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Rock Band Hands-On--The PS2 Edition

By Brad Shoemaker, GameSpotPosted Dec 13, 2007 5:44 pm PT

Harmonix's all-inclusive rhythm sensation is coming to Sony's last console soon, too. We checked it out.

Rock All Night

Check out some new footage of Rock Band running on the PS2.

Harmonix's multiplayer rhythm hit Rock Band has been setting hearts aflame nationwide for a few weeks now. That is, at least, on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. For all you would-be bandmates who haven't ponied up the cash for one of those consoles yet, take heart: Harmonix and Houston-based partner developer Pi Studios have been working on a PlayStation 2 version of the game. This version will let you get a vocalist, guitarist, bassist, and drummer so that you can pull silly rock-star poses and play through dozens of hit songs all in the same room. We had a chance to whip through a few songs in the PS2 game to see how smoothly it's translated to lesser hardware.

Unfortunately, a number of the modes from the 360 and PS3 versions of Rock Band have been removed from this port. Chiefly, there's no online head-to-head play, which will also preclude the possibility of future downloadable content (though that's not surprising, given the PS2's lack of standard mass storage). The band world tour mode has also been scaled down considerably. In the next-gen versions, you create a band and then tour from city to city, amassing cash, gaining new fans, signing record deals, playing in battle-of-the-bands challenges, and so on. On the PS2, you can still play a four-player career game, but you'll simply progress linearly through each tier of songs, as you would in a Guitar Hero game or one of the single-instrument solo tours in Rock Band. That also means the character creator is gone, so you won't be able to customize your own rock dude or dudette before jumping into the world tour gameplay.

The good news is, aside from those missing modes, this looks like a faithful port of the next-gen version of Rock Band, from what we've played so far. All 58 of the songs in the released version will be included in the PS2 edition. The game will support a 480p widescreen display mode, and we were surprised to see that the game's superbly stylish visuals haven't taken a big hit in fidelity on the PS2. The wildly imaginative venues are still in here, as are the various filters and visual effects (things like film grain, black and white, slow motion) that make the game's concert footage so believable and snazzy. We didn't perform an exhaustive analysis of the graphics, but at first glance, we really didn't see a big reduction in the detail on the character models and backgrounds--though the gamer is lower resolution and consequently a bit fuzzier--so this should remain quite a nice-looking game in the final analysis. Because there's no character creator, the developers have created pre-fab bands corresponding to the different genres in the game--punk, metal, and emo, for instance. You'll see the corresponding genre-based band in the background depending on what song you're playing.

Look for the game to hit the PS2 mostly intact next week.

The PlayStation 2 game will be $10 cheaper than its big brothers, meaning that the bundle--including game, microphone, guitar, drums, and USB hub--will come in at around $160, while the stand-alone game will hit at around $50. Most surprisingly, the PS2 bundle will include the exact same pieces of hardware used for the PS3 game, including the USB wireless receiver dongle that allows the wireless guitar controller to work. So if you get the PS2 bundle now, then snag a PlayStation 3 at some point in the future, you could pick up the PS3 version of the game by itself and keep playing with the instruments from your PS2 bundle.

Rock Band is slated to ship on the PlayStation 2 on December 18, so look for a full evaluation of the boxed product soon.

51 Comments

  • game_killer2028

    Posted Feb 6, 2008 5:12 am PT

    so can we play this baby without a guitar controler? or it has 2 be

  • nerdmike

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 10:41 am PT

    It is unfourtnate that they took out "Band World Tour" mode as most reviews, and players said that was the best part. Getting fans and money felt a lot like playing in a band. But I think that the PS2 Specific bonus will be something like "Rock Band: Encore" Rock Band Rocks the 80s. Like a Rock Band expansion pack.

  • The_Weekend

    Posted Dec 17, 2007 7:51 am PT

    what next? Rock Band on PSP? That's an idea to consider!

  • GoUSMC

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 11:56 pm PT

    RB is much, much better than GH3...the only thing GH3 has on rock band is the difficulty. After playing GH1, 2, and 80's to death, GH3 really is nothing new (unless you count the "boss battles" lol). When I started playing Rock Band it was like playing GH1 for the first time...amazing. Rock Band's multiplayer kicks GH3's multiplayers ass, and drums/singing add a whole new game to it. And in a sense, RB can be more challenging than GH3, if you do drumming/guitar-playing and singing at the same time.

    Honestly, after getting Rock Band, I almost regret spending money on Guitar Hero 3.

  • Wolveric

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 8:22 pm PT

    really cool... so, my ps2 isnt dead already XDDDD.... this is a good game, but i still playing guitar hero.... i recommend this (i dont know if the ps2 version its good to so, wait) but guitar hero 3 its way better......

  • Ligur

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 9:14 am PT

    "though the gamer is lower resolution and consequently a bit fuzzier" - I take offence to that!

  • yomanjdf

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 8:36 am PT

    yaa -thats a good news!!

  • Sephiroth99000

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 6:30 am PT

    Yeah, of course Sony didn't forget the PS2, it's the only thing still making them money right now. I guess the PSP is too probably

    And you say it like Sony is making this game.

  • m0zart Site moderator

    Posted Dec 16, 2007 3:02 am PT

    guile_charlie wrote:
    Yeah, fsmith36, the PS2 has only been around for about 6 years.


    No. The PS2 was first released in the US in October, 2000. That adds up to a little over seven years in the United States. In Japan, its life has been even longer, as it was released there in March, 2000.

  • guile_charlie

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 7:51 pm PT

    Yeah, fsmith36, the PS2 has only been around for about 6 years.

  • dodgerblue13

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 5:18 pm PT

    fsmith36 I Think it is great that Sony did not forget its ps2 system it has made Sony lots of money and still after like 13 years or more it is still pretty popular .
    Posted Dec 15, 2007 4:12 pm ET
    ....Thirteen years of the PS2?

  • xsqmko

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 4:31 pm PT

    U cant compare this with Guitar Hero 3, GH 3 is 10000000X better.
    This is a bad clone of GH.
    SOngs are not so great and the guitar graphics make my eyes mad.

  • Pfilosophy

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 2:16 pm PT

    I'm with gamerboy100, there are several games on the PS2 on dual-layer dvds. God of War, Rogue Galaxy, Xenosaga. They could've put far more data onto a disc. But hey, at least the PS2's getting some love. Here's to companies still supporting the PS2!

  • fsmith36

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 1:12 pm PT

    I Think it is great that Sony did not forget its ps2 system it has made Sony lots of money and still after like 13 years or more it is still pretty popular . And lets face it if u no that the company is going to forget the old system would u invest in a new system from that company i would not and thats y i would never get an Xbox 360 lets face it u cant even play most of the old Xbox games on the 360 that is not looking after the consumer where soney is looking after there consumer. and ya maybe not as great on the ps2 as on the ps3 but u can still play it nad have a fun time do it on ps2 to.

  • earnan

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 12:28 pm PT

    @weisguy119

    Gotta love internet journalism. Your second article does prove your point, but... basically, it's an opinion piece based on a press release. "The PS2 version of Rock Band will be a slightly (or significantly) different game from the next-gen console versions. This version has new game elements specific to the platform in development, although what exactly those new modes are is unknown at the moment. It's likely that those new modes are added as incentive against the lost online features in the PS2 version -- we may or may not see online play with the PS2 version (depending on what the developer's plans are), but downloadable content is a big part of the PS3/360 version and unfortunately is very unlikely to be replicated on PS2 since it has no secured way of downloading musical content." That reads to me as an opinion that is presented as fact. Unfortunately, there are too many people out there trying to present "news" that are completely unregulated. My tip for today, if the article's author is an online handle (Nix in this case) and not a real name then it's not official. From the 8/22 press release:

    "Rock Band for the PlayStation 2 system will showcase many of the same challenging modes featured in the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 system versions, but will also debut new game elements specific to the platform. In addition, European versions of Rock Band will feature extensive localized music content for multiple territories, both on-disc and through downloadable content."

    Nothing afterwards confirms nor denies this. Hey, can anyone tell me if the Europe version has the localized content?

    My guess is that these features were planned, then scrapped when it was deemed not cost effective. Just looked up some sales figures, and GH3 for ps2 did sell nearly as many units as for all next-gen consoles combined in the first 4 days. But, that's an established IP, for a new IP in my opinion it is not worth the development money to create new content for a system that will not be seeing new development.

    It all comes down to money, and someone will always complain. Now, would you have been willing to pay the "next-gen" price if you got the exclusive content? I guarantee that someone would complain about paying the extra $10 for inferior graphics...

  • thekodaman

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 10:29 am PT

    The only reason they removed some content is simply because the PS2 probably couldn't handle the full whack of data that a 360 or PS3 can easily manage, this is last-gen hardware you know.

  • TOTAL_DEFENSE_0

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 9:53 am PT

    thats really good. it should really pursuade PS2 owner to upgrade to a PS3 when they are ready to upgrade. also, sure its missing a few modes, but nothing too bad. it is still an awesome game.

  • rockstar_88

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 2:37 am PT

    Wow the hardware they provide with the game is current gen? That's actually a very smart way to get owners persuaded in investing in a PS3 when they're ready to upgraded between either that or a 360.

  • Nosnitsttam

    Posted Dec 15, 2007 1:13 am PT

    wait, so i'm getting less content and it's only $10 cheaper? wow that is LAME. harmonix is a great company but they were never good at pricing their products reasonably.

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