changed (or removed) their release dates.  None are consistent.

Read the rest of this entry »

Mad Catz Holiday Deal

Are you looking to pick up some new Rock Band 3 gear? (MIDI adapter excluded, of course) Take a look these Mad Catz deals running at GameShark.com.

Buy a Rock Band 3 Fender Mustang PRO-Guitar, get a FREE Precision Bass!
Buy a Rock Band 3 Fender Wooden Stratocaster, get a FREE Precision Bass!
Buy a Rock Band 3 Keyboard, get a FREE keyboard stand!

http://store.gameshark.com/listCateg…idCategory=246

Link to the Harmonix Announcement.

Fender Squier Exclusive to Best Buy

Our friends at Joystiq announced that the upcoming Fender Squier (real 6-string) guitar for Rock Band 3 will be a Best Buy exclusive….can’t get it anywhere else. So, kids, now you know what to ask Santa for Christmas….Best Buy gift cards please!

Link to the Joystiq Announcement.

Billy Joel is the DLC of the Week

Already released on Tuesday is the weeks DLC. For the first time in rhythm game history (I’m sure someone will tell me I made a mistake) Billy Joel makes an appearance…and in a big way.  12 (count ‘em), 12 songs make their way to the Rock Band 3 library this week all with pro keys of course. Yes, you get pro drums and vocal harmonies too (plus pro guitar/bass for an extra buck a song).  Now’s the time for you fledgling pianists to show off your skills.  Pony up that $20+ and pick up this pack now.

Available on Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 system (Dec. 14):
· “Big Shot” *
· “Captain Jack”
· “It’s Still Rock and Roll To Me”
· “Movin’ Out (Anthony’s Song)” *
· “Only the Good Die Young” *
· “Piano Man”
· “Pressure”
· “Say Goodbye to Hollywood”
· “The Entertainer”
· “The Stranger”
· “We Didn’t Start the Fire”
· “You May Be Right” 

(All tracks are original master recordings)
(These tracks will be available in Europe on PlayStation 3 system Dec. 15)

These tracks will be available for purchase as individual tracks, as well as “Billy Joel The Hits: Rock Band Edition” on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 system and Wii. Tracks marked with “*” will include Pro Guitar and Pro Bass expansions for $0.99 per song.

Price: 
$1.99 USD, £.99 UK, €1.49 EU (160 Microsoft Points) per song
$2.00 USD (200 Wii Points™) per song
$0.99 USD (100 Wii Points/80 Microsoft Points), £0.59 UK, €0.79 EU per song for eligible Pro Guitar/Pro Bass upgrade
$19.99, £9.99 UK, €14.99 EU (1,600 Microsoft Points, 2,000 Wii Points) for Billy Joel The Hits: Rock Band Edition

Link to the Harmonix Announcement.

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