Rock Band Unplugged keeps the same look and attitude of the original Rock Band games, you can set up a band, name the members and kit them out with cool clothes and new equipment. The single player modes are also identical with a quick play and career mode taking you around the world playing numerous set lists and hiring and firing staff to help gain more fans or cash.

 

 

The gameplay for Unplugged also has a familiar feel looking identical to the PS3 game but rather than instruments you use button combinations to play in time with the tune. The bass, drums, vocals and guitar all have combos coming down their tracks, you need to pick one and play successfully for a full phrase (usually 5-10 notes), once you have nailed this you move to another instrument with the L and R buttons and repeat. The instrument that you are playing will be louder in the mix, making it easier to play that part, however this also makes the song itself fluctuate madly in the volume department. Whilst the phrase you are playing is in the centre of the screen, on the edges you can see the other instruments so if a star chord is coming up you can quickly flip to the relevant instrument. In words it sounds hard and confusing but in practice it is very easy. The left and up on the d-pad and triangle and circle of the face buttons represent the four on screen colours which you need to hit in time (in other words you use these instead of the buttons on the PS3 versions guitar/drums), this is a little tricky at first but after a couple of songs it is easy enough.

 

There are a lot of on screen bars to keep tabs on which all fit well on the PSP widescreen view. The crowd meter on the top left of the screen will show which instrument is failing so always keep an eye on this so you can flip tracks as soon as one starts to drop. The points and stars in the top right will increase with every note hit, as does the energy meter which once full allows you to go into overdrive with the x button to rock out even higher combos. On certain songs you will have an opportunity to play the solo, here the track will automatically switch to the correct instrument, allowing you to concentrate for the duration of that phrase.

 

 

As with any game like this the quality really depends on the tunes on offer and with 41 top songs on the disc ranging from Jackson 5's ABC, Modest Mouse with Float On, Nirvana's Drain You and Message in a Bottle by The Police the quality is there to see. Not all of the songs are available from the off (unless you select the option on the main screen) therefore you need to play through all of the venues to unlock them all. There is also a download channel where for the same price as Rock Band PS3 songs you can purchase new tracks. Tracks available to purchase at the time of writing include Muse’s Hysteria, Belly and Feed the Tree and Oasis hit Wonderwall, which seems a good start. My only gripe is that a large majority of the songs on disc are already on the larger counterparts, so I felt that playing the same songs over and over again but on a different format a little bit boring.

 

Though a great title I think Rock Band Unplugged would have benefited from some sort of PS3 connectivity, even a simple band import would have been interesting as you could then play on the road as well as at home and keep the same cash and fan base. Due to the close similarities I can only really recommend this title If you don't already own Rock Band on the larger consoles as it is essentially the same game but with a different mode of input.