Rock Revolution.

This is actually kind of boring, but I had to type it out.

TL;DR: Don’t get too excited about trademark drama and wild theories.

You know, I actually had some history with a certain trademark drama. Back in 2006, because I was bored, I decided to search USPTO for Konami titles. Since beatmania US, Konamix, and DDRMAX US was also confirmed via USPTO, I decided to check things out and see if I can predict other great upcoming titles. I then saw what was “Guitar Revolution”. Almost immediately, I posted about it on Bemanistyle. Since then, one person who used to be known as Sl1p caught wind of it and posted it on 1UP.com, along with a editorial on how a localization of Guitar Freaks (which everyone who cared assumed it was, new franchises isn’t exactly Konami’s forte) would never do here. Of course, it spread around the internet on various blogs, and now some people were waiting for the eventual game.

Konami Summer BBQ 2006. Nothing. Of course, they probably didn’t want to show it that early in development.

Konami Gamer’s Day 2007. Well, other than this Music Mania game that would never be heard from again, nothing. But at least one person hoped that big surprise on Monday was going to be New Guitar Game (while everyone else expected the 360 port of MGS4). “Surprise! Go play our new DDR and Castlevania games!” Nothing again! But don’t worry, they don’t ever announce anything too special, especially not before E3.

E3 2007. Well, some people were hopeful now, since it’s been trademarked for over a year. Oh boy! Konami decided to tell us about something we weren’t expecting…with a poem! Rhymes, must be a rhythm game! Okay, new Silent Hill game, I think everybody expected…nope, that was the surprise. Nothing.

E For All 2007. Who cares! Playable Metal Gear Solid 4! Still nothing, though. There is Guitar Freaks and Drummania V4, which seems to look like something Konami would make for Americans. I mean, it even has a song from Arch Enemy! Now that’s not usual for the series. It must be what Guitar Revolution is based on.

Konami Summer BBQ 2007. Well, it didn’t happen. Maybe it’s because of E For All being so close to where this would have been. Or maybe they had nothing to announce.

Konami Gamers Day 2008. Well, it didn’t happen either. I mean, it didn’t happen in February where it happened last time. Maybe they were ashamed of that big surprise…oh wait, Konami Gamer’s Night? Ooh boy! Well, nothing, just some Dance Dance Revolution and…wait, Rock Revolution? Finally. Name change aside, now I don’t have to feel like a boy who shouted “CASH-IN”. Let me see the screen shots, maybe I can find out what songs will be in this…

…oh. That’s pretty much the entire Bemani community’s reaction to this, “oh”. Some made posts about how Konami was so stupid to not port over GF/DM, some accepted that GF/DM wouldn’t have been much of a success either, about two people have voiced their appreciation for it, and most said “meh.” Why? Well, it looks like Rock Band if every aspect of it was mediocre, no vocals, no single GF/DM element that wouldn’t also be attributed with Rock Band, absolutely no individuality, and of course, it joined the party way too late. Maybe I’ll talk more about it when it gets released. Or not, because the more I read about it, the worse it gets.

Just remember, it was Guitar Freaks and Drummania today. If Rock Revolution is a success (which it most likely won’t be, thankfully), it’s a wonder what else they would do. Maybe another beatmania IIDX? Oh no…DJ Revolution.

(This used to be an image of what looked like beatmania IIDX with the Rock Revolution treatment complete with an image of DJ Tiesto and Ghostbusters’s IIDX chart.)