Filed under: Gaming, Software, Odds and ends, Developer, iPhone, App Store, iPod touch, Music
by Mike Schramm (RSS feed) on Oct 9th 2009 at 9:00AM

It's true --
as leaked earlier this week and confirmed yesterday, EA is
bringing Harmonix's Rock Band to the iPhone, and it's about what you'd expect: notes come down the screen set to popular music, you tap in certain places in time to the beat, and get a score based on how well you do. Truthfully, I'm a huge
Rock Band (and Harmonix) fan in general, but this doesn't excite me much -- the big draw of
Rock Band is actually playing with those instruments, and while yes they're plastic and tiny, when you get four people in the same room together playing them, it actually feels like you're jamming in a band.
Fortunately, the iPhone version will have both online and bluetooth multiplayer, so you will be able to jam with people, but the gameplay is simply reminiscent of
Tap Tap Revenge, which you probably
already know about and/or have. It looks like
they've gotten most of their songs from the actual
Rock Band game; twenty songs with the purchase (no price yet), and then there will be 99 cent packs of two songs each coming out soon. The app's been submitted and it should be out in the store next week.

Tags: content, ea, gaming, harmonix, in-app-purchases, instruments, iphone, multiplayer, music, notes, packs, rock-band, tap-tap-revenge
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Beau Giles said 9:09AM on 10-09-2009
I'm also bummed about the part that the 'vocals' isn't vocals at all, you're just tapping! :( I was looking forward to singing into my iPhone!
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Maldimar said 11:44AM on 10-09-2009
Your neighbours weren't. ;-)
But I do agree!
Batiger17 said 9:10AM on 10-09-2009
They should enable the accelerator so it will turn sideways and play with all four fingers and when you turn the phone up right it will rock out and give you the bonus points. That's one thing I'm waiting for in any tap-tap revenge, guitar rock hero, or now the rock band game. Atleast that way it doesn't feel so much like the competitions games and more real to the actual stand alone instruments video game systems have.
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matt said 9:20AM on 10-09-2009
I'm looking forward to the idea of an online virtual band on my iPhone, pretty sweet.
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jax sedrin said 10:24AM on 10-09-2009
From what I read on TouchArcade, the big advantage of this over Tap Tap Revenge is that the instrument actually cuts out of the song when you mess up, just like on the console versions, giving you (somewhat) more incentive to do well.
But yeah... without "real" vocals, I can't say this interests me any more than TTR does.
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Martin said 11:15AM on 10-11-2009
It's not only more incentive to do better, but it actually helps you know when you've missed a note. That's my huge beef with TTR ... unless I'm staring at my multiplier, I have no clue that I've missed a note. It makes a huge difference in these games.
jftreko said 10:42AM on 10-09-2009
Very cool, will be mucho fun.
maybe they can make it so your iphone can be an instrument when you play on a normal game system too?
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Dale said 10:44AM on 10-09-2009
I got cramp from Guitar Hero on the DS, Rock Band on the PSP didn't even garner a rental, and Tap Tap Revenge was deleted in hours... the ENTIRE point of these games is the use of the instruments, portable versions just don't work for me.
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HazyCloud said 10:50AM on 10-09-2009
I played the PSP version at Best Buy and almost purchased a PSP just for it. I guess to each their own.
I'll be checking the App Store daily until this comes out.
FantomRedux said 7:09PM on 10-09-2009
I'll give you the GH/RB points, as it's a major selling point of the games. However, you're completely wrong about Tap Tap. Tap Tap was originally based on Dance Dance Revolution, hence the games original name of Tap Tap Revolution. Tap Tap has never been an instrument game, just a rythym game.
bxp said 11:18AM on 10-09-2009
Good game!
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Tom said 3:51PM on 10-09-2009
I'll only get excited if I find that songs I have already dl'ed for PS3 are somehow accessible without paying extra on the iPhone. If I have Tom Sawyer on my PS3 and I get the iPhone version...and Tom Sawyer becomes available, why should I have to pay for it again?
Martin said 11:20AM on 10-11-2009
You have to pay for it again because $2 doesn't entitle you to a second license.
Speicherkarten said 6:10AM on 10-10-2009
Oh surely its great news.
As something rock foodies come too my iphone am so excited.
Great one thanks for posting it.
Speicherkarten
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zerock said 9:17AM on 10-10-2009
sweet!!
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