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Drums are tricky when played with thumbs!

When I saw the video of Rock Band for iPhone, the resemblance to the console versions of the game really sucked me in. I've played the Tap Tap Revenge series and thought it was OK - but apart from a few Weezer songs that I love, I didn't really connect with the music or the interface. You never get the sense with the Tap Tap games that you're playing the songs - it's more like rhythmic interactions.

And while the same can be said for much of the Rock Band series (particularly the guitar parts), the illusion that you're controlling the sounds in those games is better.

Alas, Rock Band on the iPhone is no match for the console versions (can't compare it to the PSP game, since I skipped that one). Sure, the music drops out when you miss a note - which does give you some sense of ownership of your instrument. But you're still disconnected from the feeling of giving a true performance.

Guitars and drums have only four notes to master, but that's plenty since you'll need to cover all four of them with your thumbs and even manage simultaneous taps for chords and synchronous sticking. Tapping the notes is trickier because you can't prefinger the notes. Instead, you have to raise your fingers and then tap them down at precisely the right moment, that is to say - the moment BEFORE the note hits the very narrow target zone (which also feels like it's slightly higher on the note "highway" than it should be based on playing the console version).

So instead of strumming the notes as they pass, you're hammering them the moment before they hit. This really messes with your timing at first. I had to go back to Easy so I wouldn't bomb out. Double-tapping chords should be awesome, but it proves hard to do in practice (at least for me). Hard to say yet if it's the timing problem, or if one thumb is hitting first and causing the double tap to fail.

Tapping your vocals is a poor substitute for singing

Vocals are another can of worms. Since the iPhone has a mike, the most common complaint is that you ought to be able to sing the songs - even though this would exclude iPod Touch users. Instead, you tap the vocal streams similar to guitar notes - only with a shorter "highway" since it's turned horizontal to match the style of the console games' pitch meter. One cool thing here is that the interface changes for percussion parts and then changes back for "singing."

Multiplayer via Bluetooth is available, but I doubt I'll ever get GrrlGotGame to play it with me. Still, I can't imagine it's even remotely as fun as jamming with 2-7 people on the console games - and might prove almost as bad as that dorky DS Guitar Hero.

The game starts you with 20 songs for $10 (the top of the scale that the game might be worth - I was hoping for $2-5 with the promise of more songs to buy). Additional tracks come in 2-packs for $1 each. The game is 158MB, so you'll need to download via Wi-Fi or, better yet, get it on your Mac or PC and then sync it to your iPhone. Though I'd suggest you wait for a demo and/or the inevitable price drop.