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Great Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: September 16, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Rock Manager puts you in complete control of a rock band. Your task is simple: make them stars! Bribe the local radio station to get more airplay for your band, or buy up all your records to create increased demand. Use any means necessary to make the band climb the charts. Anything goes in this strung-out world of swindle, lies and rock 'n' roll. Manage your talents and top the charts!

Push rock stars around! Be the ultimate rock manager!

Gather Your Talent!
The choice is yours. Pick no-talent posers or hire world-class musicians. Choose your band carefully, because if they don't like each other, they won't work well together.

Get Inside the Studio!
Cut your own actual songs much like a real-life recording studio. Rock Manager's mixer interface allows you to set effects, volume, and panning individually for each musician. Your own musicians can't play? Try some session pros for size! Just watch out, 'cause the band might be upset when they find out they're not playing on the track.

Make 'em Stars!
Choose from six different concert venues and book gigs to keep your band sharp. Promote your record by manipulating the local media and get maximum exposure. If your plans start falling apart, there's always the local crime boss who's willing to pull a few strings on your behalf!

Select your band from more than 25 musicians, each with their own style, skills and personality.
Produce your band's songs in the unique, fully functional music studios.
Design album covers using a variety of styles.
Plan advanced marketing campaigns
Manage life-like characters who demand your close attention.
Build a career that transports you from seedy back-alley clubs to international stardom

Windows 95, 98, 2000, XP
Pentium 233MHz MMX processor
32MB of RAM
100MB Hard drive Space (150MB recommended)
DirectX compatible 16-bit Sound Card
16MB Video Card
CD-ROM Drive

Fun game, but not a game you can replay

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: November 20, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This is a great game with a great concept, but you cannot really replay the game. For the price that I see that people are selling it used (about $10), it is worth that. It is somewhat easy, but not too easy. The game was super fun, I just wish it had more depth. I give it five stars for being fun, but only 3 overall. If the game was more expensive, each of those would go down.

Great while it lasts, but it doesn't last.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 7
Date: April 12, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I finished this game the same day that I started it. This was not a day of dedicated gameplay either, although it was a day that involved too much goofing off. This is a short, short game, based around a few simple missions. The missions are a load of fun while they last - I was left wanting more rather than feeling that I had wasted my time. However, once they are done, there is not much point in replaying them. In a way, I was looking forward to finishing the missions so that I could go on to what I thought of as the "real game" - building up a band from rags to riches. However, it quickly became clear that this was a pretty mechanical process requiring few real choices on my part, so that quickly grew dull.

What is good about the game:

The missions are a load of fun. There was as many twists on the basic "build up a band" plot as I could think of.
The various characters have loads of personality and are very funny. The satire is cuts right to the bone.
You get to play around in a virtual recording studio. There isn't much game effect that I could see (apart from whether you decide to use session musicians or not), but its a toy.

What is not good about the game:

Put simply, there are too few choices, which leaves the game somewhat mechanical. For instance, there are only 25 musicians to choose from (fewer the scenarios). The game would easily be much better if the player could make up new ones or audition randomly generated ones. Obviously, such new characters would not the voiceclips and background information that are provided for the characers that come with the game, but replayability counts more than style. Similarly, there is only a limited selection of songs to choose from. Your band can't write their own and if they manage to record all of the genre-appropriate songs on the market, they can never get new ones. Of course, an invented song could not be toyed with in the studio in the same way that the preset songs can, but again, replayability counts more than style. You can design your own album covers, which is fun. I don't like the fact that the game rewards flashier designs over simpler ones because it discourages variety in album covers, but that may be a fair representation of the way conformity trumps innovation in the music business. Apart from choosing the songs and album covered, you can't set an image for the band - it would be nice to have the option of dressing them up like Kiss or down like The Clash and seeing what effect it had on sales.
Once you have your band and your record, there is a mechanical process of playing gigs and paying for advertising. There are very few random events to break up this process, and the way the player should respond to them tends to be very simple. A band member gets bored? But them a present. A media type asks for an interview? Click "Yes". It doesn't require deep thought.

In short, the game would benefit a lot from less flash and more substance. How about random shifting musical trends to chase, at the risk of losing your loyal fanbase? How about competing bands and managers to war with? Even some very simple routines along these lines could make the game so much more interesting.

If Rock Manager 2 ever comes out, then I will want to play it, although I might be wary of paying full price for it. After all, Rock manager *was* a lot of fun while it lasted. The premise is a great one and one that a number of shareware games have worked with with varying degrees of success. One day, there will be a great rock n' roll sim. I have been waiting for it for a long time. I'm still waiting.

Bad language

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 2 / 13
Date: March 06, 2004
Author: Amazon User

From wal-mart I thought of the fact it would be fun and exiting because you can manage your band. for someone who likes dreamcatcher Games I certainly Wouldn't buy this game of the foul language since Evey othe sentence is the f-word I gave it A one star of the foul language

A fun and enjoyable game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: March 01, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I first ever played rock manager when i was 11. (last year,2003). My friend had bought it and said "dude, you gotta come check this game out"!. So i said ok, ill be right over. I already knew my friend had good taste in games because he introdueced me to such games as the GTA series and For instance the sims. So when i got to his house, i rushed upstairs. We turned on rock manager and at first look i said. Oh great, another role playing game. But then i started to get into it. And before i knew it, it was 12 o clock at night and we had been playing it since 4. So.... When i got home the next, I begged my mom to buy it for me, and she did, and so far, it has gotten old or boring one bit. 5 out of 5 for this one. GREAT GAME!

Cute, Entertaining Time Filler

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 4
Date: October 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Rockmanager is a cute, entertaining time filler. Nothing more. The game is short, with only 9 missions and NO "open" play mode, which is really a shame. The graphics are acceptable, the sound is excellent with different songs for your band to play - all of which sound pretty damn catchy.
You select band members for the following areas: lead singer, lead guitar OR keyboard, drums, bass guitar, backup guitar. They are all optional, meaning you can make a band with just a drum, a keyboard, and a singer for example. The people you can choose to hire throughout the missions does not vary too much, although they do all have their own personalities and pros and cons (along with funny little things they say to you). The genres represented in this game are punk, pop, dance, metal, rock, and the ambiguious "other".
Most of the game takes place on this very limited map of a town. The graphics are flat, but not horrendous enough to really bother the eye. Its a bit difficult at first to find all the places you can click on, but once found its disappointing to see how they change very little from mission. There are 6 places you can give concerts, 3 record companies, 4 places you can record, 1 record store, 1 tv center, 1 newspaper, 1 radio, and 2 places you can buy melodies.
There arent that many melodies but they are all catchy and quite fun to mix in the mixing studios. This is one of the biggest catches in the game. I only wish they had explained in detail some of the tools they choose to include - and some obvious sound tools have been left out,
Ar first its great fun - until you figure out how to make money. I abhor sim games that become so linear and predictable that it becomes a series of repeated tasks after awhile. This game, unfortunatley, suffers from that. Fairly early on.
For the price, its a fun little game. Best suited for younger kids though, since its quite easy for teenagers and up. But anyone who likes mixing music would probably get a kick out of it. If your a die hard sim fan give this a try, but if you want something with replay value you are looking at the wrong game.

GRAPHICS: 5 - Acceptable.

SOUND: 10 - good quality

GAMEPLAY: 7 - Fairly easy to learn, but could stand for improvement

PLAY VALUE: 2. The number of times you will play through it.

FUN: 8 - while it lasts

OVERALL: 6.4
Which I'll translate to 3 stars on the amazon system.

Keep Your Receipt

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 10 / 13
Date: March 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I ran across this game one day had to give it a try. I love simulation games and, in this one, you manage a rock band doing everything from choosing the members, giving them a name, picking the songs, mixing the tracks, bribing radio DJs, scheduling gigs, designing album covers, etc. The first time I played it, it was a lot of fun. I was able to put together a punk band and got them on the Top 10 charts with the song "Kids Gonna Riot". The music you have to choose from is actually pretty good. I find myself humming them. Next I put together an 80s style band and had them play the same song (it sounded just like a New Wave band doing a punk cover). I then got the punk band back together to do a soppy love song. It's fun to hear what can come out of bands playing songs outside their style. The characters are cartoonish and fun with cool accents.

Now, why only 3 stars? Well, after I played it once, the graphics were never the same. They looked like those posters with hidden 3D images. You could kind of make out the characters, but the colors were patchy. When I returned it, I found out that others had problems with the disc. The clerk said if your computer only has the minimum requirements or near the minimum requirements for the game, problems in the graphics and play can come up. My computer is about five years old and just has what is required to play the game. I figure, if I had an updated system, it would be fine. My advice: if you don't have an "up-to-date" system but would like to try this game, buy it from a company with a fair return policy and keep the receipt. I found this game to be tons of fun for the brief time I played it. It's worth the try.

Cute and fun, but juvenile and unrealistic.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: February 05, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I read a positive review in the Philadelphia Inquirer on this game and searched the mall high and low for it when it first arrived. While the game is fun for a little while, its cutesy cartoon graphic format is not the sort of (simulation) game I expected.
And as for producing and mixing music, which I really looked forward to, don't get your hopes up. What you'll find are little knobs and levers, but not a re-creation of what its like to mix in a real life studio.
The rest of the management game is very much a game, so... perhaps that really IS realistic.
This is a very simplistic game with an average level of challenge to it. Truth be told, my interest didn't hold out long enough to make it past the fourth level. Worth the 20 bucks though, ...I guess.

Very fun game!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 7
Date: January 27, 2003
Author: Amazon User

The most fun PC game I have played in a long time! The characters are very humorous (some cuss a lot, this is not for kids) and being able to mix songs in the studio is a definite plus. It has every aspect of the rock music business, from choosing band members, recording and mixing songs, album cover design, public relations, marketing, booking concerts, band interaction, touring, scandals and rehab. My only complaint with this game is that the eight different scenarios are a little too easy. I really hope someone creates another game like this involving the rap or country music business. I highly recommend this!

A Good Laugh for very little

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: December 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game can be had for fairly cheap, and I highly recommend getting it. as a rock manager you get a variety of different missions(get the rich producers ugly daughter a recording contract, help an 80s band make a successful comeback without breaking up) that involves a cast of funny cliche band members(including the Oasis inspired Golander brother). Also you mix the songs they record often with very funny results.

In the end this game gives you enough options so that it is replayable, and entertaining enough to be worth the low amount it will cost.
-cjw

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