Run the Blitz

Last week, Harmonix released its newest game on XBox 360 and PS3, Rock Band Blitz. It's an odd combination of elements, neither fish nor fowl, and hard to critique for that reason.

If any PlayStation 2 fans out there remember Harmonix's earlier games, Frequency or Amplitude, then you will likely look on Rock Band Blitz as a spiritual successor. Where the Rock Band franchise has been all about simulating the experience of being an actual musician -- preferably with friends -- Blitz is a single player experience that is much more game than simulation.

As in Rock Band, the gameplay involves you beat matching gems on a scrolling highway as you play through a song. But you do this using an actual console controller rather than a plastic instrument. And you actually take on the roles of the entire band. Each part of the song -- drums, bass, guitar, vocals, and keys -- are shown on separate lanes, and you can shift between them during the song to play whichever part you want.


In fact, the gameplay demands shifting if you want to maximize your score. At regular checkpoints throughout the song, your score multiplier cap will increase, but only according to the level of your least-played instrument. So instead of imagining yourself as a real guitarist, drummer, or what-have-you, Blitz puts you more in a role of plate spinner, trying to keep all tracks equally visited (and preferably during sections where they have the most notes to play).

Adding to the much-more-game-than-music atmosphere are a wide variety of power-ups you can purchase and utilize during a song to further boost your score. Some will feel quite natural to Rock Band players, such as a 2x score multiplier and an option to auto-play a second instrument for a short period of time. But others put a heavy emphasis on the shifting nature of the gameplay, asking you to chase the "flaming" notes that appear scattered on different tracks, or to switch instruments right on a new measure to get a score bonus.

It's all fun in its own way, but it really isn't quite Rock Band. And frankly, neither is it Frequency or Amplitude. Those games asked you to play multiple instruments too, but not in as constant a back-and-forth manner as Rock Band Blitz. To maximize score (and the main drive of the game is all about maximizing score), you might well play a specific instrument for only a second or two before switching elsewhere. As such, you never really connect with the music on a deeper level... though that's not to say you might not enjoy the unusual challenge of the gameplay.

So why label such a different experience with the Rock Band name? (Well, other than brand extension.) For two very cool reasons, actually. First, the game is able to make use of all DLC songs you've purchased for any of the earlier Rock Band games. Whatever money you've spent building a large song library now gets double use in this new context.

But perhaps more significantly for Rock Band fans, the game's new soundtrack of 25 songs is also automatically exported for use in Rock Band 3. That soundtrack includes the Barenaked Ladies hit "One Week," some fun 80s jams like "Jessie's Girl" and "Shout", and several more great party options. It's like a large new "track pack" for Rock Band 3. And you can't beat the price -- the game itself is a downloadable title that sells for just $15. With individual Rock Band songs selling for $2, you basically just have to find 8 out of 25 songs you like for the game to pay for itself and more solely as a piece of Rock Band 3 DLC.

Now, realistically speaking, I don't see myself devoting anywhere near as much time to Blitz as I did to the main Rock Band games. The gameplay is simply far less compelling... something I'd rate around a B. But $15 for a solid B game is a pretty good proposition all on its own. Add in the new tracks for Rock Band 3, and it's basically impossible not to recommend picking up the game.