Why does this sound eerily familiar? You may recall that Konami, who also developed the rhythm game Guitar Freaks for Japan, hit Harmonix with a suit last summer. That suit claimed that Rock Band violates a pair of patents Konami obtained in 2002 and 2003, which relate to "simulated musical instruments, a music-game system and a musical-rhythm matching game."

Now it's Harmonix's turn to sue.

The Boston based developer, which is owned by MTV Games, claims Konami is violating its own patent for game controllers that simulate musical instruments, one that Harmonix claims is an improvement of earlier video game controllers that simulate musical instruments. The Harmonix patent actually cites Konami's other rhythm game Beatmania as an example of a control system that has been improved upon.

Harmonix's suit, much like Konami's, is seeking cash and a motion to stop the Rock Revolution publisher from selling its plastic instruments. We'd think the game buying public has done a pretty respectable job of doing the latter due to lack of interest.

Viacom's Harmonix Sues Konami Over ‘Rock Revolution' [Bloomberg]

The game will be hitting shelves on October 14th for Wii, PS3, Xbox 360, and Nintendo DS.

For the drum set itself, it's really nice and sturdy. You can store the sticks right into the side, and the pedal is solid and has some weight to it. What I like the most is how the yellow snare head is sort of in the middle and much larger than the other ones. It's the head you'll be hitting most and it fits more naturally right in front of you like a real set. The other heads are positioned correctly as well, but I'm not really feeling how the cymbals aren't floating like they should be. It's makes it a bit hard to focus on the notes when you might end up missing the cymbals all together since they're small. But these are minor complaints compared to the gameplay.

Rock Revolution's notes don't cascade toward you at an angle like in the other games. I never gave it much thought until now, but this just does not work, especially on higher difficulties. It doesn't allow you to get a sneak peak at upcoming notes since your eyes are so focused on the bottom.

This leads me to the next problem. The drum heads, are not lined up to the heads on the screen, and the drum pedal has it's own note head rather than the scrolling line we've come to love in Rock Band. Trying to get this to work with the rest of the notes on screen is super frustrating. Also, this game is tough on when you hit the notes. There's also no room to breath at all on the notes, either. If you're even slightly off, you'll miss the note.

All that being said, I dug the drums. I'm curious to see how the new drum sets from RB and GH compare to them. The rubber heads had a good bounce to them and the pedal was nice and responsive. Unfortunately, I fear the final game will not want to make many people give them a try.

It would appear that Konami's curious decision making hasn't stopped, as the company confirmed to MTV today that it would not be shipping its own guitar controller with the game. You'll have to use someone else's.

Konami reps told MTV that "At this time, Konami will only be releasing ‘Rock Revolution’ with a drum peripheral." It says it has no plans for a guitar controller of its own, that Rock Band and Guitar Hero controllers — first and third party, we'll assume — will be supported.

I guess that's why Konami was pushing for music controller cross-compatibility earlier this year... but it might not help the company's case for filing suit against Harmonix over patent violations. Konami's cool with using Harmonix's controllers for Rock Revolution, but not Guitar Hero and Rock Band?

MTV did confirm that the Rock Revolution drum set will be compatible with its competitors, despite the mismatched pad numbers on both Rock Band and Guitar Hero: World Tour.

Konami Not Making Guitar For ‘Rock Revolution’ [MTV Multiplayer]

Not only did he get to hang out with Kyle Massey of Cory in the House and get hands on with some unreleased games, he also had a chance to talk to Mark-Paul "Zack" Gosselaar about Rock Band. Specifically the former Bell star told Reilly that he really needs a singer for his Rock Band band. Preferably "chicks". And then, right there, in mid sentence, it seemed to dawn on Gossellar that what he was saying was going to be printed and he suddenly recalled his wife of 12 years. Smoooooooth.

The run-down of coverage:
Nintendo Throws A Party To Benefit Starlight Children's Foundation
Mark-Paul Gosselaar Needs A Singer For Rock Band
Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars: A Hardcore Title For Wii
Rock Revolution For Wii: Air Drumming/Guitaring Isn't Very Fun

The gameplay screen setup is what we've all seen before. During a song you'll have your band in the background jamming out with a bunch of cascading tiles coming towards you. I can't speak for the PS/360 versions - since those have five or more columns of cascading notes - but the Wii version only has three sets of columns, and it makes playing any song on harder difficulties a lot less satisfying when you don't have to worry about mastering a new column set of cascading notes.

Also, let me just get this out of the way. Playing air guitar and drums aren't fun. I tried not to hate it. But there's something about sitting down at a drum kit or pulling a guitar over your head that makes the overall experience more engaging. Whether you're playing guitar or drums, you'll either be holding down the C or Z buttons of the nunchuk while moving the Wii-mote up and down (to mimic strumming), or shaking both like maracas while incorporating the B button. It would be fine if I could use my other instruments to play this, like the PS3/360 versions, but I can't. The Wii version only allows for use of the Wii-mote and nunchuk.

The main problem, besides my arms getting wicked tired, is that in games like this, accuracy is the most important thing for the controls, right? Sometimes, when you swing your wii-mote down, the game doesn't register it, so you then of course miss notes.

I can see the audience for this version being for those who are too young for Rock Band/Guitar Hero and too old Wii Music. It might fit snugly in there. But if you're thinking Rock Revolution for the Wii might contend with the other big boy on Nintendo's platform in terms of realism, accuracy and overall enjoyment, you might want to look at the other versions.

Not to be outdone (and concerned that the PS3 claim might imply the opposite for rivals) Chris Paladino from Microsoft used the Gamerscore Blog to confirm that the same was true of the XBox version of those games as well.

For the record, we also do that, so consider this an official announcement.

All the instruments from Rock Band 2, Guitar Hero: World Tour, and Rock Revolution will be cross-compatible.

Let's hear it for common sense and compatibility. Up next — world peace.

Speaking of Instrument Compatibility... [Gamerscore Blog]

For the most part, this means that the titles with musical peripherals will work with the other’s software.

A few specific examples include: Guitar Hero: World Tour’s guitars and drums will work with Rock Band 2 and Konami’s Rock Revolution software.

And yes, you guessed it, Rock Band 2’s guitar and drum set will work with Guitar Hero: World Tour and with Rock Revolution.

Conversely, Rock Revolution’s drum set will work with both Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2.

In addition, Guitar Hero: World Tour and Rock Band 2 will both support the SingStar microphones.

Did you get all that?

Obviously some games have certain features that can't be used with other controllers, but Sony also stated they are working on compatibility between the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games currently on the market.

PS3 Music Peripheral Compatibility Update

The bad news? I already have a set of instruments in my living room, and two games that have already explored many of these artists, if not the songs themselves. A very nice line up, but not enough to get me to take up more of my living room real estate. Hit the jump for the full set list, copied and pasted from the XLS file for that all-screwed up formatting feel.

All The Small Things - blink-182
Chop Suey! - System Of A Down
Cum On Feel The Noize - Quiet Riot (Slade)
Dance, Dance - Fall Out Boy
Detroit Rock City - Kiss
Dr. Feelgood - Motley Crue
Highway Star - Deep Purple
Holy Wars… The Punishment Due - Megadeth
Pull Me Under - Dream Theater
Somebody Told Me - The Killers
Spoonman - Soundgarden
Stone Cold Crazy - Queen
The Joker And The Thief - Wolfmother
Spirit Of Radio - Rush
We're Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
White Room - Cream
Youth Gone Wild - Skid Row
Dirty Little Secret - All American Rejects
Last Resort - Papa Roach
Round And Round - Ratt
Still Of The Night - Whitesnake
Are You Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
No One Like You - Scorpions
Diary Of Jane - Breaking Benjamin
Blitzkrieg Bop - The Ramones
Falling Away From Me - Korn
The End Of Heartache - Killswitch Engage
Run To The Hills - Iron Maiden
Walk - Pantera
Heading Out To The Highway - Judas Priest
Won't Get Fooled Again - The Who
Pain - Three Days Grace
All My Life - Foo Fighters
Am I Evil? - Diamond Head / Metallica
Bad Reputation - Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
Our Truth - Lacuna Coil
Sk8er Boi - Avril Lavigne
Kiss Me Deadly - Lita Ford
Magic Man - Heart
Paralyzer - Finger Eleven
Given Up - Linkin Park

Senior brand manager Lauren Faccidomo may be a capable bass player in the all-female Ramones cover band The Sheenas, but her performance on her own company's "band" game, Rock Revolution, is... awkward. Faccidomo is most likely very thankful that her Rock Revolution misfire was comfortably nestled within dozens of exciting Konami announcements and that this particular embarrassment was quickly forgotten about.

Sorry, what's that? This is how Konami wrapped up its press conference at E3? Oh. Oh my. Lauren, I have Jaime Kennedy's phone number if you need someone to help you through this rough patch.

The really sad part? I love the feel of these ugly drums. I found the response of the sticks off the rubbery heads extremely satisfying as I stumbled my way through Blink 182's "All The Small Things". It's just that the drum placement doesn't make much sense with the way the heads are presented, along with the fact that I already have the song - one of a handful available to demo - in Rock Band.

The Rock Revolution drums do a lot of things right. The springy feel, the fact that you can store the sticks in two holes in the base, and the sheer number of drums - six plus a pedal - would have presented a pretty attractive package two years ago. Now we have Rock Band 2 coming out with a drum set you can hook up a device to in order to make it a real electronic drum kit, Guitar Hero World Tour with it's stylized cymbals and music studio...or you can choose Konami's blocky rubber monstrosity. The choice seems pretty clear.

MTV News received a response from an MTV spokesperson on the matter — which, in my mind, was shouted across cubicles — who said the lawsuit was "extremely surprising." The rep further noted that "successful products such as 'Rock Band' can often become targets for baseless litigation." We agree, especially when the entity filing suit is showing up extremely late to the party with its own stillborn excuse for a rock game. At least those poor unfortunate litigation lawyers will finally get a few bucks coming to 'em.

Further details on the suit at MTV News.

'Rock Band' Creators Sued By 'Rock Revolution' Publisher Konami [MTV News]

Klepek reports that Konami, makers of the upcoming Rock Revolution do not believe in proprietary peripherals.

"Compatibility is a big issue for music games," Konami Digital Entertainment associate producer Keith Matejka told MTV News. "Peripherals are expensive for the user and they are expensive to produce. The existing peripherals all deliver only a slightly different gameplay experience. Different teams have varying perspectives on what should be compatible with each game. I think all guitar- and drum-based games need to be compatible with each other to some level."

More Klepek goodness at the link, including some counter-arguments about why compatibility doesn't make sense for the big publishers.

Side note: He reported in just to me that they don't have real showers on the Warped Tour. Whoops! Now, I guess he's reported that to all of you as well.

'Rock Band'/ 'Guitar Hero' Rivalry Heats Up, Draws Third Competitor [The place that pays my bills]

Formerly Kuju Brighton, Zoë Mode has been responsible for several rhythm-action games over the past few years, including Dancing with the Stars and Singstar, in collaboration with Sony London Studio. The cheeky blonde's official website also indicates that they are working on five unannounced music and party games on top of Konami's Rock Revolution. That's one busy cute blonde right there.

Zoë Mode to develop Rock Revolution [GI.biz]

The game will be coming out for the PS3, Xbox 360. Wii and the DS with each version having it's own distinct features but all will include a career mode and forty songs to play along with. Oddly, the console versions will not include vocals, but the DS version will. There is no official song list yet, so keep your eyes peeled for more announcements regarding that but I did see a few that were available on the demo which were Blitzkrieg Bop, Detroit Rock city, We're Not Gonna Take It and All The Small Things. There are eight playable characters and various locales ranging from garage to county fair to rock arena. Unfortunately, even though they showed off the drum kit at the presentation, they didn't provide any photos of it so keep an eye for that as well.

Is Rock Revolution going to be a Guitar Hero or Rock Band killer? Probably not, but it will be interesting to see how it actually does in the market. I'm afraid however, that this might be a case of too little too late.