Rock Band For iPhone Gets Standing Ovation

Across the nation almost everybody knows the popular music game by the name of Rock Band. Now it has been released into the App Store by Electronic Arts. The iPhone version sports near console quality graphics, a nice selection of tracks, and great controls. Rock Band thrills to soaring levels.

There are three game modes offered in Rock Band: Quick Play; Word Tour; and a cool Multiplayer mode where players can join friends online or over Bluetooth to rock out a party. All the available tracks are categorized by difficulty level. Some are fairly easy while others take it to a nearly impossible level. Once a song is chosen, it’s time to pick up and instrument; Drums, Bass, Guitar, and Vocals are all available. Each song has its own difficulty setting (easy, medium, or hard) which offers increasingly more difficult tapping constraints. Within World Tour mode, players will experience the highs of traveling to Boston, New York, Seattle, Paris, and Moscow. With the exception of Boston, all the venues are locked at first. Leaderboards are available online but a Facebook connection is required. While playing online, two friends can play the same song separately using different instruments. Both scores combine to total the final scoring. Real-time play can be had using Bluetooth, which we found to be a lot more fun. Achievement statistics can always be viewed in the World Tour menu. Fans will gather to see you play as you travel on tour.

Rock Band sports impressive graphics even on the small screen of the iPhone and iPod touch. Both bass and guitar make players tap on pick-shaped spots as notes flow vertically down a virtual fretboard. The upper part of the screen is reserved for band animations. If players don’t tap on the notes at the appropriate time, the song will quickly go out of tune and pick scratching sounds start. A long streak of successful note taps grant multipliers and greater points. If the iPhone screen at the right time will throw the game into overdrive. Drums offer a similar experience, but players must tap on drum shaped objects as notes pass over them. Missing notes makes a drumstick sound activate. Vocals are a little different animal. Players need to tap on notes that stream horizontally across the screen. Missing enough notes will cause the song to stop indicating failure.

In the audio department, Rock Band shines as much as it does visually. Included are 20 CD-quality songs from the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Joan Jett, Smashing Pumpkins, Blink’2, Foo Fighters, Motorhead, All-American Rejects, and more. In-app purchases are present with the ability to buy more songs in pairs for $0.99. All the controls worked perfectly as expected in our experience with the game.

As it can be quite difficult to play through a track without missing a note, replayability is very high. The game is just plain fun to play too. Although there are similar games in the App Store such as the Tap Tap Revenge series and Guitar Rock Tour, none give the full package that Rock Band offers. Plus, the others are more forgiving than this title. Rock Band is top dog if you want the most demanding tapping experience on the iPhone and iPod touch. With a price tag of $9.99, it does cost more than the competition. But we think it’s worth it. This game shreds a 5 star solo right in the palm of your hand.

If you’re in the market for iPhone games, check out all our iPhone app reviews. Plus, we have a huge selection of free iPhone games that we give away every week in our Featured App Giveaway!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 5th, 2009 at 9:43 pm and is filed under iPhones. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.