Rock Revolution

Gameplay in Rock Revolution revolves around players attempting to simulate the playing of rock music using special instrument shaped controllers. Scrolling notes onscreen indicate the pattern and timing of buttons that must be pushed on the guitar or pads hit on the drum kit. Songs can feature "fill boxes" and "roll boxes" on drum charts, and hammer-on/pull-off's and "shred boxes" (must be strummed constantly for the duration) on guitar charts. Score multipliers are increased through larger combos, and a temporary bonus period can be activated when the player's lifebar, the "atmosphere meter", is maxed out.

On the Wii version, players instead use the Wii Remote and Nunchuk as air instruments—playing the songs by performing specific gestures and movements. Guitar and drum controllers for the Wii are not usable with the game. The DS version utilizes the touch screen and microphone, utilizing gestured movements for guitar play, playing a virtual drum kit on the touch screen itself with the stylus for drums, and the system's internal microphone for vocals.

Konami had been known for their Bemani series of music simulation games in Japan. In particular, Konami's guitar simulation game GuitarFreaks (and its obscurity outside of Asia), influenced the American video game developer Harmonix to produce their own similar game, Guitar Hero. Konami filed for a trademark in the United States on the name "Guitar Revolution" on 29 June 2006. With a name patterned off Konami's own Dance Dance Revolution and Karaoke Revolution franchises, the trademark filing led to speculation that Konami was developing its own competitor to the Guitar Hero series.

Rock Revolution would be officially announced and presented by Konami at a press event in San Francisco on 15 May 2008. An early version of the game was demonstrated at the event, featuring songs by Twisted Sister, Avril Lavigne, The Ramones, and Quiet Riot, among other tracks. The Xbox 360 version was demonstrated with guitar controllers from Guitar Hero, but a newly designed drum controller specifically designed for Rock Revolution was also demonstrated. Associate product manager Mondona Akhazan stated that Rock Revolution would be a more drum-focused game, by contrast to other band games, which developers felt were putting more focus on the role of the guitarists. As such the Rock Revolution drum kit featured a layout containing 6 drum pads (as opposed to the four-pad layout used by Rock Band and Guitar Hero's five-pad layout), the largest being a snare drum located directly in front of the player.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of Rock Revolution hold an aggregate score of 38/100 on Metacritic, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Critics compared the game to Guitar Hero and Rock Band by acknowledging general shortcomings and differences, such as its on-screen presentation of notes (eschewing the angled "highway" originating from Guitar Hero for a flat, vertical tablature-like display similar to the GuitarFreaks series, and the bass pedal on drums being represented by a separate lane, rather than as a bar stretching across the entire track like on Rock Band), as well as the layout and size of the pads on the game's drum controller. Rock Revolution was also criticized for having a soundtrack smaller than that of its competition, and consisting almost entirely of cover versions (in contrast to Guitar Hero World Tour and Rock Band 2, which both featured only master recordings).

GameSpot criticized aspects of Rock Revolution's core gameplay, including the presentation of notes (arguing that it gives less time for players to react), inaccurate song charting, and "unusually small" timing windows. The career mode was also criticized for lacking narrative or character customization, and for being the "one redeeming mode" of the game (but noting that songs created in the mode couldn't be played or shared in-game, unlike in Guitar Hero World Tour). In conclusion, it was argued that Rock Revolution did not live up to the expectation of quality associated with Konami's other rhythm games, and that "if Rock Revolution came out two or three years ago, it might have been revolutionary, but in 2008, it's not even relevant".