WORST GAME EVER: Rock Revolution (Xbox 360)

Back of the Box Description: "Get ready to rock your Xbox 360 like it's never been rocked before! It's ROCK REVOLUTION, the exciting new game from the people that brought you Dance Dance Revolution (TM), Dance Dance Revolution: 3rd Mix (TM), Dance Dance Revolution: Mario Mix (TM), Dance Dance Revolution: Ultramix 4 (TM) and Karaoke Revolution (TM). Get ready to rock your Guitar Hero III (TM) guitar and pound on one of the most realistic drum sets around. IGN says that Rock Revolution "Rocks" ... so strap on your Guitar Hero III (TM) guitar and plug in the drums, because Rock Revolution is about to pump it up to eleven!"

Brief Synopsis: Forget about Rock Band and don't even consider Guitar Hero: World Tour, because Rock Revolution is the only fake plastic instrument game for you! That's right, Rock Revolution, from the people that made Dance Dance Revolution ... but not the people that made Karaoke Revolution, because that's Harmonix and they make Rock Band (it's complicated). Are you totally hooked on Rock Band's drums but wish there was more stuff to hit? Tired of knowing exactly what to hit and when? Then you're in luck, because Rock Revolution has seven rubbery things to hit, three more than Rock Band. And that's not it, you also won't have a clue which shapes and colors to hit because the placement of the buttons on screen is completely random. Oh, and the grey Lucky Charms-shaped panel is almost impossible to see.

When you're done trying to figure how to play the drums, you can head on over to the guitar ... assuming you already own either Rock Band or Guitar Hero III. That's right, for whatever reason Konami has decided NOT to create their own fake plastic guitar. Heck, they aren't even promoting a third-party Nyko-made guitar, instead they tell you to go out and buy one of the competitions games. But at least it has great music, right? Actually, Rock Revolution will only feature 40 songs, half the amount of both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour. What's more, none of the songs in Rock Revolution are master tracks, they are all covers of famous songs (most of which are already in Guitar Hero and Rock Band). It's everything a rocker could want ... assuming they want lousy covers of a song, no first-party guitar peripheral, and the most needlessly complicated drum set ever.

Memorable Public Unveiling: Some companies like to bring out their best players in order to really show off their product, but that's not what Konami did at the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit. Instead Konami introduced their big music game by first bringing out The Sheenas, an all girl Ramones cover band. From there the idea was to transition from the real band to the fake band, all playing Rock Revolution. Unfortunately only two people remained on stage, the product managers and some random dude on the drums. Although the drummer knew what he was doing, the product manager failed out at around the 50% mark. Don't believe me, here's a video of her doing exactly that ...

Sample Review: "After the success of Dance Dance Revolution, you really have to wonder what was going through Konami's mind. It's as if they saw how much money Guitar Hero and Rock Band was bringing in and realized that they needed to jump into the fray. However, if you're going to do it you can't half-ass your product. You can't just give us 40 familiar cover songs, limited online play and the most complicated drum set you've ever seen. And you would think that they would know not to make a guitar game and not package in a guitar. It's as if Rock Revolution is daring you to buy it. I would usually plead with you not to succumb to the temptation, but I have a hunch that there's not a person on the planet that would rather have Rock Revolution over Guitar Hero or Rock Band!"

Fun Fact: With all these things going against it, how on earth does Konami plan on cornering the fake plastic drum game market? Simple, they're going to sue everybody that gets in their way. Never mind that they suggest you go out and buy a guitar from one of its competitors, Konami has decided to sue their way to victory. Last month Konami decided to sue Viacom/MTV over Rock Band. They allege that Rock Band infringes on gameplay that they created, specifically in games like Beat Mania and Guitar Freaks. No word on whether or not Guitar Hero will suffer the same fate, however an observant gumshoe might notice that the project manager used a Guitar Hero III guitar on stage. One has to wonder if Activision/RedOctane have already worked something out. Either way, if Konami hopes to become the industry leader at fake plastic musical instruments, then they're going to need to sue a lot more than Viacom!

Unfortunately Patrick O'Connor was unclear on the rules of WORST GAME EVER. In order to be eligible you have to come up with your own bad game idea, not somebody else's. Sadly Konami really is releasing an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game called Rock Revolution ... and boy is it disappointing. Everything that we said above about the game is 100% true, even the unbelievable press conference clip. Rock Revolution may have been in the running for WORST GAME EVER, but we can't give that award to a cheater. So Yoshi's Fart & Go remains the WORST GAME EVER!