Kombo's Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don't waste your time. This is why we've split our reviews into four sections: What the Game's About, What's Hot, What's Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.

What the Game's About
Rock Band Unplugged takes the world-changing Rock Band franchise and puts it in your hands on the PSP. How does it all work since there are no silly plastic instruments to plug into the portable? Harmonix goes back to their musical roots with a game that is undeniably similar to their past efforts like Frequency and Amplitude. Most casual gamers will recognize Harmonix as the people who created Guitar Hero and then Rock Band. Hardcore gamers will remember them for their psychedelic techno odysseys Amplitude and Frequency. Warm up your thumbs, grab some headphones and bring some band-aids for those blisters you are going to get.

What's Hot
Here is a quick history lesson about Harmonix non-Guitar Hero/Rock Band games. Those games put you in a tube filled with notes that you had to tap out on the control pad. The trick was that each instrument was played on a different line. You'd have to switch between the lines to complete the song.

Unplugged is played the exact same way, only the visuals will look a whole lot more familiar. The scrolling note highway comes at you and you start tapping out the beats for all the different instruments. Once you start out the song, one line of music will play and you need to perfectly play a measure of the music to have that instrument autoplay while you tend to the other lines of music. If you start missing a beat, the lines will start piling up and those instruments won't play meaning you'll be hearing only a fraction of the song. You still can collect Overdrive and can use that to save failed lines of music or boost your point total to get higher star ratings.

This method of playing a rhythm game is not only challenging because of the multitasking you need to do, but it's also incredibly fun since you are responsible for more things than just one instrument. It actually balances out the fact that you don't have a fake instrument to learn. The music is top notch and fits with the new gameplay design for the PSP. With DLC promised to keep this game going for a long time, there will be plenty of more songs to tap along to in the future.



What's Not
This style of gameplay is a drastic departure from what gamers have come to know Rock Band to be. In fact, the game is a lot harder than you can imagine. Getting used to the button map and playing multiple lines and beats is a feat in itself. When you switch lines, you'll need to spot a landing so you can gain multiplies. That takes some practice to use your peripheral vision like that to keep with the song and not miss a note. It isn't as punishing as DJ Max Fever but you'll still need to start off slowly and progressively get better.

This is Rock Band Unplugged, which means that there are rock songs to play. Unplugged should have taken this opportunity to explore some other musical genres, like electronic music, to give more diversity to the musical offerings. One of the main criticism with the game is that it doesn't branch outside of its comfort zone, meaning the game is limited by the Rock Band name.

The largest sin that Unplugged commits is the fact that there isn't one ounce of multiplayer to be had. A franchise that is based entirely on a best in class multiplayer experience without multiplayer is like eating macaroni and cheese without macaroni or cheese, you just can't do it. Since the game is setup that you play all the instruments on the PSP at once, a battle mode or some leaderboards would have suited this type of game design. Why something wasn't done to add a shred of multiplayer is bewildering.

Final Word
Unplugged offers plenty of fun and fast gameplay that'll test your finger dexterity each and every time without worrying about peripherals that you have to port around. With Harmonix going back to their roots and creating a game that is more similar to Frequency and Amplitude is great to see on the PSP. It goes to show that you doesn't always need to be a peripheral to be fun. The Guitar Hero editions on the DS offer the grip device but makes you physically cramp up so it is good to see the philosophy of less is more applied back into these sorts of games.