Truly a Traveling Band Now.

I love rhythm action games.

Ask anyone around here. My name is practically synonymous with games that use music as a part of their collective energy. Ouendan, Lumines, Rez, even Gitaroo Man and the Parappa trilogy (Parappa, UmJammer Lammy, Parappa 2) have my mark on them and can be a spectacle to behold when I’m at the helm (not to toot my own horn). There’s just something about being able to feel the music in a game, feel like you’re composing, feeling like the artist, say what you will about immersion in other genres, but I can claim being so immersed in Dj Max or Guitar Hero that my body was reacting to the gameplay before my mind could, and I found myself caught in a trance, as if I were watching myself play.

Take that, Killzone.

(By the way, I play 6-button now. cower in fear, prospective mixers)

Because I’m so into the rhythm action scene, the recent announcement of Rock Band: Unplugged caught my eye immediately. However reserved I am about Rock Band being shrunk for the small screen, part of this does intrigue me, because instead of working up some kooky prehipheral to hang awkwardly off my already fragile PSP (see Guitar Hero: World Tour), they’ve actually taken a page from Pentavision and come up with a control scheme perfect for the handheld. In what I can only call a stroke of genius, the game controls like DJ Max Fever’s 4-Button mode, using the left, up, triangle, and circle buttons for each respective note. It’s easy to learn, intuitive, and next to the interface for Elite Beat Agents/Ouendan, is the best format for portable rhythm-action, in my opinion.

Hopefully, it gets much harder than the above video, but I know they have to make it seem friendly for us simple folk. (After all, you have to download Caprici Di Diablo if you feel like shattering your instrument in the console versions.)

The feature list for the game is very robust for a portable title as well. Not only will it feature all four band instruments in lead,bass,drum and vocals (can’t wait to see how they’ll handle those!), but the world tour mode is also intact as well. The game ships with 40 master tracks out of the box and downloadable music is also planned for the future. A forthcoming $199 bundle is also planned, which will feature a PSP-3000, copy of the game, and a 4GB Memory Stick. Of course, I could mention the download voucher for the movie School of Rock that’s also included, but haven’t you had enough good news for one day?

The mains here at CL are already famous for our RB stylings, but how many people see this as a definite purchase?

I know I’m already sold.