Electronic Arts have released the ROCK BAND iPhone app. The graphics in the Rock Band game are excellent as expected and the characters and themes are similar to the original console version of the game. The in game options are: Quick Play, World Tour, Multiplayer, Music Store, Messages, Extras and More games.

Tapping Quickplay, gets you to the main playing area where you see a list of songs to choose from. As of now the game ships with 15 songs in various genres from artists like Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters, Blink-182, The Beastie Boys and more. Select the instruments of your musician from guitar, the base, the drums and the vocals. The notes are played similar to the console version of Rock Band. You tap 4 colored guitar picks, or drum pads on a scrolling guitar neck. If you pick vocals the game is played horizontally. Just like the console versions, missed hits cause you to go out of rhythm as you won’t hear the notes or vocals, so you have to stay on your toes. Rock Band on the iPhone also has the overdrive mode which you can trigger by tilting the iPhone when the meter on the bottom gets full.

In world tour mode you can play online with your friends, do a solo tour, a campaign tour, claims to fame, leaderboards and awards you can win in Claim to Fame. In the multiplayer mode you can use Bluetooth to play with up to 4 friends total. This is a neat feature that Rock Band has added to its iPhone app. The music store has more songs you can purchase for $0.99 each. In the messages section you can connect to your Facebook and share your stats with your friends.

Each song can be played with one of 4 instruments in one of 3 levels, Easy, Medium or Hard, giving your a lot of possible options, although there is not an expert level. While Rock Band is graphically more intense, it is also more expensive than Tap Tap Revenge 3. The app sells in the App Store for $10 and the first version is a lot more expensive than we might have expected it to be. But it is Rock Band and it is on your iPhone with most of the features you would want including excellent graphics. Rock Band runs a little slow if you are not running the latest iPhone 3GS with OS 3.1 and above on your iPhone.

Here is a video demo of the ROCK BAND app on the iPhone

This 3rd Party App is available at the Apple iTunes AppStore. Browse the full list of all AppStore apps filed under the AppStore category.