Preview: Rock Band Blitz

Name: Rock Band Blitz
Genre: Rhythm
Players: 1
Multiplayer: No
Platforms: Xbox 360, PS3
Developers: Harmonix
Publishers: N/A
Release Date: 28 August 2012
Price: 1200 MS Points

Following the success of the highly addicting, rocking out simulator, Rock Band 3, Harmonix aims to provide you with the ultimate rhythm experience right on your couch with only you, a controller and the music. Rock Band Blitz is a rhythm game that aims to provide you with the full rhythm experience without the need to buy expensive instruments for it to work.

The game works in a similar fashion as Rock Band 3 where colour-coded notes scroll across your screen and it’s your job to hit those notes at the right time. The game allows you to map out the controls as you feel fit giving you the option to set them to the face buttons or the triggers. It all depends on what feels the most comfortable to you. Using these button presses you progress through a song and at the end it gives you a star rating depending on your performance.

The gameplay consists of up to five track lanes that represent the different instruments, vocals, drums, guitar, bass and keyboards. If a song doesn’t contain a specific instrument then that track lane is removed from the song. Each lane has two sides that contain notes for that specific instrument and unlike previous Rock Band games, Rock Band Blitz only has one difficulty setting. You will mainly switch between the different instrument tracks to achieve the highest multiplier cap possible within that specific lane. The better multiplier you get, the better your score at the end of the song.

Certain notes will have a white colour and if you hit that series of notes perfectly you will accumulate Overdrive that can be activated for an even higher score similar to its Rock Band predecessors. New to the series is the inclusion of purple notes that allows you to activate certain unique power-ups such as Bottle Rocket that clears a runway of notes and the Bandmate power-up that makes an AI-player clear a section alongside you. There are many different power-ups of course and that allows the player to formulate strategies to achieve the highest score possible.

The soundtrack consist of 25 tracks that are brand new to the series with big names bands such as Foster The People, Blink-182 and Fall Out Boy making an appearance. 25 tracks might seem like a small number to you, but the game also allows you to play any of the previous downloadable songs across the Rock Band franchise. Just to make it clear the Rock Band library consists of 3500+ songs for you to download.