**Editor’s Note: Much like the game’s multiplayer, this review is written by both Damon and James.**

We have previously covered Tap Tap Revenge 3, but can this transitioning console hit give Tapulous a run for their money?

ROCK BAND ($9.99)

ROCK BAND is the latest phenomenon to grace the AppStore. We have had many music tapping games in our time, but nothing this HUGE has landed on our palms previously.

$9.99 for 22 songs (around $0.45 per track plus DLC)… is this the complete package we have been waiting for?

My Take

I think I can safely say that I have enough experience to review this title, with this being the 13th music tapping game I have on this device. What I was expecting in this game was what I expected from all the other games I have played. That is either notes that coincide with the beat or guitar.

ROCK BAND however takes the complete band experience letting you play songs tapping to different instruments: Guitar, Bass, Drums or even Vocals. I think this is a brilliant idea and love the fact I can play the same song in four totally different ways.

Presentation

Tap Tap Revenge 3 has the awesome themes for songs while Guitar Rock Tour 2 has the live performance like Guitar Hero. Having no exposure with Rock Band left me not knowing what to expect. What we get is some pretty sweet looking repeated animations of a rock show.

These aren’t real and instead seem to be hand drawn animations. These look awesome in my opinion and switch between the rock show experience and the various instruments as they happen in the song.

Since they don’t have the most extreme graphics compared to other music games, EA was able to tune this game run extremely smoothly. James: I ADORE ROCK BAND more than Guitar Hero for both the PS3 and Wii, so coming from an “addict” standpoint, EA was able to exploit a small screen to deliver a full ROCK BAND experience.

*From this point, the review is continued by James Isabel*

Gameplay

I would just have to assume that people reading this have had some exposure with ANY music arcade game on ANY platform. If not, it’s really simple: you tap the music beats as they descend from the top of the screen. These beats are usually synchronized with the actual music itself.

There are three main modes: Quick Play (you get to choose your own song right away), World Tour (5 different venues performing a 5 song-set per venue) and Multiplayer mode (rock on with your friends and their devices using Bluetooth connection).

After choosing which mode you’d like to play, the game asks you which song you’d like to play, the instrument you want to use and the difficulty in which that song gets played. After that, you’re ready to rock and roll!

Lastly, if you ever get tired of the 22 pre-downloaded and selected songs (click here for the full tracklist), more music are available through DLC which runs you $0.99 a pop.

Suggestions

Let me get this out the door and say ROCK BAND DOES NOT SUCK! Most review sites are yapping about EA Mobile not using players’ voice for vocal mode. They went on and on about it, but did they ever ask EA why? Without being totally pompous (ha!), we did and here’s what they have to say verbatim:

We designed the game to best benefit all potential players. At this time, the iPod touch does not have a microphone built in, so whether being played on the iPhone or iPod touch, on the go or at home, the touch screen vocal interface maximizes the experience overall, allowing users to play Rock Band anywhere and, more importantly, join a multiplayer band regardless of which device they own.

The reasoning makes perfect sense to us, but a future addition of an option of such a mode would be welcomed.

Some other suggestions include: animated loading screens and avoid loading screens as much as possible. Right now even going in and out of pauses transitions with the winged timer. Another would be FULL ONLINE multiplayer of course.

Conclusion

ROCK BAND iPhone is a fantastic game, and our platform should be honored to be graced with such a delight. Though obviously the absence of physical instruments construe the “vision” somehow, this is heck more than a “respectable” job for a portable ROCK BAND. The game screams ROCK BAND from design down to music distortions.

If EA Mobile keeps going at it and maybe (just maybe!) somehow innovates the game with full online MP, the results would be earth shattering…