Rock Band Unplugged detailed, priced and dated

by Jem Alexander on Apr 8th 2009 7:53AM

What better way to start the mid-week than with a hefty dose of Rock Band Unplugged info? The game will be available in the US and Europe on June 9, making this the first Rock Band game to be released in both regions during the same six-month period on a Sony system. There's no word on a European price yet, but Americans will need to part with $39.99 in order to grab the game.

A limited edition PSP package will also be released on June 9 and will include Rock Band Unplugged, a download voucher for School of Rock, a 4GB memory stick and a Piano Black PSP for $199.99. Rock Band Unplugged will be the first PSP title to have a "fully-featured in-game store," through which several songs -- listed below -- will be made available exclusively for a limited time before being released across the entire Rock Band platform. And yes, your existing PlayStation Network ID will be supported.

3 Doors Down - "Kryptonite"
AFI - "Miss Murder"
Alice in Chains - "Would?"
Audioslave - "Gasoline"
Black Tide - "Show Me the Way"
Blink 182 - "What's My Age Again"
Freezepop - "Less Talk More Rokk"
Jackson 5 - "ABC"
Tenacious D - "Rock Your Socks"

[Update] Also, check out the new trailer after the break.

Rock Band Unplugged

Source

Tags: ea, Electronic-Arts, Harmonix, mtv, MTV-Games, music, PSP, RB-Unplugged, Rhythm, rock-band, Rock-Band-PSP, rock-band-unplugged

Reader Comments (58)

I still don't understand how you will play this game.

You and me both. I know you can switch tracks but are you forced to like in Amplitude? A gameplay video would be nice.

THERE'S the video... egads...

This will feel awkward without the electronica behind it. It also looks MUCH easier from Amplitude...

There are a few small clips within a big video on the PlayStation.Blog (also, they updated this blog post with it). You play with the left and up D-Pad buttons and the triangle and circle buttons to play. If you've played FreQuency, Amplitude, or Phase, you know the gameplay.

You play a phrase of notes, then it plays for a while. You use L and R to switch between tracks of instruments.

That's because you never played DJ Max Portable.

I love Amplitude so I'm sure I'll be getting this. Lord knows I need SOMETHING to justify me not selling my PSP.

You use

DpadLeft, DpadRight, Triangle, & Circle.

then most likely L/R to switch tracks.

On the vid it showed d-pad & face buttons sometimes... Does that mean there are other input methods? I hope you can at least use the built-in mic or external mic for vocals... otherwise this just seems retarded. Some kind of integration with RB for PS3 would be cool.

The music is loud
The night is so young
All over the world
They want to have fun
The music gets louder
Please Don't call the cops
All over the world
They just want to rock...

It really upset me that there was no Freezepop on the Rock Band 2 disc and that there's no DLC since "Sprode." My theory has been that Harmonix is mad at them for having a song on Guitar Hero: World Tour, but now that they're on RBU, I guess that's wrong. lol

Last time I checked, 2/3s of Freezepop WORKED at Harmonix. Only Lisa was outside of that company.

Yeah, I know, but still, they may have decided that whoever licenses tracks should kinda skip over their selection, or maybe the members decided that they wanted to go a Harmonix game without feeling obligated to put songs on it.

Harmonix seem to respect that most of their employees are musicians (I think I read here somewhere that they give them holiday if their band is on tour) so I'm sure that they'd realise that Freezepop getting their songs on as many different platforms as possible is only in the bands best interests.

Pretty sure Freezepop announced they weren't going to include any tracks for RB2 or any new DLC till they produced some new material.

Nobody reads the emails from them I suppose.

Freezepop sent an email at one point saying they would charge monthly for premium updates for their hardcore fans. While other bands do that for free on Twitter, they want $3/month. My opinion of them declined after that news.

Also, LTMR isn't new. And would have been a welcome addition to RB2...

I wonder if one purchase will get you the PSP and PS3 versions down the road.
That would add value and not screw the dual owning consumer so...probably not.

Don't count on it. It uses the Rock Band name and features, but when it comes to gameplay, it's more of a FreQuency/Amplitude style. So it's Rock Band without being Rock Band.

Then a PSP track shouldn't cost the same as a PS3 track, but I'm guessing they will.

I've been looking for an excuse to upgrade from my first-generation PSP, especially with the whole PSP Plus feature of Retribution. Here's my excuse, finally!

assassin's creed, little big planet, or motor storm weren't enough for you? lol

Well, I didn't see those as excuses to buy an entire new PSP. But a game I've really anticipated coming out in a bundle excites me. My PSP-1000's been fine, but I'd like a new one, but I didn't--until now--think it was worth $200. Still might not be, but eh, oh well. lol

Cool about the Blink 182 song, I'll get that for PS3. I already have a PSP, but I'm sick of piano black, why do they keep putting it in bundles? I'd buy a different color next time.

You could always go for the Lilac Hannah Montana bundle they have slated for release.

That didn't look that bad, as long as there isn't any stupid art on it. I would go with silver though, the matte one that wouldn't leave fingerprints. Only got piano black cause I wanted a core system at the time, no bundle.

I actually kind of want the lilac one for the irony.

Yuck. More good songs please. Joke bands and shitty 3rd generation pop-punk is not going to do it for me (though ABC is a nice addition.) Plus, it's going to take a lot for Harmonix to make up for the fact that my RB2 drum set (which is only like 4 months old) had the bass-drum connector crap out the other day. Grrr...

from the Video on the PS Blog it appears to be using the Standard PSP controls...

That could be kinda awkward I think but I'm sure it can be done. Dunno if I will be getting it tho. One thing is certain, PSP games this year will be on point

I enjoyed D-Pad Hero (a NES Demake of Guitar Hero), but only for it's novelty and the fact it's free. Not really sure if I could get behind a full priced game like this. Hands would scream in pure terror after a song or two.

We need more Guitaroo Man instead.

More Gitaroo-Man would be awesome.

Second.

So theses songs are pretty much guarantee to be DLC for Rock Band?
Cause that's what the last part seems to be saying.
And if it is true, then YES, more tenacious D to sing.

I coulda sworn I saw Obama in this video.

seems like a total step back when you consider the fact that you don't hav any sort of instrument. At leaset with guitar hero on ds u got that little add-on thing for use as a fret board

Please let this mean that we will get some Jackson 5 on the regular consoles.

Directly from the article:

several songs -- listed below -- will be made available exclusively for a limited time before being released across the entire Rock Band platform.

I read that, I meant MORE.

i'll wait and see if a new PSP is announced at E3, if it isnt, then i may finally get this.

not using instruments seems kinda pointless to me, but the PSP needs something like this so go for it.

loving the song list there. hope it's not too long of a wait for the songs to reach 360/PS3

and the switching tracks is kinda weird. hope thats an option and not forced. really hard to tell in the video.

It's forced. You are the entire band in a sense. Go play amplitude to get a feel for it, great game.

GIVE IT UP FOR KG GIVE IT UP FOR ME

The bundle comes w/ a 4gig memory stick.. Nice Remember when the PSP was bundled w/ the 32meg stick? Lol.Good times. Good times.

I like how they mapped half the buttons to the left side, unlike Beats. But I can't picture paying for DLC songs just for the PSP. The gameplay is not deep or immersive, it's not really Rock Band. They should allow you to dowload songs for free that you've purchased on PS3 or 360. Or discount the PSP songs to like 99 cents or something. I like that they're doing something for the PSP though, I support the idea of this game but don't think I could buy it.

Is it just me or does Beats kind of suck? Downloaded it the other day, I feel like even with the songs that come with it, notes really don't correspond to the music at all, let alone when you use your own stuff.

Beats does kind of suck, at least it was cheap. I find Phase for iPod does a better job, and although Audiosurf doesn't really seem to directly match up notes to your songs, it feels most like I'm actually riding on my song as I play. You gotta try the Audiosurf demo for PC.

this game is really making me excited. audioslave, alice in chains, and tenacious d FTW. and the bundle comes with school of rock which is a great movie.

Im starting to lean back to the PSP in terms of games.. I am having such trouble choosing between a dsi and a black psp 3000.

This is cool and all, but what I would really like to see is a PS3 version of something like "Beats" that would utilize the Rockband instruments so you could play songs that you already own (and would produce notes better than Beats did). We all know that would never happen but a fella can dream.

I'm really liking this cause it seems like it's less of an attempt at portablizing rock band as it is a spiritual successor to frequency/amplitude with rock band theming which is necessary for circumventing IP restrictions (since sony techincally owns Freq/Amp) as well as useful for marketing it to people who have know idea what the originals are.

game play sucks...
better get a kind of controller and stick on it

Wow, that control scheme sucks. The least they could do was offer a dongle similar to the one included with the DS Guitar Hero games. There's a USB port on the system... it should be possible!

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Rock Band Unplugged detailed, priced and dated

Rock Band Unplugged

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