Comic Con 08: Rock Rock Revolution Brings The Boys to the Yard

With Rock Band and Guitar Hero doing so well, it’s about time Konami fought back with its own rock title. After all, they fathered this genre with Guitar Freaks and DrumMania. Developer Zoë Mode is aiming to set Rock Revolution apart from its competitors by providing a realistic drumming experience.

The game was playable on the show floor and it was constantly swarmed by players queued up to play and attendees who just wanted to watch. Due out this fall, Rock Revolution is looking to be a challenging but equally rewarding experience. The guitar and bass aren’t really anything ground breaking, but I am pretty excited about the percussion, and you should be too!

So, how does it play? Is it too hard? Does it provide anything new? Find out after the jump.

The focus is on the drums, with six pads and a bass pedal. While I was assured that the learning curve would be minimal, I was immediately skeptical, as I know I have horrible coordination. When playing the game, the medium difficulty did prove to be quite a challenge, but it appeared to be doable. I’m pretty sure the harder difficulties are going to be crazy though.

The problem, however, was that the pads felt too small. With so many pads and your eyes fixed on the screen, I found myself (and watched others) hit the drum kit frame time and time again instead of hitting the pads, which was frustrating. With this many pads so close together, it would be easier to coordinate with larger pads, and this would be more in line with a realistic drum set as well as we all know they take up a huge amount of space. Maybe I just suck at the game, but has anyone else noticed this?

Interestingly, the Guitar Hero and Rock Band guitars are compatible with Rock Revolution, and there won’t be a new guitar peripheral included with the game. The Wii version will not use any peripherals, and will rely on the motion controls of the Wii controller. The DS version is unique in that it allows players to take on guitars, bass, drums, and even vocals through a series of mini-game-esque touch screen actions for each instrument.

The tracklist hasn’t been announced yet, but the 40+ songs in the games are all covers except the Linkin Park’s “Givin’ Up.” I couldn’t really tell the difference, however, so it appears as though they got a top quality cover band to do the music. The focus will be, of course, rock music, encompassing punk, 80s, and heavy metal tracks. DLC will be available on all systems, which does have me a little worried when it comes to storage limits on the Wii.

The visual style is quite nice, with a sleek top-down style similar to Beatmania. The on-stage animations are much more realistic than other games out there, which is a plus.

Overall, I think the jury is still out regarding Rock Revolution. A lot will depend on the final track list. I am excited about features such as the jam mode that will allow players to enjoy free-form rock sessions, but with what’s sure to be a steep learning curve and a standard guitar/bass experience, we’ll have to wait and see if the song selection makes Rock Revolution worthwhile.

So will Konami be able to reclaim the rhythm game throne, or is Rock Revolution too little too late? We’ll know this fall! Tell us what you think.