First off, the new “new thing”: Rock Band 3 will be adding a keyboard controller to the mix, bringing the number of band members to seven (that’s for guitar, bass, drums, three vocals, and the keyboards).
First of all, the device—basically a frame that holds an iPad in place along with a couple of sound synthesizers—is a pretty cool concept if you’re into looping or creating electronic, um, sounds using iPad apps. Called the Mantaray iTar, it’s being peddled (through this video) by VJ Franz K. But that’s as far as we’ll get into it. You have to see the video for yourselves if you want to check out what exactly it does. It’s a bit long at 9-and-a-half minutes, but it’s around 480 of the most entertaining seconds of your life—if you consider weird sales pitches entertaining.
Jump to around 3:50 to hear a sentence that you never expected to hear in your life. See, punk isn’t dead. Apparently, it just evolved into… well, whatever this is. Also, we miss Apple Girl. She was awesome.
This one’s for you, guitar-player-who-thinks-Rock-Band-is-for-sissies. Game developer Seven45 Studios will be releasing a new Rock Band-type rhythm game called Power Gig: Rise of the SixString for the PS3 and Xbox 360. What’s new? For starters, this game won’t be using fake four-buttoned guitar-looking controllers; your main controller will be a fully functional six-string electric axe that can also work on its own when plugged into an amp.
It looks like a guitar, shaped like a guitar, and can be set to sound like any kind of guitar you can think of, but it’s not really a guitar. Like those ”guitars” that you typically see used for games like Rock Band, the Misa digital guitar doesn’t come with strings. It’s not a toy, but seasoned guitar players might actually learn to have a bit of fun with this though.
