s soon as I entered the Konami lounge, I gravitated towards the Rock Revolution drum set. The title will be available for the PS3, 360, Wii and Nintendo DS and is expected to ship this fall.

The PR team reiterated the fact that Konami is positioning Rock Revolution to be the most realistic and ultimate drumming experience, and then informed us that for this reason the game in fact won’t include a guitar peripheral. It turns out that the title will be compatible with the other guitar peripherals currently on the market and the game will only ship with the new drum set. Rock revolution will feature 40 songs on the disk at launch – spanning everything from classic rock to contemporary music and 80s metal – and DLC will be available for the PS3, 360 and Wii versions. The Wii version of Rock Revolution won’t require a peripheral, making Wii owners use their imaginations and air-drum instead of using a tangible instrument.

After the brief introduction, I had a chance to sit down and test the drum set out. I won’t lie, I am not the most coordinated person in the world, and simultaneously using the foot petal and both hands has always been a bit of a snag for me while playing Rock Band. While that problem did not disappear with Konami’s title, I felt that the game played a bit more naturally, allowing me to focus more on timing an accuracy than finding the correct drum pad. I managed to get through a song on medium – quite an accomplishment for someone with my track record – and can say without any hesitation that I had a good time. My only complaint is that one of the notes – the one coordinated with the upper left cymbal – is light grey and nearly impossible to see until it is too late. If you are like me, when you finally see it about to pass the point of no return, you overcompensate in an attempt to pull it off and loose your groove. Still, even with that being said the game was fun, and I look forward to playing more. Even if I don’t look forward to another massive peripheral taking up prime real estate in my game room.