Rock Legend
Review
Sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll...without the sex and drugs.
by William Thompson
reviewed on PC
Your own fame and fortune
Have you ever had your favourite music blaring whilst playing an air guitar? Or sang in front of a mirror with a hairbrush or other implement as a microphone? Have you ever wanted to be in a band for the fame, fortune and groupies? If so, then there may just be a new independent game which is right up your alley.
Rock Legend is a managerial game where you become a member of a rock band. You start out small, just by yourself. Then it is up to you to build a band, write new songs, improve your music skills, organise rehearsals, book gigs and manage the band to become legends in the world of Rock ‘n’ Roll.
Improving the band
Once the band has been put together, you are given a number of options of what to do next. You can get the band to rehearse some songs, but given you don’t have any original songs at the start of the game, your band plays covers of existing songs. The other problem is that you and your band members are actually not that good at playing in the first place. Each band member needs to practice their skills in order to make themselves more skilled in their particular instrument.
Once you think your band is ready, it is time to earn some money from gigs. Because you are unknown, only small local bars are offered for you to play. But hey, you need to start somewhere, don’t you? You can hand out flyers in the week leading up to the gig or even paste posters all over the neighbourhood in an attempt to get some coverage. This of course, makes your band members tired (or stressed) and less motivated, so too much self-promoting will reduce their performance on the night. But once the gig arrives, the band play to their best potential and hopefully a profit is made.
After you’ve had some experience and played a few gigs, the money tends to flow a little easier. To help with this, you can purchase merchandise such as T-shirts, sweaters and posters to sell to adoring fans. And as your band becomes more famous, entry to larger arenas is open to you. Some of the larger arenas are out of town though, so you will need to purchase some form of transportation.
"I write the songs that make the whole world sing"
Writing songs is easy. Writing great songs that people want to listen to, is another proposition entirely. Song-writing in Rock Legend is done via a mini game by arranging ‘post-it’ notes in an order that flows well. The better the fit, the better the song. The ‘post-it’ notes are collected from what is termed ‘inspiration’. You gain inspiration by listening to music and by attending other music performances. Listening to an entire CD of Classical music gives you a Classical music ‘post-it’, whilst attending a Heavy Metal performance will give you a Heavy Metal one. The more ‘post-it’ notes you have, the more options you have when writing your legendary song.
The other mini game in Rock Legend concerns improving the musical skills of the band. The mini game is a Simon-type game (you know, the game with the four colours that flash in a particular order, which you must repeat). But rather than four colours, you are faced with a music sheet and music notes to remember. The music score is played and you must repeat the score. Getting an exact match will result in building your band member’s skills, which in turn will make them play better at gigs.
Another thing that the band members will certainly tell you is that better instruments make them play better. And of course, they only want the best. But once the money has started to roll in, buying new instruments for your band members is a small price to pay.
6.0
fun score
No Pros and Cons at this time
