“Rock Band Unplugged” Coming to PSP
Rock Band is set to go portable as MTV Games and Harmonix revealed plans to release the music video game exclusively for Sony’s PSP handheld system. According to a press release, Rock Band Unplugged will take advantage of “the PSP system’s Wi-Fi capabilities and becomes the first PSP game to include a fully-featured in-game store for downloadable content in the North American and Europeans markets.”
No other details, such as gameplay or track list, were officially revealed. Rock Band Unplugged exclusively linking with Sony PSP is likely a response to the Guitar Hero: On Tour game that came out exclusively on the portable Nintendo DS. Whereas the Guitar Hero: On Tour takes advantage of the DS’s touchscreen and microphone capabilities to sort of replicate the Guitar Hero experience, Rock Band Unplugged will reportedly require gamers to touch buttons to match up with the musical cues, Primotech reports. After successfully completing one “phrase” of the song on one of the instruments, the instruments will then change for the next “phrase.” To quote the Twitter of Harmonix designer Dan Teasdale, “Phrase-based lane-switching beatmatch lives again!”
While the press release didn’t elaborate on what songs may appear on the game, Primotech says tracks by AFI, Kansas, the Polic, Boston and Blink-182 will be featured. The game is due out in fall 2009.
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