Pads & Panels

Title: Just Dance

Platform: Wii

ESRB: E10+

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft

Rating:

Review by: Sarah Kumley

The Wii has yet another game in its repertoire that asks up to four players to get up off the couch and move. In Just Dance, over 30 tracks are available from many decades and genres of music. However, they are all designed to get a person shaking their groove thing. During the song, a coach dancer demonstrates the moves as they are to be performed. The players hold the Wii remote and follow along as if looking in a mirror. There are also stick figure prompts that appear at the bottom right side of the screen to show which moves are coming up. The players’ moves are rated as Bad (shown as an “X” on the screen), Okay and Great. Several Great moves in a row count as combos and earn the player more points. All songs can be danced to in either a quick version or the full song. There are also three game modes where players can challenge each other to a set number of rounds and goals for the dances. (more…)

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#6 Rock Band 3 (360, PS3, Wii)

Publisher: MTV Games – Developer: Harmonix

Rock Band 3 takes on critics who use the argument “just learn a real instrument” by making the game capable of teaching the players, note for note, how to play keyboard, drums, bass and guitar. Gamers who don’t want to turn their Rock Band experience into a tutorial will still enjoy the most streamlined music game made. Harmonix has added so many “no brainer” features, like allowing the band to finish a failed song anyways, song sorting/navigation, rewinding the song after a pause to avoid missed notes and more. (more…)

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2010 Holiday Gift Guide – For the Rhythm Game Fan…

By P&P Staff

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LevelUp Gear Rock Band Storage Ottoman

Oh what the last few years of gaming have done to the order of our living rooms! With plastic peripherals at an all-time high, the clutter is too. One of the biggest culprits is Rock Band, with its variety of guitars, mics, drums and now keyboard. LevelUp Gear offer a stylish solution with a Rock Band Storage Ottoman. With guitar straps inside the lid and plenty of space for drums and other extras, it’s tidies everything up and fits in with the living room decor. (more…)

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Title: Green Day: Rock Band

Platform: 360 (PS3, Wii)

ESRB: T

Publisher: MTV Games

Developer: Harmonix

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

I’m a Green Day fan (excluding 21st Century Breakdown), so I love the idea of having 47 Green Day tracks to play in Rock Band. That plays a big part in the decision to purchase the latest from Harmonix, obviously. But strictly looking at the constructs of the game, Green Day: Rock Band could best be described as The Beatles: Rock Band-lite. It uses a similar format, except fans only get three venues to work with; there isn’t much of a “story” to the career; and the track list scores by including the entirety of both Dookie and American Idiot, but is extremely weak in between and fails to include anything pre-Dookie. Other than a few character changes from venue to venue, that’s the extent of Green Day: Rock Band’s offerings. It doesn’t progress the series in any way, and actually fails to show the same love for the band that was present for The Beatles. At the end of the day, it feels more like a glorified track pack. But with a free export code included and a host of unlockable videos and images, most Green Day fans will be okay with that. (more…)

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We love games, and we love writing about them here at Pads & Panels. We love it so much that no matter how much we get up on the site here, it’s never enough to quench the thirst of gaming journalism for some. That’s why our latest segment of Pads Around the Internet sees even more great articles published at other sites by our writers. Here’s the best of what’s related to Pads & Panels’ interests.

Chris Park

Dante’s Inferno Review

Valhalla Knights 2: Battle Stance Review

Shiren The Wanderer Review

Dark Void Review (more…)

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Title: Lego Rock Band

Platform: 360 (Also PS3, Wii)

ESRB Rating: E10+

Publishers: Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, MTV Games

Developers: Harmonix, Traveller’s Tales

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

It’s easy to see the title of Lego Rock Band and think, “Wow, there are two things – a license (Lego) and genre (rhythm) – that are already oversaturated in the video game market. Why would anyone combine them?”

As far as Rock Band goes, it seems almost an unnecessary addition to the franchise, while for Lego it is a departure from the usual action-adventure gameplay associated with the brand. So, is Lego Rock Band an unnecessary combination of two properties? Probably. Is it still a hell of a lot of fun? Undeniably so. (more…)

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Title: The Beatles: Rock Band

Platform: 360 (Also on PS3, Wii)

ESRB Rating: T

Publisher: MTV Games

Developer: Harmonix

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

For Beatles fans who ever wondered whether their friends would stand up on walk out on them if they sang out of tune, The Beatles: Rock Band is the game to answer that question. With the traditional Rock Band experience expanded to support harmonies of up to three singers, alongside the usual instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums, and a true respect for its source material, The Beatles: Rock Band sets the bar higher for rhythm games designed to make gamers feel like they can rock with a little help from their friends. (more…)

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MTV and Harmonix announced a new initiative last month that is set to let artists and labels promote and sell their music through the Rock Band downloadable service.

The program, called Rock Band Network, will allow artists and labels to author their music as gameplay files that can be sold as playable tracks for Rock Band through a new Rock Band Network Music Store, according to the release. The initiative was reportedly designed to to give both established and upcoming artists a new opportunity for promotion and revenue. (more…)

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Title: Rock Band Unplugged

Platform: PSP

ESRB Rating: T

Publisher: MTV Games

Developer: Harmonix

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

It is a shame this needs to be called “Rock Band” to sell. It is hard not to have the initial reaction – How could this be Rock Band? – upon initially hearing the idea of a Rock Band on PlayStation Portable. It is single player, defeating the full-band experience that is Rock Band. It doesn’t have microphone support, so no one is actually singing, and there is no Guitar Hero: On Tour-type peripheral, so gamers are stuck playing their instruments with the standard PSP button layout.

It has the Rock Band look, tour layout, set lists, character creation, store and it is filled with a health variety of popular rock songs, but those looking for the proper Rock Band experience in Unplugged will be sorely disappointed. Those looking for an almost-unique, popular music rhythm game, however, will find a solid game in Rock Band: Unplugged. (more…)

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Title: Patapon 2

Platform: PSP

ESRB Rating: E

Platform: Sony

Developer: Sony Japan Studio

Rating:

Review by: Bill Jones

The original Patapon was a great game – one of the few released in 2008 that warranted a dusting off of the PlayStation Portable and a recharging of its battery – but it wasn’t without its fair share of flaws. First among those was a steep difficulty ramp that hits early on, without guidance as to how one must properly upgrade and strategize to succeed. There was also a relatively strict class system, meaning losing one group of Patapon almost surely meant doom for the mission, making it at times miserable to press on. (more…)

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