Overview: Proof that some people think all they need for a massive success is a “me to” attitude
Pricing: $5, new. Seriously, that’s it. You might be able to find it for $10 if you search hard enough.
Rip-Off Warning: Considering the criteria for “Cheap Game of the Week” this might sound odd, but it can be found for $20. However, when it sells for $5 new that is a huge difference!
Platform: XBox 360 (reviewed), Playstation 3, Wii, Nintendo DS
Is it worth it?: Konami has a history of music rhythm games long before we had Guitar Hero or Rock Band, so it would seem that Rock Revolution is more of a continuation of their GuitarFreaks franchise and less of a cheap cash-in, right?
Well, in truth this game has zero to do with GuitarFreaks and is an attempt to jump on what seemed like the insanely popular music rhythm bandwagon. The big oversight on Konami’s part was failing to notice that Guitar Hero and Rock Band were both created by the same development studio and that Guitar Hero’s ongoing popularity had more to do with Harmonix starting the franchise than Activision’s attempt to cram plastic controllers down everyone’s throats (or up other orifices if you prefer cruder visualization)
Rock Revolution is essentially Rock Band with a poor interface, no vocals, and terrible covers of well known songs. Worse, pretty much every song in Rock Revolution is in some iteration of Guitar Hero or Rock Band. This could well be the most unnecessary game ever produced. There is an attempt at a career mode which isn’t half bad, but does anyone care when the actual gameplay itself is so lackluster.
To be fair, the game isn’t terrible, it’s just superfluous. I will say that it is incredibly difficult to calibrate an HDTV with the controllers, but once that is accomplished you can begin a fairly safe journey of mediocrity.
Final Judgement: This is a pass. If you already own guitar or drum controllers there are plenty of cheaply available Guitar Hero and Rock Band copies out there for every platform that Rock Revolution is on. There is no point to owning this game at all. Even with the price difference you are much better off spending anywhere between $10 to $20 more for a much better music rhythm game.
I saw this the other day at Best Buy, and came real close to picking it up. I didn’t, and it looks like I made a wise choice. With little extra gaming time, no reason to play something mediocre.