Konami unveils Rock Revolution drums, forgets to try
[Via Joystiq]
Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals
[Via Joystiq]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Matt @ May 16th 2008 12:29PM
I wouldn't trust MTV reviews of this game, seeing as how they're trying to sell Rock Band...
Ghen @ May 16th 2008 1:38PM
Its like Engadget reporting on AOL failures. I think its going to be separated enough to trust the report if you trust their other works.
dial0g @ May 16th 2008 12:30PM
Ummm, Konami has been doing the "pretending to play music" thing for quite some time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Freaks
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DrumMania
Low Ranked @ May 16th 2008 12:41PM
You linked to Wikipedia?
Ghen @ May 16th 2008 1:39PM
Is that a bad thing? a 4chan joke? I'm not getting it.
Gorillamonk @ May 16th 2008 3:45PM
nah, he's just surprised at how far wiki has come. You guys better buy stock fast, it's only going to get better.
Wiki = WIN
synkknys @ May 16th 2008 5:05PM
@dial0g: I'm sure you mean KONAMI Japan and not Konami Digital Entertainment? Because KDE has never released a "pretending to play music" type of game save for KR and the terrible, horrible Beatmania US release.
Note that they are separate entities.
Farris @ May 16th 2008 12:43PM
"Improvise between proscribed notes"
Um... how does it determine how good the improv is? Couldn't you just hit all the pads as fast as you possibly could as long as you managed to hit the right pads at the right time?
What's cool about GH and RB is if you hit a wrong note, you lose points (or rock meter, or whatever... it's been a while since I played). So Konami is letting us hit wrong notes AND get points for it?
Max @ May 16th 2008 1:05PM
It's been a while since I played either Konami's Guitar Freaks or DrumMania, but I think in Guitar Freaks, you could play between the falling notes, and sometimes you'd discover hidden bonus notes you could play. I don't recall ever finding such notes in DrumMania, but it makes sense they'd be there, too.
On top of this, both games *will* penalize you for missing scored or "proscribed" notes. However, they will not necessarily penalize you for hitting a few extra notes in between scored notes or "improvising between proscribed notes." If you "improvise" too close to a proscribed note, it will register as a miss, so you can't just wail away randomly and expect to do well.
Overall, I remember thinking when Guitar Hero came out that I liked the extra buttons on the neck (Guitar Freaks used only 3 to Guitar Hero's 5), but I liked Guitar Freaks' scoring system better (for that "improvisation" ability).
Please someone correct me if I'm remembering the game mechanics incorrectly.
Dustin @ May 16th 2008 4:42PM
"Improvise between proscribed notes"
How do you know which notes you *aren't* allowed to hit? Proscribed = forbidden.
Now, other Konami titles like DDR have always allowed you to add additional steps/notes, so long as you hit at least the required (prescribed) notes.
Rob @ May 16th 2008 12:46PM
I'm amazed that I haven't seen reports of these drum kits falling apart from use. I know that they wouldn't last 10mns in my hands. The guitars are different because they don't take any direct impact from a stick. But, the drums do.
Ghen @ May 16th 2008 1:41PM
the RB drums do fall apart and need added stability if you're a heavy hitter. As far as the ones in this article... Its kinda not out yet.
Fred @ May 16th 2008 12:48PM
"Janky"....Nice.
John Stracke @ May 16th 2008 12:51PM
"allows you to improvise in between the proscribed hits" -- that's "prescribe". To prescribe something is to require it; to proscribe something is to forbid it. Yes, it's unfortunate.
roflercopterer @ May 16th 2008 1:02PM
"Pretending to play music meme"
yep that about sums it up.
Ridgecity @ May 16th 2008 1:07PM
Actually Konami "invented" Guitar Hero, the problem was they used on J-Pop songs, I still waiting for the dj game, which I bet will be appearing sooner or later...
And it will be up to which one has the best music:
Rockband tries to much to be a rock authority by having music many people never heard off, by famous artists, or the "B-set" that they license for compilation, not they true hits.
Guitar Hero has mostly greatest hits but fills it with half unknowns and "local" bands only they know as friends.
Konami, will add very little music, because they enjoy release packs every few months, and you gotta have Ricky Martin...
Jay @ May 16th 2008 3:18PM
they tried releasing Beatmania a couple years ago and it flopped.
Just do what I do and import.
Jay @ May 16th 2008 3:22PM
Clarification....they tried releasing it in america and it flopped, its still hot as hell in Japan
They also test marketed a US arcade release last year (based on the Japanese version, not an original mix) and never said anything one way or anothter about making it official. The place they had it was the same place I normally play ITG at.
Gorillamonk @ May 16th 2008 3:51PM
local bands? are you serious?! If you know j-pop you could get into guitarfreaks. Otherwise, Guitarhero had an awesome lineup. True, I didn't know half of them, but now I do. I'm not buying a j-pop cd anytime soon and it's not just cause i don't understand the lyrics.
Grant @ May 16th 2008 1:10PM
it has sk8er boi?!?
OMG!!! killer app of the year!!!
kyle @ May 16th 2008 1:25PM
As others have already pointed out, Konami had these types of games YEARS before the first character of Guitar Hero or Rock Band code was ever written: 1999, if Wikipedia is accurate.
They even released home versions for the PlayStation and PS2. There is also a DJ game and a piano game.
I remember a local minigolf place had these in their arcades around 2000. I always thought Guitar Hero and Rock Band must have licensed the concept from Konami, but I guess not! Konami should have patented it... oops!
EricR @ May 16th 2008 1:30PM
Maybe they could still sue in Texas?
Scott @ May 16th 2008 1:30PM
I think they're getting a little confused here. If you could "improvise" and do it well, you're probably a drummer. If that's the case, why would you spend all your time playing a game with crappy fake pads when you could be rocking out in a real band? If you suck at playing the drums, then adding on an extra 2 pads will only confuse you more, making the game harder and less fun. It's a lose-lose from where I'm sitting.
I guess it is kind of fun to show off at parties and stuff. Oh well...I won't buy it anyways.
Ghen @ May 16th 2008 1:43PM
Its like pilots who enjoy flight sims. Its just fun no matter what your day job is.
The 3rd Hot Dog @ May 16th 2008 2:25PM
Try these:
Athletes have been known to relax with sports games.
Skaters enjoy Tony Hawk (although probably not lately).
If I want to go play the drums, I'll play the drums... except I live in an apartment so let's pretend that's not the case. I'm not gonna say "Man, I could really go for some video game playing... but I guess I'll go call my band up, get everyone together and have a practice session instead."
Ignatius @ May 16th 2008 1:31PM
I already have enough trouble with Rock Band on Hard and Expert, I'll stick to four pads and a drum pedal rather than SIX PADS and a drum pedal... christ.
hhhenryhhh @ May 16th 2008 2:44PM
why cant they just use their Drummania layout... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITQoYBIu6PU
Interpol @ May 16th 2008 2:46PM
Not interested.
When is someone going to come out with COWBELL HERO?
matt @ May 16th 2008 3:50PM
y can't they make it resemble a real drum set. like tophat on the left snare in center two smaller drums above that then a bass drum to the right. that would be sweet cause if they get the rhythms on it would achully work on a real drum set.
clockwork @ May 16th 2008 11:13PM
Uhh, it is setup like a real drumkit, just not a five piece. The hi-hat on the left, snare slightly to the left, crash, rack tom, ride and floor tom. Looks like a setup that actually functions like a drumkit to me.
Whiplash @ May 16th 2008 5:10PM
I always get a kick out of people that say "why don't you just play real guitar / drums / etc?". I wonder when the last time you shot a "real" M16 was? It's called fantasy folks, that's the entire point of video games isn't it?
TouchPodium.com @ May 16th 2008 9:45PM
Wow, I don't usually leave comments here, but I'm here at work checking out the latest news here at Engadget, and this drum set caught my eye. I'm a fan of Rock Band, and yes, this drum set does look pretty stupid, if anything.
Anyway, the reason I'm leaving a comment here this evening is because at work, we have a radio playing on the PA system, and it literally started playing "He was a Skater Boy" by Avril Lavigne the second I read "Sk8r boi". Really messed up, man.
Riley @ May 17th 2008 12:16AM
this headline made my day
Adam Williamson @ May 17th 2008 6:05AM
Wow, the errors are flying thick and fast in here...
Yes, this is from Konami Digital Entertainment, previous Konami America, which is run fairly separately from Konami Japan, the parent of the Bemani division which makes DrumMania, GuitarFreaks, DDR and so on. Engadget should have made this clear in the article, and realized that Konami basically invented this entire subgenre.
There are no 'hidden notes' in GuitarFreaks.
GuitarFreaks' default setting does not allow you to 'improvise': playing a note which is not on the chart is counted as a 'miss', breaking your combo and depleting your life meter. All Bemani games allow the rules (and display, scroll speed etc) to be modified in some ways (for GF / DM, through a menu system accessed by holding down the Start button when selecting a song). One of the mods available in GuitarFreaks is Light mode, which changes this rule: with Light mode enabled, you are not penalised for playing a note that's not on the chart. It still won't sound very good, though. The use of Light mode is basically considered a 'cheat' in serious play: high scores in Light mode aren't recognized in score tracking systems and it can't be used in competition.
In DrumMania the situation is exactly reversed. DrumMania's default setup allows you to hit notes not on the chart without being penalized (leading to the fairly-common tactic of spamming, or playing lots of extra notes on commonly used pads during hard sections, when trying to clear a song you're not very confident on). One of the modifications available in DM, named Tight mode, changes this to the GF default behaviour: playing non-existent notes is penalized. But the use of Tight mode isn't very common and isn't required for score tracking or tournament play (although the best players rarely actually do any extra hits).
Konami has several patents on the basic concepts involved in GF / DM. If you check the legal information for GH (1 through 3) and RB, you'll see they acknowledge (read: they licensed) Konami's patents.
FWIW, the music in GF/DM is not entirely - or even mostly - j-pop. True j-pop makes up, oh, about 20-30% of the total. It contains songs from all genres - much more varied than RB, including quite a lot of jazz and ska stuff and at least a token representation of just about all types of drumming you can vaguely reproduce on the DM kit. However, most of the music is not licensed from external bands (even external *Japanese* bands), but produced in-house at Bemani, which has extensive music production facilities and a roster of its own recording artists who work more or less full time producing music for the various Bemani games. There are a reasonable amount of licensed tracks by popular Japanese artists, and several (increasing in recent releases, and also very prevalent in the first couple of releases) by Western bands, though these are almost all covers, not originals. I think Panasonic Youth, by the Dillinger Escape Plan, is the original, though.
Max @ May 19th 2008 5:10PM
There are hidden notes at least in 2-player mode of GF for home systems up until GF 5.
ritzenhauf @ May 17th 2008 3:51PM
Pad layout is the best yet, with much more realistic and usable hat/snare positions and easy to access controls. Nice job!
Greg @ May 16th 2008 3:18PM
Ya it is the best Ive seen, i wish i had time to mod my real drum set to rock band, wait i wish i had the game first.