The Beatles Rock Band

The Beatles Rock Band (Harmonix)

Only 5 more days until Dead Rising 2 is in my posession! Until then I've been playing some games I've already purchased and some Downloadable Content for Mafia 2 and Call of Duty: World at War. The Beatles Rock Band is just one of those games I can keep going back to if I'm bored or I just simply wanna pretend I'm Paul McCartney strumming to A Hard Days Night. But that's not the only reason why I love it.

Story
With Music and Rhythm games there's never really a story. This is because there's not really any need for one. With The Beatles Rock Band a small bit of story has been incorporated into the gameplay in the way that you play through The Beatles career from The Cavern Club in 1962 all the way to the Rooftop Concert in 1969. After each chapter a short video is played to introduce the next using photos (Some unseen) and some recorded words from the boys.

The Ed Sulliven Show 1964

Design
The Beatles Rock Band contains many of the same game modes as other games of the same franchise except Career Mode is Story Mode and is more of a documentary rather than an actual story. Others including Quickplay, Tug of War and Score Dual, can be played locally or online with friends. From the beginning of the game you already have the 45 songs available to play. If you're a big Beatles fan you'll be happy with the songs included but dismayed at the many others missing such as Help!, Hey Jude or She Love You. Harmonix met the fans half way by releasing 3 downloadable albums which are Rubber Soul, Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road. As well as the single "All You Need Is Love". Since it's release on September 9th 2009 there have only been those mentioned available for download (Unfortunately). There is also a vocal harmonies training mode. Playing through Story Mode unlocks some great treats for Beatles fans in the form of photos and footage of the fab four.

One of my favourite features is during certain songs in the Abbey Road studio you get a psychedelic dreamscape.

Gameplay
Like other Music and Rhythm games, The Beatles Rock Band's gameplay consists of hitting the appropriate coloured button to the right coloured note scrolling down the screen. When hitting white notes without missing any you build up a bar that when flashes allows you activate Beatlemania. This increases your score and doubles your point multiplier. The points you get contribute to making stars (out of 5) appear in your final score. By playing a song on Expert and hitting every note you get Expert Gold stars. Playing a song on professional has its challenges but as they say "practice makes perfect" and although The Beatles music is more melodic than finger twisting guitaring, there is a Training Mode available. In this mode you can select certain bits of the song and even slow it down to work on the parts that your fingers and eyes just can't keep up with. Great for learning guitar solos. The Beatles Rock Band adds 3 part vocal harmonies which is something new from previous Rock Band games. This can be achieved through one microphone enabling up to 6 players all together including a Bass player, Drummer and Guitarist. The 3 part harmonies I feel is crucial to the feel of the Beatles because some of their most powerful moments in their songs come from the harmonies.

   

Presentation
The Beatles Rock Band I feel could not have in any other way been presented so perfectly. It really pulls you into the world of those four boys from Liverpool. The use of colour is one of the key things I found in this game. I was not around in the 60's (sadly) but from what I've heard about it being a colourful decade this game is the closest you'd get to it. Although it's difficult to take in the visuals whilst you are concentrating on the coloured notes, part of playing any Rock Band game is waiting for your turn whether it be a gap in the playing or you're playing with friends and you're the one sitting out. So you will see just how spectacular the surroundings are. The intro itself is something I really enjoy everytime I see it. Taking you from the mop tops to the psychedelic and artistic nature of Paul, John, George and Ringo.  Something that a simple screenshot could not show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSLLxRmR3nY&feature=related

If you already have a Rock Band game then presumably you have a guitar and possibly drums if you bought the original Rock Band bundle. However The Beatles Rock Band gives you a special treat and is the only game of this franchise to have instruments specially designed for! When you buy the bundle you get a Hofner Bass Guitar as used by Sir Paul McCartney and with the drums you get a Ludwig bass drum skin with the Beatles logo on it. You also get a mic and for those who want a challenge a mic stand to hold the mic in place whilst you play an instrument. This I felt was a great way to add realism of being a Beatle.

But it doesn't end there. The Beatles Rock Band is potentially a 6 player game. This means 1 drummer, 1 bassist, 1 guitarist and 3 part hermonies. So Harmonix released 2 other guitars. These are the Rickenbacker 325 as played by John Lennon and the Gretsch Duo Jet as played by George Harrison.

Unless you are a hardcore Beatles fan I don't see why you'd need to own the entire collection because you can only have one guitar on screen and that's lead guitar. Rhythm guitar has only recently been added on Guitar Hero 5. Other microphones can be added too instead of channeling 3 voices through one making it sound awful and difficult for it to register who's singing in which pitch.

The Beatles Rock Band is one of my favourite games I've ever played. I've never bought a Music and Rhythm game but when Paul and Ringo helped unveil the debut trailer for this back in 2009's E3, I knew I HAD to get it. It was released on 09.09.09 along with all The Beatles albums remastered. Needless to say September 2009 was a very expensive month for me. My only disappointment used to be just a dismay of some of the songs not featured in the catalogue (although I was relieved that Hard Days Night was included). The trouble with making a Music and Rhythm game based on such an iconic band is you can't fully please everyone. I myself would love every song from all their albums featured in this game. The point where my dismay turns into disappointment is since the beginning of this year we've still only had 3 downloadable albums. I would love the entire Hard Days Night album or the entire Revolver album or the White Album or Let it Be or Help! or... you get the idea.

I give this game an easy 10/10. Long live The Beatles!!