Guitar Hero had some success with their portable spin-offs On Tour and On Tour: Decades, so it’s only natural that Rock Band would want to get in on the fun. Rather than go on the Nintendo DS and have similar gameplay with something like the Guitar Grip, Rock Band Unplugged was released on the PSP with full band gameplay similar to previous Harmonix titles Frequency and Amplitude.

In order to capture the full band experience, players would have all four instrument tracks running simultaneously with the goal being to switch between the tracks and successfully play notes on all of them to temporarily clear the highway for the instrument. Not playing well can cause all the highways to fill up with notes requiring more attention to make sure you don’t fail out.

The game was also received somewhat better than the On Tour series, likely having to do with the lack of a hand-cramping peripheral to deal with, as Unplugged just used the PSP’s buttons like a conventional game. The lack of multiplayer was a big detriment for most fans, however, as a hallmark of the Rock Band franchise was its party-friendly multiplayer gameplay.

Much like how the two On Tour games could be considered spin-offs of various Guitar Hero games, Rock Band Unplugged shared a lot with Rock Band 2. Many of the venues and aesthetics are directly taken from RB2, as well as multiple songs. 22 of the 41 songs in the game are shared with the console title, and the rest are made up of DLC songs. Four of the songs in the game, however, made their Rock Band series debut through Unplugged, although they would later be released as DLC. They are as follows:

3 Doors Down – Kryptonite

AFI – Miss Murder

Audioslave – Gasoline

The Jackson 5 – ABC

Of the total 41 song setlist, a whopping 24 are currently playable in Rocksmith, for a total of 58%. This beats out Rock Revolution’s impressive 51% as the highest we’ve seen so far on Setlist Sunday!

Artist Song Date in Rocksmith 3 Doors Down Kryptonite 03/06/2012 AFI Miss Murder 04/01/2014 Alice in Chains Would? 11/12/2013 All-American Rejects Move Along 09/08/2015 Audioslave Gasoline N/A Billy Idol White Wedding (Part 1) 04/30/2013 Black Tide Show Me the Way N/A blink-182 What's My Age Again? 02/21/2012 Bon Jovi Livin' on a Prayer 12/02/2014 Boston More Than a Feeling 11/15/2011 Dead Kennedys Holiday in Cambodia N/A Foo Fighters Everlong 10/22/2013 Freezepop Less Talk More Rokk N/A The Jackson 5 ABC N/A Jethro Tull Aqualung 01/30/2018 Jimmy Eat World The Middle 11/27/2018 Judas Priest Painkiller 04/17/2012 Kansas Carry on Wayward Son 02/18/2013 The Killers Mr. Brightside 10/28/2014 Lacuna Coil Our Truth N/A Lamb of God Laid to Rest 06/29/2014 Lit My Own Worst Enemy 04/21/2015 Lush De-Luxe N/A The Mighty Mighty Bosstones Where'd You Go? * N/A Modest Mouse Float On 04/16/2013 Motörhead Ace of Spades '08 * 01/20/2015 * Nine Inch Nails The Perfect Drug N/A Nirvana Drain You N/A The Offspring Come Out and Play (Keep 'Em Separated) 05/16/2012 Pearl Jam Alive 01/15/2013 The Police Message in a Bottle 05/01/2012 Queens of the Stone Age 3's & 7's 06/02/2015 Rush The Trees (Vault Edition) N/A Siouxsie and the Banshees The Killing Jar N/A The Smashing Pumpkins Today 10/29/2013 Social Distortion I Was Wrong N/A Soundgarden Spoonman 01/13/2015 System of a Down Chop Suey! N/A Tenacious D Rock Your Socks N/A Weezer Buddy Holly 01/21/2014 The Who Pinball Wizard 12/03/2013

* Denotes a re-recorded version of the track

In addition to the main game, there was also a decent sized selection of DLC. The 57 songs released for the game were all selections of popular Rock Band console DLC, although owners of the tracks on PS3 wouldn’t be entitled to download them on the PSP. Of the 57 songs put out as DLC, 26 are available for a grand total of 45%.

Artist Song Date in Rocksmith 30 Seconds to Mars The Kill 01/12/2016 Alien Ant Farm Smooth Criminal N/A Avenged Sevenfold Afterlife 10/30/2012 Belly Feed the Tree N/A blink-182 The Rock Show 01/17/2017 Bullet for My Valentine Waking the Demon N/A Coheed and Cambria A Favor House Atlantic N/A Dead Kennedys California Über Alles N/A Disturbed Inside the Fire 04/12/2016 Dixie Chicks Sin Wagon N/A Dream Theater Constant Motion N/A Dropkick Murphys I'm Shipping Up to Boston 03/17/2015 Evanescence Bring Me to Life 04/03/2012 Foo Fighters Lonely as You N/A Foo Fighters Monkey Wrench 11/18/2014 Foreigner Headknocker N/A Franz Ferdinand Lucid Dreams N/A The Fratellis Flathead N/A GLaDOS Still Alive N/A Godsmack I Stand Alone 06/17/2014 Grateful Dead Casey Jones 05/16/2017 Green Day Know Your Enemy 01/16/2018 Guns N' Roses Riad N' the Bedouins N/A Iron Maiden The Number of the Beast (Original Version) 10/05/2013 Iron Maiden The Trooper 10/22/2013 James Gang Funk #49 06/10/2014 Jane's Addiction Had a Dad N/A Killswitch Engage My Curse 11/04/2014 Lynyrd Skynyrd Gimme Three Steps 07/14/2015 Megadeth Wake Up Dead N/A Mötley Crüe Dr. Feelgood 12/15/2015 Muse Hysteria 12/17/2013 Mutemath Typical N/A No Doubt Excuse Me Mr. N/A No Doubt Just a Girl N/A Oasis Wonderwall 01/14/2014 The Offspring All I Want 02/02/2016 Paramore Crushcrushcrush 01/09/2018 Pat Benatar Heartbreaker 11/26/2019 Pearl Jam Jeremy 02/07/2012 The Pixies Here Comes Your Man 04/30/2013 R.E.M. Losing My Religion 10/22/2013 Radiohead My Iron Lung 11/22/2013 Red Hot Chili Peppers Under the Bridge N/A Rush Red Barchetta 11/13/2012 Sleater-Kinney You're No Rock N' Roll Fun N/A Sonic Youth Kool Thing N/A Spinal Tap Back from the Dead N/A Steely Dan My Old School N/A Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble Pride and Joy 11/15/2016 The Stone Roses Love Spreads 08/25/2015 Stone Temple Pilots Sex Type Thing 12/22/2015 Styx Renegade * 01/20/2015 System of a Down Toxicity 01/28/2014 Thin Lizzy The Boys Are Back in Town (Live) 04/14/2015 ** White Zombie Black Sunshine 10/25/2016 The Zombies She's Not There 10/29/2019

* Denotes a re-recorded version of the track

* Demotes the studio version of the track in Rocksmith.

Given the sizable portion of songs in common with Rocksmith and the comparatively limited number of DLC songs, we’ve decided to feature both the main setlist and the DLC in our picks for songs we would like to see on Rocksmith eventually.

The Jackson 5 – ABC

Sure, it’s probably not the most complex song in the world; and some might call it a children’s song; but there’s definitely something valuable in it’s varied melodic bassline and just plain joyful catchiness. Since Michael Jackson’s solo songs have proven quite hard for rhythm games to acquire, the fact that a few have songs from his Jackson 5 days would at least give us some hope for either to appear in Rocksmith.

Audioslave – Gasoline

This dark-tinged funk-rock/grunge-rock track from one of the most notable supergroups in modern music would make for a great addition to the Rocksmith library. I’ve also felt that Tim Commerford’s bass work has been quite underrated, and this song shows a well-varied, groovy bassline.

Megadeth – Wake Up Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aoe7nAnJYH4

Sure, we may have had a Megadeth 5-pack somewhat recently, but when isn’t there a time to headbang along to some challenging thrash metal guitar and bass charts?

Red Hot Chili Peppers – Under The Bridge

No explanation needed.

Steely Dan – My Old School

As well as being a typically well-polished track we’ve come to expect from the likes of Steely Dan, My Old School has quite a challenging bassline that really picks up partway through the song. Walter Becker’s multiple guitar solos would make for a fun ride for more advanced guitarists.

Spinal Tap – Back From The Dead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6CdIEmjJYQ

Even fictional bands deserve some love! In spite of this song’s heavily tongue-in-cheek lyrics, it features some fairly intricate acoustic guitar arpeggios and a tapping solo.

Foo Fighters – Lonely as You

One of the instrumentally and lyrically heavier tracks in the Foo Fighters catalog (though you wouldn’t think it by the opening alone). Its dissonant melodies may turn some off, but dig a little deeper and you may find a welcoming addition for anyone looking for a heavy, more chord-filled song that isn’t too challenging to play.

Nirvana – Drain You

Sharp, dissonant, grating, cathartic, exhausting to listen to; everything that makes grunge what it is: Kurt’s use of heavily unusual chord progressions would provide a chance to learn about harmonic variety beyond simple scales, even if he probably didn’t know what that was when composing this song (it’s grunge, it’s not supposed to be jazz).

Nine Inch Nails – The Perfect Drug

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSLqeZzTU8I

Speaking of intentionally grating and dissonant rock music; we’ve been waiting quite a while to hopefully see some Nine Inch Nails show up in Rocksmith. If nothing else, Trent Reznor’s absolutely mad tones would scratch Ubisoft’s creative tone-designing itch and give session mode users another fascinating tone to experiment with. By the way, is it just me, or does Trent Reznor look just like Sirius Black from Harry Potter in that music video?

Dream Theater – Constant Motion

Pretentious? Maybe. Challenging to play on both guitar and bass? Absolutely! Boy we are ending this Setlist Sunday on a dark note with four depressingly dark songs in a row. Perhaps we should revisit ABC from earlier in the list to lighten the mood:

So those are our picks, which songs would you like to see on Rocksmith 2014 from Rock Band: Unplugged? Let us know in the comments!

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