Is Rock Band Blitz Better Or Worse With A Coin System? (New and Improved!)

[jibjqrkl]

The rocket launcher is more than a faster ticket to completion of the game. It completely destroys the notion of challenge as fast as it destroys Nemesis. It is, in fact, a "win" button. It is a cheat because it circumvents the game.

The powerups are not "win" buttons, and they were never made out to be. In fact, they are a central mechanic to the game. Not cheats.

And see, powerups aren't a faster or easier way to get high scores; they're the ONLY way to get high scores. So if high scores are championed in this game, it wouldn't make sense to restrict that.

The difficulty should come from learning and mastering the mechanics, but not from having to earn the ability to simply use those mechanics at any time.

depends on what you see as a win/highscore.

if i see 5-stars as a win/highscore then powerups are an easy/fast way to get that. and on pretty much any song the only way to get gold would be with powerups

if i see beating RE3 within for example 2 hours as a win/highscore, then the rocketlauncher makes that a lot easier. i can probably only beat it in, let's say 1 hour if i actually have the rocket launcher.


also, i noticed on your xbox profile you played a couple of racing games.

how does it feel to play a track (song) with bad cars (bad/no powerups) over and over, just so you can later play that same track (song) with the good car (better/more powerups) you just purchased from your winnings?

i've never heard anyone complain about it there

[jibjqrkl]

short version of my previous post.
you see gold stars as the standard for highscores, while i see them as something special

[Lowlander2]

Because we typically own said fast car by that point, and the only time we lose is if we sell it, bet it on a pink slip or what have you. Otherwise, it's ours forever, especially if we just hit arcade mode.

See, restricting the use of powerups DOES make sense in the beginning of the game, when you DO have to forget about high scores and worry just about mastering the basic "level up your instruments before the next checkpoint" gameplay. That's perfectly fine. Unlocking each powerup slowly is also fine, because it forces you to slowly get used to the powerups and encourages experimentation and dissertation of what makes a good score.

By the time you have unlocked all of them, you should have a good understanding of the game and be ready to nab some decent scores. Not #1s or even GSs necessarily, you may still need more practice, but you should have a good enough understanding of the mechanics to get a decent start. The Blitz Cred system makes for a great learning curve, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Well, except for unlocking all the Super Instruments at once. If you have one, you essentially have them all, so it's silly to keep them locked past that point. But I digress.

However, if you don't have enough coins, or if you're not online, the game sends you back through the learning curve when you've already superseded it, so you really feel like you're playing below your weight. You're not getting the scores you know you can achieve if the game let you stay at the part of the learning curve you are at.

[T-Hybrid]

I only had an issue with having enough coins in my earliest plays through the game. But since then I'm good enough that I can get enough stars to build up the coins for Gold Star runs without much hassle.

If you're at the point that you're specifically competing for the top spot in the leaderboards, you're good enough that you know the optimal loadouts and can get coins without any trouble.

[jibjqrkl]

snip.

sorry, meant to compare it to racing games where cars can get damaged.

just like not getting a good enough score in Blitz isn't going to give you enough money to keep going with those powerups, a bad race could get you to the point where you dont have money to fully fix your car, forcing you to go back a step.

[Lowlander2]

sorry, meant to compare it to racing games where cars can get damaged.

just like not getting a good enough score in Blitz isn't going to give you enough money to keep going with those powerups, a bad race could get you to the point where you dont have money to fully fix your car, forcing you to go back a step.

Not a bad comparison, but those scenarios happen only in long-term careers of sim racing games, where it's known that caution must be exercised, and if you don't know, you soon will. There's almost always a digestible arcade mode where you can still throw a McLaren at a track that can't handle it but not get penalised for it, if that is what you wish.

Rock Band Blitz, and Rock Band in general, outside of the tour modes, has a segmented, singular progression. Or rather, in past games, the Quickplay modes had no progression at all. You were free to do what you want. In Blitz, there isn't any progression past unlocking every powerup, at least on the basis of unlocking things and getting access to better tools.

Going back to the examples of car games, you aren't necessarily unlocking more cars (except for specialty events, for which there is no comparison in RB Blitz. You can still play any song you want.) You're trying to get better ones, however, and this limit takes a long time to reach. For Blitz, however, all of the powerups are unlocked within a relatively short amount of time, so once you have them, the progression stops, and theoretically, the rest of the game is open to you. Keeping that career-grade restriction there doesn't make a ton of sense, because there are no more features the game is keeping away from you to find yourself.

[jeronemitchell]

There are a few things. For one, Score Wars. Kinda obvious. There was no versus mode in RB3, remember? Also, HMX, especially Pope's Twitter account, have really driven home the point of leaderboards. And the very notion of differing powerups leading to different scoring strategies places a greater emphasis on the points than ever before, something the loading screens really bring home.

Score Wars is the best point available... which kinda kills your "RBBlitz isn'tlike the rest of the series" argument as RB3 is the ONLY one without a direct competitive mode. There is little philosophical difference path optimizing and power-up selection - it's "how do I find the most efficient way to play this song for the highest points".

So, basically... your evidence that Blitz is more about leaderboards is the fact that someone tweeted it and that the last game doesn't have the competitive mode every other game had.

I think you may be underestimating the leaderboard aspect of the rest of the RB series simply because it is not balanced with a cooperative mode in Blitz.

[RyRobo]

Coins do not add difficulty to the game, they add a constant hurdle who can only be overcome through time spent playing the game. Imagine the Cult of Personality solo, a player who achieves 100% has done so through an act of skillful playing. A challenge was presented to press the buttons in an accurate, precise order. The challenge is the exact same the first time the player plays as it is the time the player succeeds in their task. Although they will likely have to repeat playing the song many times, they do so seeing their skill increase. They recognise their improvement, and feeling close to their goal makes the player feel good about themselves. They know the playing field is always the same, and thus they can see their improvement.

How do you overcome coins? Through an act of skill? No. You overcome it through time. Time spent playing the game is how you overcome the challenge of coins. They are not overcome through a precise movement, players amassing 100,000 coins (As I have done) will look back and say 'How did I achieve this?' 'I played the game a lot.'. I don't see the self self-fulfilment here, perhaps others do, but I like music games because I know that when I get a higher score it shows I've improved.

This is not about removing challenge from the game, it's about removing a limitation that challenges you on something that is not skill. It's about removing a limitation that challenges your free time, not your reflexes, precision and analytical/critical ability. This is all the older games used to test you on, these are the traits that every successful competitive game of the past few years test players on. From the FPS genre with Counter-Strike, the MOBA community with DOTA, the fighting game side of things with Street Fighter 2 and even our rhythm game roots with Rock Band. These games test players skill, but never their free time. Players do not have to rank up coins to get on an equal level as everybody else, they only have to perform well. Players are given the same sandbox to play with from their first game to their very last.

If you feel that a significant tactical proportion of Blitz is removed if the coins did not exist them I can only say that you must feel that the gameplay of Blitz does not offer any true depth or tests of 'reflexes, precision and analytical/critical ability '. A straight goal to victory is not attained through coins, the game still has the groundwork that tests players on skill and it does so incredibly. The competitive nature is not destroyed if you remove coins, in fact, it would grow and mature much faster.




Also, it's impossible to fail in Blitz. What else is the game rating you on if it's not score and the leaderboards?

[jibjqrkl]

but the coins are a challenge to me, it's managing the coins that's the challenge.

could the game work without? sure
but i wouldn't enjoy it as much

[hodayathink]

How do you overcome coins? Through an act of skill? No. You overcome it through time. Time spent playing the game is how you overcome the challenge of coins. They are not overcome through a precise movement, players amassing 100,000 coins (As I have done) will look back and say 'How did I achieve this?' 'I played the game a lot.'. I don't see the self self-fulfilment here, perhaps others do, but I like music games because I know that when I get a higher score it shows I've improved.

I disagree. The better you are at a song, the less coins you lose each time you play the song. The better you are at playing different songs, the more goals you can easily achieve, again, earning more coins. I do think there's a somewhat legitimate gripe to the fact that outside of first playthroughs, there's no way to earn the full amount of coins back in a song. But I realize that that is easily fixable on their end, and just that simple fact doesn't mean that the whole coin system needs to be completely thrown out, which is what a lot of people seem to be arguing for. It would be throwing out the baby with the bathwater, so to speak.