The era of music games is still going (and going…and going), and now Rock Band has decided to bring in one of the most iconic and well known band in the world: The Beatles.
Like before, there are the quick play options and the career mode. In Career mode you get to follow the Beatles through their career as you get to play their earlier songs such as “I Saw Her Standing There” off of the Please Please Me Album all the way to to end of their career supposedly. We’re still waiting for a definite set list, but the songs demoed for us were “I saw Her Standing There”, “I am the Walrus” and they did announce that “All you Need is Love” will be available as Downloadable Content (DLC) soon after the game was released. It was also mentioned that funds from people purchasing “All you Need is Love” will be be benefiting the Doctors Without Borders foundation!
The backgrounds looked great as the movements were smooth and realistic. The venues were those taken right from the Beatles’ career, all the way from the Cavern Club’s darker setting and small crowd to the Ed Sullivan show and the screaming girls. The cuts of the crowd are something straight out of the old videos, with the screaming and jumping girls that started the trend that still continues on today. Now, some of the later songs aren’t quite something that would fit a normal venue setting, so some…artistic liberties were taken. Now, don’t take this as a bad thing, especially since its something that steals the show. Dreamscapes are colorful, out of this world landscapes that reflect the songs. So while you’re playing “I am the Walrus”, you get to see the band playing in a spinning technicolor like land and a creepy man with a walrus mask. It’s, hard to explain, but imagine The Yellow Submarine movie mixed in with 3D graphics, make it into a music video and you’ve got one of Rock Band’s Dreamscapes.
Ok, no onto the game play. The usual applies here: Guitar, Bass, Drums, Vocals. The catch: you can play with up to SIX people now! With the new three part harmony feature, you can have up to three people on mics, one person on guitar, bass and drums. And like in recent incarnations of the game, you are able to choose different difficulty levels. And with easy mode it’s impossible to fail, so it good if grandma wants to try drums but she’s never played a video game in her life (and if your grandma is like that you have one of the coolest grandma’s ever!).
If you’re a Beatles fan, then you’ll enjoy playing along with the songs. While the Beatles aren’t known for their amazing riffs and quick fingers, the difficulty of the songs seem to be something that will satisfy even some of the more veteran players. So I would have no worries about being bored to death with too many slow, repetitious rhythms. Although I have a hard time seeing Yellow Submarine becoming a song to rival Guitar Hero’s impossible Dragonforce song. I’m sure though that just about any Beatles fan will thoroughly enjoy singing and playing all of the classic songs.
And of course for any hardcore fan, there are special guitars and drums that are coming out for the game. You’re welcome to use the older sets that you’ve got, but for those who are just starting to build up your own home band this could be a place to start. Each controller is designed to be in the likeness of each band member’s favorite instrument. For Sir Paul McCartney, there’s a controller in the likeness of a Hofner Violin Bass. There’s John Lennon’s Rickenbacker 325, George Harrison’s Gretsch Duo Jet guitar and a Ludwig Pearl Finish drum set for Ringo Starr. So the developers spared no detail in creating this game in the honor of the Beatles.
There many music games out there by now. But if you’re a Beatles fans this game is made for you! This game seems to be very true to the Beatles and their music, so it’s worth checking out once it comes out September 9th of this year!