Rock Band Blitz is an odd one; to take away the one thing that made Harmonix’s previous titles in the franchise what they are seems like one of the strangest manoeuvres ever witnessed in the games industry. However, as it turns out giant plastic instruments aren’t the only thing that make a Rock Band title rock.
Rock Band Blitz throws players into an eclectic world of rhythm-based scoreboards and no doubt fist fights with your friends after they beat your score on ‘Jesse’s Girl’ for the fifth time. The game-play is a more complicated than Rock Band and rather than relying on the peripherals previously associated with the RB franchise, this time you’ll be using your PS3 or Xbox360 gamepad.
It’s hard to describe the game-play, your goal isn’t to hit as many notes as possible it’s to get the highest score, this can be done by raising your multiplier on each instrument track before the checkpoint, which in turn raises the overall multiplier for the whole song, now to raise each track’s multiplier you have to hit notes, but the entire time you have to be aware of every track, otherwise you’ll be missing out on some huge scores.
The game also features a list of unlockable power-ups that make it much more interesting, each with an odd quirk that will allow you to score higher in certain places, or to just have a little fun. Ranging from knocking a pinball around on the tracks whilst you play, the longer it stays on the more points you get, there’s also more basic power ups such as instrument multipliers allowing you to gain more points for playing a specific instrument more.
There’s a lot of tactics to Rock Band Blitz, you’ll find yourself playing specific songs six or seven times just trying to Gold star them.
Rock Band Blitz comes with 25 tracks built in, it also incorporates your entire Rock Band catalogue; so all of your DLC and any of the games you own too, as long as you’ve imported them through to Rock Band 3. This works both ways allowing you to then play all 25 of Rock Band Blitz tracks on Rock Band. Whilst all of the tracks aren’t huge rock/metal hits that you might crave, the pop-pier tracks are still catchy, and at worst a lot of fun to sing.
Amongst the roster you’ve got: Queen’s ‘Death on two legs’, Maroon 5’s ‘Moves like Jagger’, Rick Springfield’s ‘Jesse’s Girl’ and Foo Fighter’s ‘These Days’; along with 21 other tracks that will keep you thoroughly entertained, not only that but 25 DLC tracks for Rock Band would set you back 4000MS points, which translates to about £34.27; considering Rock Band Blitz costs a meagre 1200MS points or roughly £12.
Blitz will take time to click, it took me a few hours, and within those first few hours you’ll find yourself questioning the move to arcade themed gameplay. When it does you’ll be addicted, especially If you opt in to link it to your Facebook account, and take the challenge feature, allowing you pit your scores against your friend’s.
Without the necessary peripherals, comparing RB Blitz to the traditional game is unfair, whilst it features the songs and quirky interface that Rock Band splashes around it’s more akin to the likes of Audiosurf.
Perfect for anyone that not only enjoys rhythm based games, but fancies a bit of a change from the general instrument vibe, If you’re willing to give Blitz the time it needs to settle in, you’ll find yourself hooked – and even If you don’t, you’ve just gained 25 tracks for your Rock Band library, it’s a win-win really.
Available on Xbox live and PSN.
No multiplayer, only scoreboards.
Price
1200ms points
America $14.99
UK £9.00
For more info visit www.rockband.com/press/blitz