A portable iteration of Rock Band is now available for Apple’s iPhone, leaving many to wonder what is to become of the scores of iPhone rhythm games whose success hinges on aping the hyper successful console mainstay.
Most prevalent among these is Tap Tap Revenge, a series of iPhone titles whose immense success was almost certainly the result of being the first visible iPhone games that could offer gameplay similar to that seen in the Rock Band, Dance Dance Revolution and Guitar Hero series. Of course, the most obvious way to generate hype among gamers looking for this sort of rhythm gaming was to blatantly lift almost every design and gameplay element directly from its source material. Tap Tap Revenge is quite competent in its theft, and deserves its success in that regard, but how can it possibly hope to compete against a series that is essentially the current alpha and omega of rhythm gaming on any platform?
Regardless of how this may affect the cashflow of iPhone developers, the release of Rock Band is good news for iPhone gamers. The PSP’s recent Rock Band Unplugged proved that the series can easily translate to handheld platforms, and though the iPhone version fails to include any vocal modes, that $10 price tag for some quality master tracks from the likes of Smashing Pumpkins, Social Distortion and Foo Fighters is a pretty enticing deal. Doubly so considering the game boasts a Music Store similar to that seen in its Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 brethren.
Anyone wanna take bets on how long it will take Harmonix to completely dominate this platform as well?
If you’ve got an iPhone and a hankering for some mobile rocking, you can find Rock Band iPhone in the App Store.
