It’s better than Guitar Hero: Metallica, at least.
WHAT YOU’LL LIKE:
That Intro!
No one really makes cool CG intros any more. Remember the good old days when Blizzard games and Namco’s Tekken weren’t the only ones with awesome opening cinematics? After the god-awful Rock Band 2 intro (that song still haunts my dreams), Harmonix needed to redeem themselves and they’ve certainly done that in spades.
The Later Years
The early career of The Beatles is filled with poppy, designed-for-commercials, jingle garbage, but when The Beatles grow up a little and/or start doing heavy drugs, their songs become much more meaningful and rich. Around the 4th or 5th chapter of the game (roughly half way), everything takes a turn for the better and the game really hits its stride. They also begin to experiment with new sounds which helps add some much needed variety to the tracklist, whereas in the first half of the game every song is impossible to tell apart from the next.
Tri-Harmonic Vocals
Certain songs allow up to three vocalists to sing together. Multi-talented band members can even get mic stands and play the instruments while singing, just like t4h r4al b33tles!!!!1 It’s actually a very cool feature and one that, unfortunately, will not likely be seeing integration into the 1000 or so other Rock Band songs currently available.
WHAT YOU WON’T LIKE:
No Custom Bands
What is Rock Band without, you know, your rock band? Even Guitar Hero: Metallica allowed you to play as create-a-rockers, but The Beatles has had all of that customizable goodness completely gouged out. The central mode of the game is meant to chronicle the beginning, middle, and end of The Beatles’ career so it makes sense that you play as them, but what about Quick Play and Versus? Pimping out your favorite custom rockers in period apparel would have been a very nice touch and made the game feel like less of the Activision-esque rip-off that it actually is.
No Rock Band 2 Compatibility
One of the many things that was supposed to set Rock Band apart from Guitar Hero was its intentions of becoming a platform, not just another music rhythm franchise with a hundred sequels and spin-offs. The Beatles: Rock Band is a step in the wrong direction, mimicing the more embarassing Guitar Hero games (Aerosmith, Metallica) by sweeping all the progress they’ve made with inter-game compatilibity and a massive catalogue of DLC under the rug. What’s worse is that the game comes packing half the tracklist of what standard music games launch with these days.
RECOMMENDATION:
A lot of The Beatles’ faults come from the fact that the license was obviously very expensive, but that’s not something the customer should be punished for. As a rental The Beatles: Rock Band is a great weekend getaway, but it’s not nearly as long-lasting as Rock Band 2 continues to become. Next time Harmonix really needs to remember what “Rock Band” is all about, and the promises they made to their loyal fans without whom this game and every other one would not even be possible.
September 30th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
I don’t normally like to criticise, but this might be the dumbest review for The Beatles RockBand I’ve seen.
Your complaints seem to stem from the fact that you can’t put some douchebag stereotype rocker that you’ve created into the shoes of the fab four. Thank Christ you can’t do that, doing so would entirely ruin the feel of the game, this game is about THE BEATLES! it’s a standalone game about THE BEATLES! letting some blue-haired j-pop fairy you’ve doubtlessly created as your favourite custom rocker sing ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’ would cheapen the experience totally.
As for the accusation of a low list of included songs, don’t forget that nearly every single one of the 45 included songs are complete classics, known the globe over. I love Rock Band and Rock Band 2, but I’d be hard pressed to come up with 45 songs between the two that I genuinely enjoy as much as these.
You don’t seem to understand what this game is, it’s a celebration of the greatest band ever, it’s a celebration of their music and the joy they have spread. And it does all these things flawlessly.
But it does need ‘Hey Jude’
September 30th, 2009 at 4:40 pm
RockBand Beatles is mostly fanservice, but as a big Beatles fan, I approve!
I just can’t justify spending $250 on the special edition bundle.. o.O I’d rather get something more useful, like an iPhone.
September 30th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
“The early career of The Beatles is filled with poppy, designed-for-commercials, jingle garbage, but when The Beatles grow up a little and/or start doing heavy drugs, their songs become much more meaningful and rich.”
I could not disagree with that statement more. The earlier Beatles were just as meaningful and influential as the later Beatles.
October 1st, 2009 at 9:20 pm
I actually only like older Beatles stuff.
October 1st, 2009 at 11:02 pm
I wasn’t going to comment, but I really do agree that this was a sort of backward review. You’re criticizing the game for being exactly what it was marketed as.
October 2nd, 2009 at 12:13 am
That’s why I’m allowing you to have red-headed Filipino babies with Jessika, Jill. <3