The gameplay has remained the same as with the big brothers in the Rock Band series. Notes go from top to bottom over the screen and you need to push the right buttons at the right time, while activating Overdrive once your energy meter is filled. A very good idea of the makers is to let you play all instruments that way. By means of the shoulder buttons you quickly change instrument and when you play a number of notes correctly the instrument in question will play automatically for a while so you can concentrate on others.

That way an additional layer of tactics is added to the game and you'll constantly have to give the best of yourself. Also handy is that if an instrument doesn't get played for too long, or when you screw up, you immediately get to hear loud and clear that something is wrong: the singing, the bass, guitar or drums clearly face away from the sound.

Although this switching between instruments is an ingenious move for a music game like this, it's for me also the largest point of criticism. At no time did I ever get the feeling I was truly a member of a rock band. You're so occupied with pushing buttons correctly that you no longer realise you're playing a song, let alone enjoy it. And let those two aspects be the reason why Guitar Hero and Rock Band are so great on the big consoles...

This feeling is also enhanced by the fact that you no longer have plastic stuff in your hands to do silly with and quickly this game becomes a rather dry, functional thing instead of a rock game. That you hardly see anything from the audience or band while playing makes this problem only more apparent.

Despite this criticism, this does remain a beautiful rythm game that can bring quite some fun hours of gameplay. The presentation is very good. The World Tour is present again and there's plenty of options to give your band members a new face and look, several locations to unlock and also graphically everything is as it should be. In this respect it really is Rock Band for your back pocket, except for the multiplayer that shines in absense.

The 41 original and good-sounding tracks on the UMD disc also can't be blamed for anything, eventhough you'll know most from Rock Band 2 (nine are exclusive to Unplugged). Those that can't get enough, can buy some more on the net.