Rock Band iphone video game reviews

The iPhone is no stranger to musical rhythm games. Tap Tap Revenge has been offering iPhone and iPod Touch users the ability to tap their fingers on their touchscreen in a rhythmic capacity to some of their favorite songs for awhile now. But move over, Tap Tap, because you’re about to become second fiddle. The most venerable music franchise of them all is about to come to the App Store: EA’s Rock Band.

Needless to say, Rock Band for the iPhone will abandon the plastic guitars and toy drum sets to take advantage of the iPhone’s built-in hardware: the touchscreen. It works just the way regular Rock Band guitar and drum solos work in the console versions. Rock Band iPhone will mostly use your rhythmically tapping digits to hit notes cascading down the screen, from four separate instruments.

There’s no price announced yet, but it will probably be $10, after the fashion of EA’s other iPhone games. It’ll ship with 20 tracks, with the option to buy more when you’ve mastered them. If it seems like it’s taken Rock Band a long time to come to the iPhone, it’s probably been waiting for the App Store to allow purchasable downloadable content.

Rock Band for iPhone supports single player, Bluetooth multiplayer, and Facebook Connect integration to invite friends to play. The only thing missing from the feature set seems to be iPhone microphone support: you’d think they’d let you sing out the lyrics to your songs instead of tapping them on the screen. Maybe for Rock Band 2!