Rock Band Blitz Has Release Date, Price, More Songs

Harmonix's upcoming non-instrument controller using Rock Band game, Rock Band Blitz, finally has a release date and price. According to this official announcement, the game will officially arrive on PlayStation Network August 28, and Xbox Live August 29. It will retail for $14.99 and 1200 MSP respectively.

Harmonix also announced four new songs for the 20-plus song soundtrack. Here's the whole soundtrack thus far, with the new songs in bold.

• All-American Rejects - "Kids In the Street"
• Avenged Sevenfold - "So Far Away"
• Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"
• Blink 182 - "Always"
• Collective Soul - "Shine"
• Elton John - "I'm Still Standing"
• Fall Out Boy - "A Little Less Sixteen Candles"
• Foster the People - "Pumped Up Kicks"
• Fun ft. Janelle Monae - "We Are Young"
• Great White - "Once Bitten, Twice Shy"
• Iron Maiden - "The Wicker Man"
• Kool & The Gang - "Jungle Boogie"
• Living Colour - "Cult of Personality"
• My Chemical Romance - "Sing"
• P!nk - "Raise Your Glass"
• Quiet Riot - "Metal Health (Bang Your Head)"
• Rick Springfield - "Jessie's Girl"
• Shinedown - "Diamond Eyes (Boom-Lay Boom-Lay Boom)"
• Tears for Fears - "Shout"

Of course, those 19 songs (and whatever other ones Harmonix announces before the release date) will join any Rock Band downloadable tracks you already own as playable songs in Blitz. Likewise, you'll be able to play any of the above songs in Rock Band 3 as regular DLC. Hell, I'd pay $15 just for "Jungle Boogie" and "Jessie's Girl," but maybe that's just me.

Man, this set list is all over the place.

Also, how do I keep stealing this quest from people?

So pumped for this game. Track list isn't the best, but I have so much DLC from before that that won't matter.

The current crowd will go crazy over Foster the People and Fun in this game and RB3. It was only a matter of time when they get "We Are Young" in the games despite how popular and overplayed it is.

Oh, god, there's no way I'll get through this without buying all of the old games, is there?

This really sucks for people that don't have any DLC songs for Rock Band(me). I'm not liking the song list at all.

Hell yes. You all can judge me as much as you want, but the My Chemical Romance track makes me hopeful for more MCR DLC TBA!

The set list is kinda meh, but I got so many songs all ready. Looking forward to playing this.

The fact that these songs are compatible with RB3 instantly makes this pack worth it even if you have no interest in the games. And when considering the reverse just makes this even more of an awesome deal.

I'm trying to find the right word for this list. Perhaps "schizophrenic"?

All the songs I like I have played long ago on Guitar Hero, and the gameplay looks kinda.............. interesting? It looks like I have to try the demo at least.

Wait, this game isn't even out yet? I could have sworn that I saw a flood of DLC for it on Xbox over the past few weeks, in addition to the 10,000 other Rock Band DLC items.

Excited to play Blitz, have quite a large collection of Rock Band songs nowadays so being able to play them in Blitz is pretty awesome, and vice-versa. 

I'll probably buy the hell out of this.

CHICKADY CHINA, THE CHINESE CHICKEN.

Sold for that alone.

Cult of Personality?

It's clobbering time.

So if we've imported the track list from RB1 and RB2 into RB3, do we get those songs in Rock Band Blitz as well, or just DLC songs?

finally they put a date on the bloody thing - the vagueness was getting extremely stale

Immediate impressions from a major Rock Band fan. General impressions in bold, songs I didn't recognize in italics.

-Fifteen dollars seems like a great price, and August 28th is a nice little place wedged between Darksiders and Borderlands as your major releases. People will actually be paying attention to PSN/XBLA during that period.

-Kids in the Street, like most All-American Rejects songs, is probably going to be a lot more fun to play than it will be to listen to. Drum part is pretty slick. But it sounds nothing like an AAR song, a band usually full of power-pop sensibilities.Almost sounds like they got a new singer, which is kind of crazy.

-So Far Away is a song I will hopefully never be playing. Major A7X fans might dig this song, but I find it super boring. I don't care if it's dedicated to the dead drummer whose name I didn't know before he died. That's why it's for fans.

-One Week is probably a great choice, but I'll probably be avoiding it because lord knows I've heard it too many times.

-As a fan of some blink182 songs, Always stands out as too mellow and disinteresting to make a good RB song.

-Shine is continuing this super-mellow sensibility. Which is okay, I guess, but that's not really why I ever found this game fun. It's an okay song to listen to, but it doesn't stand out as fun to play without hammer-ons and pull-offs. The part where it picks up is pretty cool.

-Jeez, it's just occurring to me how much of this list is gonna be crazy mellow. I guess they've decided that RB Blitz is a chance for them to get to a bunch of songs people have been requesting that don't make very good party songs? But, then, why One Week or Sing?

-I'm Still Standing is a great choice and I'm kind of sad I've never heard this song. Thanks, Elton. Bringing things upbeat again.

-A Little Less Sixteen Candles is not a good song. This seems like a misinformed choice to me. Not as mellow as a bunch of the previously mentioned stuff, though it's definitely still power pop.

-Pumped Up Kicks is a good song, but it's so damned mellow again! I like listening to this song enough that I'll definitely be playing it, though.

-We Are Young is not even the most interesting song released by Fun. this year. That title goes to Some Nights, which is some MAD SHIT. That said, We Are Young will probably still be a good playthrough and a popular choice. Really, really wish it was Some Nights, though.

-Once Bitten, Twice Shy is a song I've literally always skipped past on the radio before today. But it's not out of it being a bad song, it's just out of the expectation that something better is probably on the horizon. Nice that it has piano and is more upbeat. If there's a clamoring for this song on the forums, though, I won't be the one who understands it.

-The Wicker Man is so awkward on this list. It's like they felt obligated to get a metal song to convince metal fans to buy it. I will say that I wish more songs on the setlist were as upbeat and energetic as Wicker Man. The first song I'm really legitimately excited for in Rock Band Blitz.

-Nobody is going to dispute that Jungle Boogie is a great choice in general. Always more Jungle Boogie.

-Cult of Personality is one of the most fun songs in Guitar Hero III, and that doesn't even include the fun bass lines, the sweet-ass drums, or the great vocal. Man, I love CoP.

-And in three songs, this list suddenly has drastically changed from a coffee-house covers set to an all-out balls-to-the-wall show. While the rest of this set is more of a party, a list focused on songs like the previous three would have set the world on fire rather than leaving people scratching their heads.

-Sing is one of the worst MCR songs ever. I have no interest in playing it. I get that HMX already released a bunch of their older stuff as DLC, but why couldn't it be Na Na Na? I don't think pop people even want to listen to Sing anymore. (I still have large parts of my Party Poison Halloween costume around, though...)

-Raise Your Glass is probably the best modern pop song on this list to play. I'd probably rather listen to Pumped Up Kicks, but Raise Your Glass is uptempo, it's brash, and it's excited to be here.

-Metal Health is just a slow and awkward song. I didn't really get much out of it in Rocks The 80's, and I don't think I'll get much out of it here. It'd be okay as a DLC choice one week, I guess, but on RB Blitz, it's just strange. Especially with the way this list shaped up; this would make sense as a beginning song on the "Wicker Man/Cult of Personality" version of this setlist.

-Again, Jessie's Girl is a great choice for a more general Rock Band game. I'll probably be dying to play it by the time I unlock poor Rick.

-I'd usually talk shit about a Shinedown song actually making the playlist. But this song is just so much more upbeat than most of the other songs on this damn list that I'm probably going to be choosing it whenever forced to not use my DLC. It kinda makes sense that it's more interesting than most Shinedown songs; somehow, they wound up making a song for The Expendables, forcing them to sound like something other than alt-rock radio white noise.

-Shout pretty much embodies what this setlist could have been. Shout is a killer party song that still slips into harder sets pretty easily, and the instrumentation is strange enough that it'll be an absolute riot to play no matter where you're playing it.

-Instead, we got a handful of songs worth being excited for, and a bunch of mellow nonsense and now-defunct pop songs that were probably easy to license. There is a version of this setlist that works with the exact bands already mentioned; but the A7X song, the Rejects song, the Fall Out Boy song, the MCR song, the Fun. song, the blink182 song, these are all some of the most restrained songs they've ever released. All of these bands are actually capable of rocking; instead, we catch them all in their rocking chairs.

Could have seen myself buying this game, but with this tracklist and no other rock band game, I'll have to pass.

Tought it could be interesting. I like that you can play those in Rock Band 3, and vice versa, but personnaly, I'll have to pass.

My anticipation has been fortified by this!

They really need to do a funk rock band

I'm getting the game as I love RB, and have an insane amount of songs. I still check every Friday for what songs are coming out the next week. The tracklist for the game is ok I guess, it seems pretty similar to how the Lego game was.

@Little_Socrates: Good lord dude, post it on your blog or something.

@MisuseOfLasers: I'm probably going to do a better write-up on my blog, just needed to get my ideas down before I lost them. Sorry if your PgDwn button is getting tired.

Does anyone have a suggestion for getting another set of Rock Band gear? My friends and I had the original game and all the hardware, which has since been lost after several moves. Looking at Amazon, the bundles are goddamn ridiculously expensive for a few-year-old game. I didn't see much at the Harmonix or Mad Catz websites, either. I was hoping for something in the $100 range, but that looks impossible.

@CharAznable: My guitar broke earlier this year and it was insanely hard to get a new one at a decent price. The drums seem to be the only thing you can find cheaply, well here in the UK anyways. I wish I'd have got some spares when they were almost giving away full band sets.

i want to play this on my Vita. Make that happen, Harmonix. Thanks.

I literally just ordered my first fake-instrument game two days ago (Rock Band 3). I've played them before, of course. I just never owned a 360 or PS3 before, or had room for the peripherals before. Definitely excited to tear into that backlog of DLC, but my wallet is going to hate me.

I will also definitely pick this up, because I'm always down for more rhythm games.

I still have no clue what this game is.

I've been wanting to play rock band again for quite some time, and I do have a crapload of DLC. However, I will say that I absolutely despise this track list.

Any word on if there's going to be a world tour mode? Rock Band 3's lack of one (and a store with things you actually buy with fake money) really hurt the longevity of the game in my house.

So fucking stoked for this.

I love "So Far Away" and "Sing", but they don't necessarily seem like fun songs to play. Except for the drum parts.
 
EDIT: Oh, RIP Rev, of course.

@Little_Socrates: Cool story bro

Most of those songs are pretty rough/bad, and Fall Out Boy makes no sense. They broke up 3+ years ago now and shit. Well at least the picked a good blink song (though one that probably won't work that well for RB). Pretty shitty roster of songs though, definitely not buying it now if I don't actually like any of the included music much. Maybe about 5-7 of these songs I like at all, but a lot of them are just ugh. I was hoping this released would get a bunch of awesome stuff in it, like various kind of electronic music, hip-hop, and more complicated rock music like baroque pop that didn't need plastic instruments to go along with it. Oh well, I guess I'll just be buying Dust.

OF COURSE YOU WOULD SAY IT'S A GOOD DEAL ALEX YOU WHORE

It's about damn time Cult of Personality, geeze.

OH MAN, I've been waiting for a Nate Ruess song since he was in The Format, now I'm finally getting a Fun. song. I wish it was a deeper track or from the first album but I can understand the reasoning. SO HYPE.

I hope the game is as challenging as Frequency and Amplitude are even though they've gone with a two button control scheme.

As a fan of Avenged Sevenfold who has seen the song played live, what a weird A7X song to choose... I'll take it but... what?

oh my god Barenaked Ladies

I'm buying this as a $15 One Week DLC with bonus game and other songs.

• Avenged Sevenfold - "So Far Away"
• Barenaked Ladies - "One Week"
• Blink 182 - "Always"
• Fun ft. Janelle Monae - "We Are Young"
• Iron Maiden - "The Wicker Man"
• Living Colour - "Cult of Personality"
• My Chemical Romance - "Sing"
• Tears for Fears - "Shout"
  
  That's $16 in Rock Band DLC right there. I'm losing money NOT buying this!

Subjective I know, but this track list sucks.

Looks like an alright setlist so far. And since its only gonna be $15 its especially pretty good. I mean, if you were going to buy all of these songs separately then you'd be paying $50 (Since I believe they said 25 songs).

Raise Your Glass almost makes me not wanna touch this. Ugh. Cult of Personality makes it a whole lot better though.

Solid deal if you still play RB3... which I do. Easy purchase for me even though I don't love a lot of the tracks.

It's like a kid and his dad are fighting over the stereo.

1 half decent song. I think ill pass.

@andygazi: Me either....how do you play it!?