FULL REVIEW: Rock Band: Unplugged is a fresh experience exclusive to the Playstation Portable.
You can now rock out to your favorite tracks on the go with Rock Band: Unplugged. The game is only on Playstation Portable at a price of $40 (as of 6/11/09) for a new copy. Almost anyone can enjoy this portable game, serving as a great change of pace for all games.
GAMEPLAY
There's not much to say about the gameplay besides that it's just plain fun. While playing the game the first few times may seem pretty confusing, you can get the hang of it pretty quickly and you'll be able to realize the fun provided by this game. Most fans of Rock Band or rhythm games in general can get easily addicted to it after a few songs, and it's hard to put down. Creating your own band is also fun while it lasts. The bad thing about creating the band is that the options are more limited than the console games, but that's expected considering that it's a portable. If you want to make characters have a distinct difference in height and weight, know now that it will not work like that.
Unfortunately, the game features no multiplayer. Instead of grabbing a friend to play on different instruments, you can only play on your own as you switch instruments after completing each phrase. This is a bit of a disappointment consider how multiplayer-focused the console games are, but the gameplay definitely makes up for most of that.
GAMEPLAY SCORE: 8.75 out of 10
STORY
Simply put, Rock Band: Unplugged has no story, but it doesn't need one. The point of the game is to have fun playing different tracks and unlocking new things to expand the game. They probably could squeeze in a story, but it would likely be very weak and unnecessary. So, when playing this game, don't even think about the story aspect and just play the game.
STORY SCORE: 8.5 out of 10
GRAPHICS
The worst part of this game is probably its graphics. Portable games typically don't offer great graphics, but the character models in this game just don't look right. When playing a song, your characters just look choppy and non-detailed. I can't bring the graphics score down too much, though, because the main part of it is done just fine: the note chart. The notes falling down look almost as good as they do on the series' console installments.
GRAPHICS SCORE: 7.5 out of 10
THE SMALL STUFF
CONTROLS: While confusing at first, the controls in Rock Band: Unplugged are great. You may mess up by pressing the wrong button every now and then, but overall, the controls are fine and easy to get used to and memorize. Overall, they all come to your fingers naturally.
CONTROLS SCORE: 9.0 out of 10
SOUND: Rock Band: Unplugged features over 40 songs from classic such as The Police's Message in a Bottle to modern hits like AFI's Miss Murder. The setlist is great for any fan of rock music and can even inspire people with different tastes to start listening to the genre. When you're inactive for a while on certain instruments, their sound will fade or will become completely mute, which can be annoying to your ears if you're messing up and trying to complete a phrase.
SOUND SCORE: 9.5 out of 10
REPLAY: You're going to definitely want to play songs multiple times in the game as you can switch to different difficulties and test your skill. An in-game store for downloadable content is also included. Those who have Wi-Fi and a Playstation Network account will be able to buy and download new tracks to play in the game. Tracks aren't released as often as the weekly release of songs on the console version, but new tracks will be released pretty often (well, consider what you consider often).
REPLAY VALUE: Very high
NITPICKS: Playing on one difficulty can be easy, but playing on the next can be too hard. This can get kind of annoying.
"DOESN'T BUG YA"SCORE: 9.0 out of 10
OVERVIEW
SCORE (AVERAGE): 8.7 out of 10
SCORE (GUILTY PLEASURE): 8.5 out of 10
See the advanced review at: http://halfswissgamersblog.wordpress.com/