Fantasia The Game, Doesn’t Feature Fantasia

Ok I think we can all call this one a fail. The first promo trailer for Fantasia: Music Evolved features nothing about Fantasia. As of right now this video has 755 thumbs down with only 85 likes. Putting that aside though, I think it’s a great music game concept. I really do look forward to hearing more about this new Xbox One Kinect exclusive and who knows maybe it will include some extra Fantasia themes.

Beatles Rock Band at E3

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.
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.

A dreamscape image from Rock Band: Beatles
A dreamscape image from Rock Band: Beatles

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.

beatles_2

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!

Rock Band Music Store Now Available for Wii – It’s about time

Rock Band Wii

I feel sorry for the Wii players of Rock Band that have been missing out on all the downloadable content that Xbox 360 and PS3 owners get. Well now even Wii’s can download music for 200 Wii Points! Continue reading “Rock Band Music Store Now Available for Wii – It’s about time”

Rock Band 2 Announced!

Harmonix, the world’s premier music video game company in the world, and MTV Games, a part of Viacom’s MTV Networks, along with marketing and distribution partner Electronic Arts Inc., are taking the groundbreaking music platform that forever changed the face of music video games to the next level this September with the release of Rock Band 2. With the original providing millions of players a new way to interact with the music and artists they love, Rock Band 2 is the next evolution of the franchise that redefined the standard for music games.

Rock Band is the groundbreaking platform that allows music fans and gamers to interact with music like never before – challenging players to put together a band and tour for fame and fortune while learning to master lead/bass guitar, drums and vocals.

Rock Band 2 builds upon its foundation as the first music game to introduce co-operative band gameplay, multiple instruments, a robust online multiplayer experience, an unrivaled offering of downloadable content and raises the bar by delivering an entirely new level of depth, connectivity, authenticity and features including:

* Backwards compatibility with Rock Band downloadable music content. All previously purchased tracks will immediately load into your Rock Band 2 song list. No need to re-purchase or re-download.
* The biggest and most diverse soundtrack ever featuring some of rock’s most prolific acts, comprised entirely of master recordings.
* Major new and dynamic online modes that will connect the entire Rock Band community in more ways than ever before both locally and globally.
* More variety of instrument choices than ever before with new and improved drum and guitar peripherals, enhanced functionality and innovative new designs – all fully compatible with the original Rock Band instruments.
* And much more.

“As successful as the original Rock Band continues to be, we’ve now had the benefit of the last eight months to listen to our fans’ requests and to build upon that foundation,” said Alex Rigopulos, co-founder and CEO of Harmonix. “Rock Band 2 is a second-generation band game that will elevate the music game experience to the next level.”

Rock Band 2 will make its debut on Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft this September and have an exclusive launch window in North America. Rock Band 2 will be available for additional platforms later this year.

“We expect Rock Band 2 to continue to drive an amazing social music experience on Xbox 360, said David Hufford, senior director, Xbox Product Management for the Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft. “We look forward to supporting Rock Band 2 on Xbox 360 as gamers continue to download hundreds of new music tracks from Xbox LIVE so they and their friends can perform the rock music they love most.

More details regarding features and music for Rock Band 2 will be revealed at the 2008 E3 Media & Business Summit. Rock Band, the first installment in the franchise, garnered more than 40 awards including Game Critics Award: Best of Show E3 2007.

In addition, Harmonix and MTV Games today announced that The Rock Band online music store recently surpassed 15 million paid downloads since the game’s launch in late November 2007. With more than 200 tracks available to date via download purchase (complete list of tracks at http://www.rockband.com/dlc), the massive Rock Band Music Store allows players to preview and purchase downloadable individual music tracks, packs and albums from the vast selection of offerings available as they build their own custom Rock Band library.

Rock Band 2 is rated “T” for Teen (lyrics, mild suggestive themes) by the ESRB.

For more information on Rock Band and Harmonix Music Systems please visit www.rockband.com and www.harmonixmusic.com.