For those living under a rock, or willfully oblivious to all things music-game-related, Rock Band 2 was released this week. The sequel to the best and biggest musical video game is now available to the masses. But, some people (like little ol' me) won't be able to get their hands on RB2 for various reasons. Thankfully, there is an alternative, and, surprisingly, it's on your iPod.


...pretty...

Yes, you read that right: a music rhythm game on your iPod. And, awesomely enough, it's made by those same magicians who created Rock Band, Harmonix. The game plays much like it's console big brothers Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Plus, any song can be played in the game. That's right...ANY SONG! Anything in your iTunes library can be transferred into the game. That means everything from Milli Vanilli to The One-Ups can be rhythmically played through the iPod. Now, at first, I (like many of you) wondered how the control worked. Thankfully, it plays and feels like any Rock Band game should.


Yep, just like that.

Everything's here; the note highway, the stars, the sacred blue notes, all of it. During the song, notes come down one of 3 tracks: left, for the Skip Back button, middle for the Select button, and right for the Skip Forward button. String notes are played by rolling your finger around the click wheel, following the string on-screen.

Other than that, the game differs from it's brethren in a few interesting ways. At the beginning of each song, you're given 3 hearts, and a goal to reach. The goals are star meters you need to fill up before the next checkpoint. A checkpoint comes up every 45 seconds or so in the song. If you haven't filled the required amount of stars by the time you reach a checkpoint, you lose a heart for each unfilled star. Going above and beyond your star requirement (by filling bonus yellow stars) nets you another heart, with up to 4 available. The blue notes in the game, rather than giving you Star Power, give you more points, and are essential for filling up bonus stars.



The art is enough reason to see this game in action.

The art style in the game is something to behold. Every song is played in one of a handful of different stages, each with a different theme (such as Underwater, Factory or City Street). As you play, you rush towards an object in the distance, and little figures pass by you on the sides of the screen. The art is done in a graffiti sort of style, with bright, vibrant colors and goofy characters. As far as game modes go, you only get a Quick Play option, or Marathon, which groups five songs together in a row. Completion of a Marathon nets you harder difficulty levels. Also, as a little bonus, the game comes pre-packed with a soundtrack containing 7 Harmonix favorites like Bang Camaro, Freezpop, and Universal Hall Pass.

Unfortunately, the game's not really that special. While it does look beautiful, the note tracks don't seem to match up with the songs very well, until you get up to Expert difficulty (which you have to unlock). This is to be expected, as the game comes up with note tracks, instead of being pre-programed with tracks, like in Rock Band. But, I would've at least liked some sort of consistency with the tracks and the song I was playing. Also, the game seems to be very unforgiving: missing one note can sometimes cause you to loose 2 hearts between checkpoints, which can screw you over in the end. I can't tell you how many Marathons were ruined on the last song because I've missed 2 or 3 notes.

For a measly $5 (through the iPod store), you can pick up this little rhythm game, and have a Rock Band-like game on the go. Just don't expect everything it's big brother gives you.

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Previous Mini-Games:
Song Summoner
Devil May Cry 3D
God of War
Assassin's Creed
Turok
Dead Rising
Final Fantasy Snowboarding
Doom RPG