Rock Band Unplugged for PSP essentially strips away those two main components of the Rock Band experience by taking away the "instruments" and making the game single-player.
But maybe it's too early to write off this game.
Greg LoPiccolo, VP of product development at Harmonix says, "Our goal with Rock Band Unplugged was to create an experience that maintained the look and feel of Rock Band, but allowed our fans to take multitrack music gaming on the road.
"The gameplay is not identical to Rock Band on the consoles, but we have a pretty long history making single-player multitrack music game experiences, so we had a lot of experience to draw on."
LoPiccolo has a point. Before creating Rock Band predecessor Guitar Hero, Harmonix made two under-appreciated single-player, multitrack music games: Frequency and Amplitude. Despite their quality and high fun factor, the two games didn't attract much of an audience. But if Rock Band Unplugged can bring some of that gameplay to a new audience under the recognizable Rock Band brand, all the better.
LoPiccolo explains, "It is not exactly the same gameplay as Frequency or Amplitude, but the ancestry is clear. Those games were our starting point in designing Rock Band Unplugged, and we basically merged the core mechanic of Amplitude with a number of more recent design features that were introduced in Rock Band.
"We are still really proud of [Frequency and Amplitude], and are excited to re-introduce this style of gameplay to an audience that might not have ever gotten a chance to play those games. It is kind of a perfect match; the Rock Band track layout works incredibly well with this style of gameplay."
Speaking of the Frequency and Amplitude line, in 2007 Harmonix also introduced yet another modulation, Phase for iPod. This game incorporated the scrolling screen found in its predecessors, but also allowed players to use their own library of music to play along with.
Harmonix revealed last year that Phase was originally planned as a PSP game. Would Rock Band allow users to use their own music on the multimedia-friendly PSP?
"No," LoPiccolo says. "Rock Band Unplugged is a Rock Band game and features some of the best and most popular songs from the extensive Rock Band catalog. Rock Band Unplugged will also feature nine tracks that will be exclusive to the PSP for a limited time before being made available as [downloadable content] for other consoles."
Perhaps the most interesting feature of Rock Band Unplugged is the ability to download additional songs via a "fully-featured in-game store," powered by PlayStation Network, a first for PSP. These DLC songs would be lumped on top of a 40 song on-disc selection.
LoPiccolo says that Harmonix is still ironing out DLC business model plans, so no word on pricing yet, or if music purchases can move across platforms.
Harmonix is currently tied up with development of The Beatles Rock Band, due this September. LoPiccolo says that it's working with Foundation 9 studio Backbone Entertainment to develop Rock Band Unplugged.
"We were presented with a unique opportunity for collaboration with Backbone Entertainment," he says. "They contributed a lot to the design process, and did a great job in maintaining the overall feel and vibe of the original titles. We think the final product stays very true to what fans expect from a Rock Band title."
EA is distributing the game, while MTV Games is publishing and marketing.
Rock Band Unplugged won't be the first rock 'n' roll franchise to hit handhelds. Activision released the first in its portable Guitar Hero: On Tour series in 2008. But that was for DS, and utilized a unique fret peripheral that fit into the handheld's Game Boy Advance cartridge slot. It sold 300K units in North America during its opening week, a DS software sales record for Activision, so there is some precedence for a social rock music franchise successfully translating to a handheld.
LoPiccolo says that Harmonix, which has released Rock Band on Nintendo's Wii, isn't counting out development for the DS. "We are looking carefully at the DS, and certainly aren’t ruling out developing for it in the future. However, for right now, our focus is on Rock Band Unplugged as a PSP title."
While Sony has led a PSP charge this year headlined by game announcements like Rock Band Unplugged, LittleBigPlanet, MotorStorm and Assassin's Creed, PSP owners aren't exactly known as voracious software buyers. LoPicollo says that doesn't worry him. "We have been focused on creating the most authentic rock experience possible on the platform and we believe that the PSP audience will respond."
Rock Band Unplugged is slated to release in U.S. and Europe beginning June 9 this year. It will retail for $39.99 for software only, or in a $199.99 PSP hardware bundle.