Review: The Beatles - Rock Band (360)

Medium: Console Video Game
Genre: Rhythm/Music
Designers: Chris Foster (Lead Designer), Sylvain Dubrofsky, Casey Malone
Developers: Harmonix
Publishers: MTV Games/Electronic Arts
Version Reviewed: Xbox 360 (also available on PS3, Wii)
Release Date: September 9, 2009 (intl)
Rated: T for Teen

The quintessential question that comes to mind concerning The Beatles: Rock Band is “can a rhythm game attempting to build on what was formerly a successful intra-franchise integration with such a diverse song selection survive being stapled to one particular band and isolated from its historic song cache?” It’s a long question, and to fully understand why the answer is “yes,” we need to look at a few things. Things that matter. Things that would generally cause brand loyalists to throw down their cheap plastic axes in disgust and turn them in for a cheap plastic turntable. Things that inspire.

Things that matter, seeing as we’re in essay territory, can be the music itself. There are many people out there who don’t know Beatles songs, much less own Beatles albums or, God forbid, know the history behind the band. The Beatles: Rock Band is here to help with all of these things. Firstly, it will introduce virgin ears to Beatles songs while simultaneously letting those of generations past relive their rock-and-roll youth without digging out the dusty LPs. After playing along and learning the songs included on the game disc, Beatlemania might just find its way into local record shops again, thus solving things that matter number two. And thirdly, the game manages to tie in history without making it a lesson. Videos and photos for rewards as opposed to new clothing/fake money are all well and good, but the captions and brief stories attached to each edify the unfamiliar gamer in a very personal way.

Brand loyalty is a tough thing. The original Rock Band was revolutionary for rhythm games because it brought a band together to play...together. Rock Band 2 took it a step further with online connections for those of us with not enough dexterously inclined friends who could/would want to accompany such a faux jam. And then, for a great while, DLC was all that seemed necessary. The Beatles: Rock Band starts from scratch by alienating itself from all former DLC and being limited to just one band and its songs (which have historically had broad licensing issues). So why is the game still worth the investment? Well, The Beatles’ White Album had nearly 40 songs alone! So there’s a treasure trove of DLC just waiting to be exploited. Not to mention that the game disc itself comes with a very decent selection of 40+ songs that span the band’s career.

But what’s so inspiring about following one band? First off, it’s The Beatles – a band that changed their own concept of what their music was to themselves as much as they changed rock music for the rest of the listening world. So variety is in there. Also, the loving care that went into the crafting of this game – from the opening movie, to the meticulous and artistic reproductions of visages and venues, to the imaginative (if not acid-induced) dreamscape backgrounds – is so evident in every step of the way that it’s hard not to be swept up in all the moments the game provides. Honestly, the dreamscapes, which are so beautifully crafted that they border on hypnotic, are my favorite, although I’ve yet to see most of what they have to offer because my friends won’t let me sit out and watch them play (that's what YouTube is for). Also oddly inspiring is the difficulty. I’ve heard people complain both ways, but I’ll tell you, as someone who normally tackles songs on Expert difficulty in Rock Band 2 and ranks around 95%, that the constant chords are a challenge and a half! There is no thrashing, but there are tons of chord progressions that the programmers seemed to have mapped out simply to test the limits of inducing repetitive stress injuries.

Overall, this is a solid four-star effort for something as simplistic as a rhythm game, but the (as of now) limited song list leaves me weary. So I’ll give it a three and a half stars, with another 1/2 star to be post-postedly-posted when/if DLC becomes as regular as that for Rock Band 2.* Honestly though, even if they don’t post any DLC other than "All You Need is Love," so long as you’re in the mood to be any one of The Beatles, you’ll enjoy hearing and seeing everything that has been created for this game to allow you to do so.

*In the days after this review was written, it has been announced that 3 full albums will be made available (one each per consecutive month), which amounts to, if not exceeds, Rock Band 2's schedule.

excellent.