Leave the plastic musical instruments and console at home. All you need to jam around Hong Kong is Sony's PlayStation Portable (PSP) device and the amazing tracks included in music game Rock Band Unplugged.
Published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts, Rock Band Unplugged was created by Harmonix Music Systems, the original developer of the Guitar Hero series, and BackBone Entertainment.
It delivers a full band gaming experience in the palm of a player's hand by combining traditional beatmatch gameplay with key elements from console-based music games Rock Band, released in 2007, and last year's Rock Band 2.
Unlike the Guitar Hero: On Tour series of music games, which require an add-on controller attached to the Nintendo DS handheld game system, players of Rock Band Unplugged use their hands as 'peripheral' equipment to control the game's lead/bass guitars, drums and vocals.
Gameplay is simple. Four different coloured gems, representing notes, come down a track towards the screen. As these gems cross a horizontal target bar, players must correctly press the corresponding button or buttons.
The default controls for the game are the Left and Up buttons on the D pad, and the triangle and circle buttons. That setup makes for a natural feel and works very nicely with the left-to-right layout of the gems on screen. The game allows you to customise the PSP's button layout if you are not happy with the default setting.
Players need to quickly switch between the drummer, vocalist, lead and bass guitars during gameplay. It is up to a player to make sure each band member is performing well; ignore one for too long and their performance falters, which results in lower scores.
