There's probably lessons to be learned from Rock Band Blitz. I don't know if you can come away from this without gaining a massive level of respect for Harmonix, but also, some pity.

Harmonix wanted to revive their old Amplitude/Frequency gameplay, but utilise their massive catalogue of content from the Rock Band series. So they just fucking did it. They produced an algorithm that reconfigured all the old Rock Band songs to two-button inputs and made sure all the previous DLC was compatible with this new game (no Rock Band 4 or Beatles though, obviously). If you invested as heavily into the mainline Rock Band games as I did, back in the day, you'll be overwhelmed with just how much content there is in this game right from the initial launch. Otherwise, this is a dopey little PSN/XBLA rhythm game with 25 tracks in it (which, as a bonus incentive to pick this up, could all be exported to the big Rock Band games). Not throwaway stuff, either. They've got I'm Still Standing and Jungle Boogie on this, so it's a must-buy.

Unlike regular Rock Band, this focuses on giving a single player the full band experience. Each instrument is split into a separate highway, which can be switched between at will. There's only two inputs to worry about for each. A left input and a right one. Like drumming along to a song on your knees. Nail a stretch of notes without a flub, and you'll level up that instrument. You can level up four times on each instrument in each verse or chorus, so once you're at level 4, you're freed up to focus on another one. This is where the game rewards rock nerds. It's on you to know when there's a tricky drumfill or bass part coming up, and by focusing on note-heavy sections, you can really boost your score.

The game feels like a more casual affair than proper Rock Band, just letting you tap away at your favourite songs, but it also adds appreciation for what each member of the band contributed to them. The volume raises on the part you're currently playing, and it can be illuminating to focus on things going on in the background of a familiar song. Fun to switch to the guitar right at ideal moment. Fun to have the vocals reconfigured to two-button inputs, too. David Byrne's rhythmic "TWO - HUN - DRED - SIX - TY - FIVE - DE-GREES!" is a great laugh to bash out on either side of the controller.

I was never a massive fan of Frequency or Amplitude, but it's clear why they had the kind of focus and soundtracks that they did. Retrofitting similar gameplay onto 2-13 minute rock songs doesn't always result in consistently fun videogame levels. Demanding drumparts result in handcramp within seconds, and I'd really like to see if there's some kind of mad controller workaround for Tatacon or DK Bongos. This is Harmonix in their Music Toy mode, like they were on Fuser and DropMix. It's an impressive technical and logistical achievement, but results vary wildly. Something of a Vib-Ribbon for the 2010s. It is, also, sadly, quite locked to the 2010s. Without access to the leaderboards, the DLC marketplace, or even the ability to purchase the game itself, it's already a bit of a relic. Its relatively abstract gameplay doesn't have nearly the breadth of appeal that the main series once enjoyed, either. It's hard to imagine the devs showcasing this game to prospective partners in the music publishing industry, and them having any idea what they were looking at. This seems to be the result of a lot of goodwill and repeated use of the phrase "new revenue source". Can you imagine a patient programmer attempting to demo this to Keith Richards?

But yeah, it's a cool little toy. If you can get into it, and access songs you're excited to try out, it can be a lot of fun. Massively diminished appeal now, and even if a new player wanted to try it now, I'd have no idea where to point them. It's still on my PS3 though, alongside all those Aerosmith tracks I bought in 2013. Ah, don't pretend you care. You've got your own games.

A neat, if simplified, Amplitude like game that allows you to play your entire Rock Band library thanks to the power of automatically generated charts. Each column only has two buttons, which means nothing gets too messy. It's not as good as the Unplugged or DS games, but the whole gimmick of being able to play any song from your library meant I messed around with this quite a bit. Plus, you were able to add the songs from this game to your Rock Band library, and that was a major plus even if you didn't like this silly little XBLA rhythm game.

Playing this today has one major problem: the power ups, which are practically required to get 5 stars on anything in this game and give the game a little more variety than just filling the bars up on each track (especially the pinball one), are locked to a website that is no longer online. While not as bad as Guitar Hero Live locking away 80% of its songlist, it does feel like something major is missing that could have been done with an in game menu.