Konami jumps on the 'band' wagon with Rock Revolution

by Randy Nelson { May 15th 2008 at 3:00PM }

click to enlarge

When Guitar Hero first hit PS2, we thought: "Wow, this is like Konami's GuitarFreaks ... and that's been around since the original PlayStation. Why don't they release it here?" Well, our question was answered at yesterday's Konami Gamer's Night 2008 with the unveiling of Rock Revolution. Taking the "Revolution" suffix naming scheme of its other music genre (bemani) cousins, the game, from SingStar developer Zoë Mode, is set for a fall release on PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and Nintendo DS. We have the first screens of the HD offerings, along with some salient details:

The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions will feature:

40 songs on the disc, with DLC tracks planned
Record your own songs in a "Jam Session" (8 separate tracks)
Online co-op, versus, and battle of the bands modes
Crazy big drum set with six pads, plus pedal

The Wii version adds the ability to play "air guitar" using the Wiimote and nunchuck; and the DS version includes a "Vocalist" mode using the built-in microphone. Check back for our hands-on impressions of Rock Revolution for Xbox 360 -- and be sure to peep the debut trailer after the break!

Gallery: Rock Revolution

Tags: breakingnews, guitarfreaks, konami, konami-gamers-night-2008, rock-revolution, zoe-mode

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

jinn35 @ May 15th 2008 3:07PM

6 drum pads and a pedal?
seems a little excessive

Shagittarius @ May 15th 2008 3:48PM

Will the Rockband Drum Sticks be compatible?

Erwos @ May 15th 2008 3:07PM

FAIL. I'm not buying any more drum sets.

NATO_Duke @ May 15th 2008 3:22PM

I'm with you. We have some 5 guitars from different versions of the other games, plus RB drums, and I cant see buying any more music games with more crap to have filling up the house.

Curtis the Claw:PSN-ctclaw @ May 15th 2008 4:03PM

I 100% agree. I have 4 guitars, the drum set, 2 microphones, 2 dance pads, a beatmania controller, bongos for DK bongo blast, Wii zappers, Wii Wheels, and who knows what else! I am done with stupid accessories!

On a side note though it would be kind of cool if Konami let you use dance pads in this game.

Jack (SFC: 4983 4617 3409) @ May 15th 2008 4:16PM

Konami also announced that'll be renting out studios to house all your music peripherals.

Lekko @ May 15th 2008 4:17PM

How about both companies allow for compatibility to a neutral semi-professional set of electronic drums? It's all USB, so why not?

Besides, lots of players who think themselves really really good at drums on Rock Band think they can actually play. Why not let them buy a good set of electronic drums and play the game with those, then use them later for real practice or track recording?

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 5:48PM

Lekko, I wrote a driver for Vista that allows me to use the Rock Band drum set as a Midi Controller... so I do what you're talking about already. Of course my driver sucks and drops notes frequently but I'm not a coder so....

Zoot Suit Jedi @ May 15th 2008 3:08PM

These drum peripherals are getting out of hand. How do Activision and Konami plan on convincing me that I need another?

ScottG13 @ May 15th 2008 4:09PM

By coming to some sort of reasonable agreement of unified peripherals. I MIGHT buy these games if they can all agree on standard hardware.

I won't have more than one set of drums. Sorry guys. You're gonna take a dive on this if you can't get some agreement amongst yourselves.

jayeffaar @ May 15th 2008 4:50PM

Agreed about the need for a unified standard.

At this point, I wouldn't mind _replacing_ my current RB drum set with a better quality kit, as long as I know I can use it with all those games. But like most people in here, there's no way that I'm going to buy one new kit per game, or encourage companies that make their hardware incompatible with their competitors' games on purpose (I'm looking at you, Activision).

Spirit @ May 15th 2008 3:08PM

HOW MANY DRUM SETS MUST WE BUY???? WHY!!!

Benjamin Breeg @ May 15th 2008 3:08PM

So now is everybody going to start hating Rock Band?

Odog4ever @ May 15th 2008 4:29PM

No. Why hate Rock Band? They are willing to make their instruments and competitors instruments compatible across games. It is the other companies that want a monopoly on the fake plastic instruments that clutter your home.

Hafk @ May 15th 2008 4:51PM

Yes, that is exactly why Harmonix locked out the GH3 Les Pauls on Rock Band Wii.

Hafk @ May 15th 2008 4:54PM

And Activision didn't lock them out at all on the Wii.

The GH3 Les Paul is just a glorified classic controller.

Fatass of Haikuness @ May 15th 2008 4:55PM

"No. Why hate Rock Band?"

I think he was making a parallel to the whole GH3 to Rockband transition thing.

Odog4ever @ May 15th 2008 5:31PM

@Hafk

Harmonix had a patch ready to make the Les Paul work on the PS3 version of Rockband. Then Activision said "Nope, pay us money!" So Activision started the whole non compatible war.

Benjamin Breeg @ May 15th 2008 8:14PM

Yeah, Fatass of Haikuness was apparently the only one who understood it.

I just thought it was pretty funny how as soon as GH gets some actual competition, everybody jumps over to Rock Band's side (most of whom didn't really seem to understand why and were just following the flock).

Demaar @ May 15th 2008 8:34PM

The difference is that Harmonix made GH1 & 2, then moved to Rock Band. Meanwhile GH3 kinda sucked in various ways.
Even though Konami was who Harmonix ripped off in the first place, they still changed it a whole lot more than Neversoft did.

But yeah, this is really cool. Besides the suckiness of three sets of instruments, I welcome the competition for my rhythm game budget.

[.sm0ke.] @ May 15th 2008 11:12PM

"Why hate Rock Band? They are willing to make their instruments and competitors instruments compatible across games."

WRONG. The Rock Band Stratocaster doesn't work with Guitar Hero.

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 3:09PM

Well, unlike Activision, Konami has a proven track record with these games so.... price first, then sign me up.

Alzheimers @ May 15th 2008 3:10PM

NO

MORE

HARDWARE.

Raikage (LDF CRAB BATTLE!!!) @ May 15th 2008 3:12PM

Since when is it cool to lower the amount of songs on the disk? RB had 56, this has 40... GH had like 71.

I don't care about the extra value of playing drums to the songs, I just want more songs, and not have to download them.

MarkHawk @ May 15th 2008 3:32PM

How many did GH1 have...

Songs are not free you know.

Raikage (LDF CRAB BATTLE!!!) @ May 15th 2008 3:34PM

It had no more than 50.

But if GH3 can get that many on a disk, I expect that many on a disk.

FOXHOUND @ May 15th 2008 3:12PM

Actually, this is a pretty late turn for Konami. They had a slew of musical(Bemani)games and such in the late 90s into present day... and they're just now integrating them all?

...this won't see a profit if the instraments aren't compatible with the other band games out there. THIS, I COMMAND. >:o

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 3:22PM

Well, TECHNICALLY, several mixes in the arcade actually interfaced with each other between instrument machines. So Konami did Rock Band first. For me, the first one of the three to make Keyboard an instrument is the winna.

Noshino @ May 15th 2008 3:38PM

http://www.zoemode.com/zoe-games.html

They have been working on this kind of games for a while.....and so has Konami, so this game has a lot of potential

Sir Fidlious Wong (Justin T. McElroy Memorial Burn of the Day Award) @ May 15th 2008 3:47PM

But you also have to remember, this is Konami. Think of the most godawful sugary beats and annoyingly frantic dance music you've ever heard. Bemani is worse than that. Their only series which cranks out decent tunes half the time is Beatmania. Which is why Pump It Up was always better than Dance Dance Revolution and DJ Max Portable is better than... well hell, the entire Bemani line...

aphoushole @ May 15th 2008 3:18PM

Oh, great. We're going to have a 3-way rhythm game fanboy war. This is going to be annoying.

FatalisticDread @ May 15th 2008 3:23PM

"...going to be"?
I'm already dreading dumping another $200-ish on a full drum/guitar(that would make 5 total)/mic combo with GH4:Rock Band Edition.

Oh well...it's only money.

Lekko @ May 15th 2008 4:20PM

pon pon pata pon!

Lianne @ May 16th 2008 12:27PM

FatalisticDread, you do realize you don't HAVE to buy the game?

Markez (MKWii 4339-2878-5120) @ May 15th 2008 3:17PM

AIR GUITAR ON WII FOR GODSSAKES!? That's new I guess, but the rest is not so much innovative.

deft @ May 15th 2008 3:21PM

Finally Konami made something to compete with GH and RB...
Way too late though... this would've been pretty freaking awesome like 4-5 years ago when they should've released it...

syrik zero @ May 15th 2008 3:26PM

Day late and a dollar short

Brian @ May 15th 2008 3:49PM

Pronounced "Dollah" Rock Band forever! The only way I'll buy these games is if they have better peripherals that are compatible. Strangely people never talk about interface in these forums. Rock Band is so perfectly done I dont want to move to this crap, just look at that screenshot. It's like DDR all over again, and dont get me started on GH3.

syrik zero @ May 15th 2008 4:06PM

I couldn't agree more. I got Rock Band and then I won Guitar Hero 3 (First time I've ever won anything) and the HUD was so ugly and the characters reminded me of a chuckie cheese stage. It's hard to go from one to the other.

JonFitt @ May 15th 2008 3:28PM

Too. Many. Guitar. Games.

BPM [SSBB: 5026 4120 1186] @ May 15th 2008 3:32PM

Facepalm.jpg

C'mon, Konami. You guys have been in the music game genre for how long, and just now you're doing this? It's not going to look well, as many will see it as a Rock Band knockoff (despite your pedigree).

But if I can rock out as Snake or Goemon, count me in.

Roto13 @ May 15th 2008 3:34PM

The Wii version sounds stupid.

T @ May 15th 2008 3:38PM

I know Konami came out with their games before Rock Band OR GH...but for the love of all that's good and holy STOP!

This game sounds like Guitar Hero IV which is essentially Rock Band with all the features that people started asking for once it was released.

I'm drawing the line in the sand here and siding with the first horse out of the gate.

Three games makes the idea seem less and less unique, hurting the image of all three. Meanwhile Konami, EA, and Activision will begin the arms race to lock up exclusivity, thus meaning that no one game is going to have a "balanced" sound track.

Activision should've stuck with the guitar fantasy aspect of GUITAR Hero. And Konami should've accepted the fact that it missed it's chance years ago.

The only way I buy either RB clone (yes, RB clone) is if they are at least 50% compatible with the existing gear.

I'm not buying any more drums, guitars, or microphones.