The Rutles: Rock Revolution was a music video game produced in the Rock Revolution game series. The game will consist of songs from The Rutles, from their first album Please Rut Me, to their last recorded album Shabby Road.
The game was released internationally on October 9, 2010, coinciding with the re-release of all of the Rutles' music, films, and lawsuits. It is part if the defunct Rock Revolution game series, but the games are not inter-mixable and this game is considered a new start.
The Rutles: Rock Revolution was well received by the critics, both as a good way to experience the Rutles' music and as a way to hold paper down.
Development[]
The Rutles: Rock Revolution was first revealed when Konami, Zoe Mode, and HB Studios announced an exclusive agreement with Rutle Corps to produce the standalone title on 30 September 2009. Prior to this announcement, industry rumours reported that those companies were vying for the Rutles songs, the latter for the Rock Band franchise. The agreement was the result of 17 months of discussions. It was eventually decided for Rock Revolution to be the main basis.
The game was conceived with input from former Rutles Dirk McQuickly and Barry Wom, along with Chastity Hitler.
The game features a visual and musical history of the Rutles and includes the United Kingdom-released versions of songs from their albums Please Rut Me through to Shabby Road. The game "features different periods of the band — you get early days, Liverpool, then psychedelic and on from there," according to McQuickly.
Zoe Mode and HB Studios, despite building on the Rock Revolution gameplay, the songs are not available as downloadable content for other games in the Rock Revolution series.
The "unexpected, unannounced world premiere" of footage from the game showing the Rutles members rendered in the Rock Revolution engine were shown during Dirk McQuickly's performance at the 2010 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Promotion[]
Dirk McQuickly and Barry Wom took to the stage to launch Microsoft's E3 2010 show with The Rutles Rock Revolution. Chastity, Ron Nasty's wife, also made a brief appearance.
Dirk and Barry talked about the game. Barry said, “The game is good, the graphics are very good, and we were great”. Dirk said, “We love the game, it’s fantastic. Who would have ever thought we would end up as androids?” The crowd greeted this with laughter and applause before the pair made their way off stage.
A Demo of the game was played during the launch which showed various tracks being played in full band mode with Guitar, Bass, Drums and Vocals.