Rock Band Blitz

Rock Band Blitz is a note-matching rhythm game fashioned similarly to Harmonix' previous titles, Frequency, Amplitude, and Rock Band Unplugged. The game presents up to five instrument lanes to the player corresponding to lead guitar, bass guitar, drums, vocals, and keyboard that run through the streets of the fictional "Rock City"; if a song does not include tracks for one or more of these instruments, they are not shown on the field. Each lane consists of a number of markers on the two sides of the lane, representing the notes played by that instrument in the song. Unlike other Rock Band games, there is only a single difficulty level.

Using a standard game console controller with customizable controls, the player uses the buttons to match these notes on one track at a time, scoring points for each successful note hit. Each note in a lane hit correctly will lead towards building the lane's specific scoring modifier, starting from 1x, up to a set level cap, initially 4x. Songs are broken down into sections with checkpoints; at these points, the game will increase the level cap up to 3x higher than the current lowest lane multiplier. For example, if the player reaches a checkpoint with four lanes at 8x and one lane at 6x, the multiplier cap will be raised 3x higher than the 6x, to 9x. Thus, the player is encouraged to play notes on all lanes to reach the current level cap across all lanes, as to reach higher scoring modifiers.[4] When songs feature guitar, bass, drum, or keyboard solos, only that lane will show notes; at the following checkpoint, all lane multipliers will be increased based on the performance during the solo. If a lane does not have a significant number of notes between checkpoints, it automatically increased at these checkpoints. Playing series of notes consecutively will build a "Blitz" meter. When full, the player will move faster along the tracks until they miss a small number of notes, while gaining an additional scoring bonus. Upon completing a song, the player is rated on a 1 to 5-star system based on their total score, including 5 gold stars for very high scores, and is given a reward of both "cred", used to unlock power-ups (as described below), and coins which are used to buy the use of power-ups for a song. Cred is also awarded on a per-track and song genre-basis, and used for tracking the player's long-term performance.

The player can gain access to three different types of power-ups as they earn "cred". Overdrive power-ups are engaged in the same manner as the Overdrive system of the previous Rock Band games. Certain sections of lanes will be marked with a series of white notes. Hitting these white notes will fill an Overdrive meter. Once passed a minimum amount of Overdrive, the player can then activate this power-up. Overdrive power-ups include a 2x scoring multiplier, the ability to have the computer play one track for a period of time, and others that involve launching a bottle rocket, sending out a shock wave, or launching an out-of-control car down the track, scoring points for each note hit. The second type of power-up are note-based ones. Certain notes on the tracks will be marked in purple; successfully hitting these notes will engage the power-up's effects. These include notes that will "blow up" all notes on nearby tracks for points, one that creates a pinball that scores points for each note hit while the player keeps it in play, and a sprite that randomly moves between tracks that the player must try to catch up to earn points. Finally, track-based power-ups either are active on specific tracks of a song doubling the point value of notes hit on that track at any time, or activated when switching tracks at specific markers. At the start of a song, the player can use coins to buy the use of one of each power-up for that songs, or can opt not to use one or more power-ups.

Players' performances are tracked through online scoreboards which can be accessed in-game or through the Rock Band World Facebook application. Through these, players can compete with friends and issue challenges on specific songs, as well as receive recommendations of other downloadable songs they may want to purchase based on their song choices. The player can earn additional coins in-game by completing challenges given through Rock Band World. As the player progresses on a song, they will be informed of how their progress is comparing to that of their friends from their friends list.[7]