Rock Band Blitz

Basically Rock Band for people who can't afford to buy the instruments. You basically tap buttons on the controller in rhythm to the songs, but unlike Rock Band you don't get visuals in the background like a band performing. Its cool that you can export all your Rock Band DLC into this, but the songs included in this can be exported to play in Rock Band 3 and once you do that this game practically becomes worthless. I mean who wants to tap along to the songs with a controller when you can rock out with a fake plastic guitar or keyboard.

Blitz had a couple of inspired uses and re-interpretations of the RB framework that it made some goofy arcade fun out of the systematic core, and even the balance issues and extreme emphasis on luck for power-ups felt like they fit right in and didn't harm its longevity a lot. But the "DRM" certainly did, as HMX had extreme trouble regulating power-ups and server outages and the like showcased why hiding core game mechanics behind an always-online system was a bad, bad idea. The whole game reeks of free-to-play, with shameless attempts to wring more money in exchange for DLC. It makes me wonder if the setlist itself had something to do with it, both a poorly thought-out showcase of the best moments of the game and loaded with timely (and thus dated) pop.

It took RB in a fun new direction and was a diversion with more legs than most would have pegged it for, but it was never going to get the support or care it needed to really be taken seriously.