The Beatles: Rock Band Review
I’ve been a bad reviewer. I’ve ignored my duties to the internet and failed to review a game I’ve had for almost a week. Sally forth, dear readers, and you may understand why. My excuse in 4 words: The Beatles: Rock Band.
It’s relatively safe to say that since Guitar Hero number one, fans of the rhythm gaming genre have clamored for the inclusion of music by The Beatles. For millions, the Fab Four are the original ‘rock band’, but licensing their songs is traditionally mired in legal and financial headaches. It took the urging of the late George Harrison’s son Dhani to finally bring Beatlemania to video games and it comes in stellar form.
I bring up the history of the title because aside from this being a natural feeling Rock Band title, it’s also a history lesson of the band supported by archive video, photographs and visuals representing the era of the song being played. From modest small club surroundings to the imagined worlds of Yellow Submarine and finally to the famous Apple Corps rooftop concert, each chapter in the life of the band is brought to screen with era-accurate clothing, instruments and even facial hair. In a way, the game let’s the player experience a small slice of what it was like to be alive in the 60’s during the band’s meteoric rise. If it’s possible to feel nostalgia for a time before you were born, I’m feeling it.
Strictly speaking, the gameplay offers very little of anything new in the Rock Band vein. Play your chosen instrument in sync with the scrolling notes to score. The more notes hit consecutively, the higher your multiplier and the better mood the audience (or the technician during ‘recording studio’ sessions) will stay in. Hit special notes to fill your Beatlemania bar and launch it to boost your points more. Highest scores net 5 star ratings. 3 and 5 star ratings unlock archival photos and interesting factoids about the song or general time it was written. Others unlockables include video footage and special audio tracks.
What’s new here is strictly for the singers. The Beatles: Rock Band now allows for up to three singers in certain songs, a soloist and 2 harmonizers who get their own track and goals to hit while singing. Harmonies can be very tricky, even for those that have been singing along in their cars for decades. Though it does make for some interesting party moments.
What really impressed me were the inter-era animation sequences and menus. They are gorgeously rendered with a combination of 2D and 3D art and mix in snippets of songs to help move things along audibly. It’s obvious that a lot of care was taken to portray the band-mates as accurately as possible throughout their career, which brings me to one of my two downers.
As much effort as went into all the other visuals, the background crowd elements, the fans, were dull and uninspired. Obviously they aren’t pivotal, but the character models were a little too oft repeated and noticeable mirrored. Example: the audience members frequently clapped in unison, rather than in the expected frenzied teen-age applause.
Additionally, the track list is severely lacking. Thankfully for quick-play sessions, you won’t have to unlock any of the 45 included songs, but that leaves a 50 percent deficit compared to previous Rock Band and Guitar Hero titles and makes for a shorter single player experience. I mean, I get that it’s The Beatles and as such it’s about quality over quantity, but where’s Hey Jude? Strawberry Fields? Let It Be?!?! Instead we get Dig a Pony, I Me Mine and Boys (which they only covered, by the way) all of which I’d honestly never heard of. More are coming in the form of downloadable content, but its just a little disappointing to see them overlook (or perhaps specifically choose to charge for later) some of the band’s most iconic songs.
Not to worry though. 45 songs is plenty to play on your own and immense for party-play. If you’ve been delaying the purchase of a ‘band’ game because you didn’t know many of the songs, this one should get you going. Everyone knows these tracks and most love them. They’re classic rock at its finest and short of picking up a real instrument, this is the closest you can get to actually playing them. Easily earns my Music Game of the Year Award.
