Game Reviews

Rock Band Reloaded

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| Rock Band Reloaded
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Rock Band Reloaded
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| Rock Band Reloaded

Aren't encores a bit of a farce?

You've paid money out to see your favourite band performing in concert – Steps, 911, you know the score - they sing their little hearts out for an hour or two, and then they leave the stage, seemingly at the end of their performance, only to return to the bright lights once you've all stamped your feet and screamed at the top of your lungs for a bit.

It's a part of the performance seemingly designed to make you think the artist in question has returned to the stage out of the goodness of their heart, singing a few unprepared songs in response to the audience's love and adoration.

It is, of course, a sham. Though this might be a 'Father Christmas isn't real' kind of revelation for some of you, the truth is, the little starlet you clapped your hands until they were red raw for would have come and performed said encore with or without your approval.

Re-play

Rock Band Reloaded is a very similar brand of repeat performance – retracing the same steps as its previous outing and hitting the same old bum notes in the process.

To a large degree, in fact, this could be the very same game.

As is the genre staple, Rock Band Reloaded tasks you with hitting notes that either stream down a fret board by tapping corresponding buttons at the right time – if instruments are your weapon – or streaming from the side if singing is your talent.

Reloaded lets you tackle such challenges either individually or as part of a career, setting up a worldwide tour that also tasks you with mastering both the bass guitar and drums along the way.

Played at anything but its hardest setting, it's really not much of a challenge – successful notes keep the crowd happy, while hitting glowing grey notes builds your energy meter, enabling you to put the game into overdrive and pick up more points.

Two can't play at that game

Rock Band Reloaded's problems, however, are two-fold.

Just as with last year's release, the sync between the music and the notes streaming down the board never quite matches up, despite the return of a calibration screen on first start up. As such, the latest Rock Band Reloaded is another game where you stand a better chance of success playing with the sound off.

That's something you might resort to anyway. Though the songs at hand are broad – ranging from Roy Orbison to Lenny Kravitz – the tracks themselves are MIDI files, their caustic and often frankly annoying tones making playing Rock Band Reloaded even more a question of patience than it needs to be.

As such, EA seems to have ignored all criticisms laid at its door last time out and served up largely the same game, albeit with a different tracklist. Suffice to say, this is one repeat performance we could all do without.

Rock Band Reloaded

Shackled by the same problems as its predecessor, Rock Band Reloaded pales in comparison to Guitar Hero's greatest moments on mobile
Score
Keith Andrew
Keith Andrew
With a fine eye for detail, Keith Andrew is fuelled by strong coffee, Kylie Minogue and the shapely curve of a san serif font. He's also Pocket Gamer's resident football gaming expert and, thanks to his work on PG.biz, monitors the market share of all mobile OSes on a daily basis.