Rock Revolution - Konami joins the music arms race

[sluggo]

Looks like Konami wants a piece of the Rock Band / Guitar Hero market, and is planning their own game with new drum / guitar controllers.

More competition = win, I say.

KONAMI DIGITAL ENTERTAINMENT, INC. REDEFINES THE RHYTHM GENRE WITH ROCK REVOLUTION

Industry Leader Turns Up the Volume With New Music-Based Franchise for the PLAYSTATION®3 system, Xbox 360™, Wii™ and Nintendo DS™

Authentic Drum Peripheral Delivers Unparalleled Music Game Experience

EL SEGUNDO, CA - May 15, 2008 - Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. today announced Rock Revolution, an unprecedented, authentic music-based video game that will re-define the rhythm genre. Brought to market by the company that created the music video game category, with breakthrough titles such as DanceDanceRevolution®, Karaoke Revolution®, Beatmania and Guitar Freaks, Rock Revolution provides an unmatched rock experience. Breaking new ground with its definitive drum experience, Rock Revolution also gives players a chance to rock out on the bass and lead guitar. Designed by musicians, Rock Revolution will be available with the most realistic drum peripheral on the market at launch for the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system.

"Rock Revolution will be the most innovative and realistic rock game to hit the market, that will provide a quality drum peripheral and music that players will appreciate," said Anthony Crouts, Vice President of Marketing for Konami Digital Entertainment, Inc. "As the originator of music-based games, we are dedicated to bringing fans a truly preeminent music experience. With Rock Revolution, we put the emphasis on the drum kit, delivering an experience unlike any other."

Rock Revolution features an extensive music selection on the game disc, along with a wide variety of downloadable songs available at launch for the Xbox 360 and PLAYSTATION 3 system versions of the game. Additionally, title offers a variety of innovative single-player and multi-player modes.

A unique aspect of the Wii version is the interactive use of the controls with the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk for an air-drum and air-guitar experience. Rock out anywhere with the Nintendo DS version, using the stylus for intense rhythm matching sessions.

Rock Revolution is scheduled to launch this Fall for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PLAYSTATION 3 system and the Wii™ and DS™ video game systems from Nintendo. For more information, please visit www.konami.com.

[Shadarr]

Competition is good provided:

1) The peripherals are interoperable. I'm not going to have 3 drum kits in my living room.
2) They don't all start signing bands to exclusive licensing deals. I don't want bands I like getting locked up by crappy versions of the game.

[Spect]

Competition is good provided:

1) The peripherals are interoperable. I'm not going to have 3 drum kits in my living room.
2) They don't all start signing bands to exclusive licensing deals. I don't want bands I like getting locked up by crappy versions of the game.

By the same token, I don't want to play some of the same old songs again for the 3rd time just because it's in a new "me too" type of game.

[LesJarvis]

At this point a rhythm game would have to give good blowjobs and clean my apartment in order for me to consider buying it. Well, either that or present a fundamental shift away from the dominant, Guitar Hero-derived gameplay paradigm. Rock Band does all this stuff well enough that some marginal addition, like the addition of one drum pad, just isn't going to be enough for me to shell out a bunch of money on another fake guitar and fake drumset.

[JPR]

The Rock Band drumkit has 4 input pads plus a kick pedal, the GH4 drumkit has 5 input pads plus a kick pedal, and the Rock Revolution drunkit has 6 input pads plus a kick pedal.

I'm thinking that none of them are interoperable.

[Gunmetal]

Gametrailers has a video of the game up.
http://www.gametrailers.com/player/34044.html

I would hope that this is a really early version, or it will be a budget title, otherwise they're in a lot of trouble. It looks worse than the current versions of Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

[idrisz]

I'm not really into any western music games at moment, but then I really don't like Rock.

Konami have some of the best music games so far under their belt from Beatmania, DDR, Drum Mania, Guitar freaks and keyboard mania. Both Rock Band and Guitar hero stole their idea from those series.

[Rorschach]

From the video it looks like 4 pads and a pedal in the middle.

[Gunmetal]

That's true, but using a modified UI from Beatmania and fairly canned animation for your band just doesn't cut it anymore. As garish as some people thought the GH3 character redesigns were, they had personality

[Jazar]

The Rock Band drumkit has 4 input pads plus a kick pedal, the GH4 drumkit has 5 input pads plus a kick pedal, and the Rock Revolution drunkit has 6 input pads plus a kick pedal.

I'm thinking that none of them are interoperable.

Drums are the razors of the gaming industry.

"I know! We'll throw in 7 pads and a lubricating strip!"

[Rock8man]

I'm not really into any western music games at moment, but then I really don't like Rock.

Konami have some of the best music games so far under their belt from Beatmania, DDR, Drum Mania, Guitar freaks and keyboard mania. Both Rock Band and Guitar hero stole their idea from those series.

From the looks of that video posted in the post above yours, looks like you'll be out of luck with this game too. It sounds like the same kind of Rock music we see in western music games. In fact, they show a very narrow range of Rock songs, unlike the western games which tend to be quite diversified in the kind of rock songs they contain. But that could just be because of time constraints in showing off the game in a video.

[JPR]

From the video it looks like 4 pads and a pedal in the middle.

I saw a picture of the device, and it had 6 pads, but maybe some of them are redundant? Also, nobody has mentioned here that all the songs are covers.

[JD]

This is (http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/05/15/konamis-music-games-come-full-circle-with-band-centric-rock-revolution/) what the drum-kit looks like.

-Julian

[RobF]

That video made it look really, really bad. With really boring note charts.

[Jason McMaster]

Drums are the razors of the gaming industry.

"I know! We'll throw in 7 pads and a lubricating strip!"

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33930

[Robert Sharp]

I love the songs in that trailer though. Am I Evil? Seriously? That's fantastic. I'd love it if all those songs were in Rockband. Seriously.

[Shadarr]

“Rock Revolution” does do a couple of cool new things that “Rock Band” doesn’t. One, there’s no penalty for freestyling extra hits on the drums. I’m not a drummer, but even I feel a little constrained by “Rock Band” penalizing me for improvising during a song.

Two, Konami’s take lets you turn off the kick pedal.
Apparently they're going after Squeaky and the rest of the "crippled at age 25" demographic.

The freestyling thing sounds cool, though. I was playing a set with my gf the other day on Hard because you can't change the difficulty every song (now there's a feature I'd like to see in RB2) and I kept breaking my streak by playing through the sections where they left out notes that were in the Expert version.

[Shadarr]

I love the songs in that trailer though. Am I Evil? Seriously? That's fantastic. I'd love it if all those songs were in Rockband. Seriously.
No kidding. I would buy every single one of those songs if it was Rock Band DLC.

[Rorschach]

How do you fit 7 inputs into a music game track? The GT vid has 5 showing, not 7.

Edit: Oh, I see. 5 tracks but two of them do double duty representing two inputs with different colors.

[Midnight Son]

This is getting stupid.....

[jfletch]

So music is the new World War 2?

I'm thinking that none of them are interoperable.

Right, and who is gonna dare have more than one fake drum kit in their house? I know we're gamers here and all, but most of us have some self-respect...

[LionelThompson]

Torn, so torn. Music rocks, buying yet another set of drums not so much.

[SqueakyFoo]

Apparently they're going after Squeaky and the rest of the "crippled at age 25" demographic.
And yet I'm not going to buy it.

[Shadarr]

Well then, that was a terrible marketing decision on their part.

[sluggo]

I have to believe that building in as much compatibility as possible will be at the top of the "must" list for the publishers and developers here. Seriously, if you (a) put out a new drum kit that won't work with existing games, or (b) put out a game that doesn't support existing controllers, you should get out of the videogame business, for not realizing compatibility will be a key decider for a lot of people.

[idrisz]

if anyone have a psp, check out this game DJ Max Portable 2 (http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-13-71-bj-49-en-15-dj+max+portable-70-1u9y.html)
Best Handheld music game ever!.

[Funkula]

Also, nobody has mentioned here that all the songs are covers.

Well, that's that then. Rock Band has really spoiled me.

[sluggo]

Do we know they're all covers, or if they'll be in the final version? I couldn't really tell from the short clips.

[JPR]

Somebody (Giant Bomb?) reported that they are officially all covers.

edit: Yes, Giant Bomb (http://www.giantbomb.com/2008/05/15/hey-no-one-ever-wants-to-sing-anyway/).

[Cossix]

This shit is getting out of hand.

[dashingly]

I guess they gave up on that Squaredancing Revolution I heard about for a far less disgusting form of pandering.

[Lizard_King]

That trailer is very grim. Barring full guitar compatibility and a lot more promising examples of note charts, that looks like the very definition of a rental you get to laugh at.

[Reldan]

What the hell is up with that drum set? Cramped much? Having 7 pads sitting on top of each other isn't exactly what I consider progress.

[ducker]

I'm not really into any western music games at moment, but then I really don't like Rock.

Konami have some of the best music games so far under their belt from Beatmania, DDR, Drum Mania, Guitar freaks and keyboard mania. Both Rock Band and Guitar hero stole their idea from those series.

Yea but Beatmania was an odd one... I was very disapointed with it when I tried it out, the biggest issue I had with it, was many of the "note charts" just didn't jive with the music, and didn't make logical sense.. (this increasing the complexity and annoyance of the game) Where as it seems like GH and RB really improved on that idea and grew it.

I don't hold much promise for Konami in revisiting these ideas now that there is such a strong GH/RB base - and the price for entry for the hardware will be higher then just simply buying a $60 game.

[WarrenM]

This shit is getting out of hand.
Yeah, but it's pretty easy to vote with your dollars here. These large games that come with equipment can't be cheap to produce so if a lot of them end up sitting on shelves and not selling, they'll stop making clones pretty quickly.

[ZekeDMS]

Unless I can rock out as Solid Snake(Otakon on keyboards!), I don't think I'll be buying yet another music game.

[idrisz]

Yea but Beatmania was an odd one... I was very disapointed with it when I tried it out, the biggest issue I had with it, was many of the "note charts" just didn't jive with the music, and didn't make logical sense.. (this increasing the complexity and annoyance of the game) Where as it seems like GH and RB really improved on that idea and grew it.

I don't hold much promise for Konami in revisiting these ideas now that there is such a strong GH/RB base - and the price for entry for the hardware will be higher then just simply buying a $60 game.

Really? I never notices that about Beatmania, did you play the ones that was imported or in arcade or the crappy one release in the State?

I know the US version is fruity as hell, so I never bother.

[ducker]

the Arcade one was fun - but not a lot of recognizable songs.
the US release for the PS2 was the one that I was totally disappointed in - totally frickin' sucked.

[sluggo]

This will be the first post anyone's made about this game at E3, and for good reason: It looks horrible. I played a few songs on drums and was astounded at how many bad decisions they've made.

1) The pads are tiny. There's an argument to be made that even Rock Band's 7" pads need to be bigger, that real drums are way bigger and the precision needed to hit these plastic circles kills some of what's fun about playing drums. But aside from the round yellow snare pad, which might be 6" at best, all the other pads seem like they're 4" or so, all crammed into a little space.

2) The UI is a disaster:

- In solo play, on harder difficulties, the note chart is SEVEN notes scrolling down, yet compressed to take up like a quarter of the screen.

- The kick pedal is just another note scrolling down the middle of the note chart screen instead of a solid bar, which is confusing as all hell. If they didn't want to copy Rock Band / GH World Tour, they should have put that note on its own to the side, so you can more intuitively process the difference between what you hit with your hands or feet.

- One of the notes looked dark grey on a black background and was hard to see scrolling down the dark screen backgrounds.

- Another was purple and corresponded to a pink pad on the drums. There's also a red button / pad. I failed one song in three seconds trying to figure out which pads went to what.

3) They had the snare mapped to the yellow pad in the center of the kit and hi-hat to the red pad on the left, which means you'll be playing hi-hat with your left hand and snare with your right, the opposite of both Rock Band and real drummers play. They're quite literally doing Rock Band backwards.

4) Every song I heard was a terrible cover version.

5) The charts seemed out of sync with the music. Maybe it was just a lag calibration issue, but everyone I know who tried it said there was something very off with the timing when they played it.

So what you have is a clumsy, unintuitive UI, too many tiny pads crunched into a small space, lousy covers and possible technical issues. It's amazing to say, but for a game that supposedly is putting an emphasis on drums, I don't think even the $300 ION kit could make this fun.

[salwon]

Is there any chance this one isn't going to get buried in the World Tour/RB2 avalanche?

Good on them for trying, I guess...

[quatoria]

This will be the first post anyone's made about this game at E3, and for good reason: It looks horrible. I played a few songs on drums and was astounded at how many bad decisions they've made.

Well, not QUITE the first. http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=45819 We focused on how hilariously bad the Konami reps playing it were, though. Also, that sounds JUST like drum revolution, unfortunately. They have a lot of experience doing drumming games badly.

[KMartin]

These rhythm games are becoming a joke and they are going to kill themselves out of their own business if they keep up this crap.

Mutually Assured Destruction.

Nobody outside of a few hardcores are going to be buying all 3 drum sets. It would make a lot more sense for them to make all hardware interchangeable so they can effectively triple their software market.

I suppose the real attraction here is that the hardware itself costs pennies to manufacture and that's where the real profit margin is.

[Shadarr]

Not mutual destruction, just assured failure for Rock Revolution. I think Harmonix has the right idea--they supply hardware but they'll also work with other companies hardware, and they make their money selling us songs every week. GHIV will allow you to use RB drums, so you only need one set.

If Rock Revolution is as bad as people say, I don't think many people will buy it. Maybe clueless parents doing Christmas shopping when Rock Band is sold out. But I think a lot of people will buy both RB2 and GHIV; just not the hardware.

[sluggo]

BOOMP

So... all the online e-tailers still have this game shipping next week. Considering there's been virtually no promotion for the game, I can't help but wonder if this might be one of the more spectacular disasters of the year.

[VegasRobb]

Any word on compatibility?

[JPR]

They said they're not making a guitar peripheral, so those are definitely compatible. The drum controller is crazy and has 7 inputs plus bass, I'm pretty sure, so that's almost certainly incompatible in both directions.

[sluggo]

Apparently the RR drum controller can be used with Rock Band. Although, it's hard to many people wanting to do that.