 Fantastic, Amazing game - or should I say Fabulous! |
| Review Date: September 10, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Lisa Shea, |
I just finished playing through the entire Beatles: Rock Band game on medium level. I was blown away in so many ways. We have all the various music games, many for several platforms, and this by far is our new favorite.
First, of course, the music. We have always loved the Beatles and playing through this game just reminds us how amazing these guys were as musicians. There's the "outliers" theory that they had amassed 10,000 hours of playing time with their high intensity early years, which speaks to their superb ability to just pick up and run on any stage. Whatever it was, their harmonies are superb, their rhythms are great fun. Bob (my musician boyfriend) commented that playing along with the songs was great. Often we have to force ourselves to play through a song on other games (even songs we like) because the coded buttons just aren't enjoyable, the coders get the rhythm a bit off. Here I was dancing along while I played guitar or sang.
There are 8 chapters / venues, from the Cavern up through the Apple roof-top. There are three Abbey Road studio chapters. You might think that's boring. However, it was *superb*. They might start a song in the studio, but then the visuals go off to a CUSTOM TAILORED TO THAT SONG video! The Yellow Submarine song is underwater. The Sgt Pepper's song is in the gazebo complete with 1800s cut-out people! The flower sequences are amazing. Usually in music games I ignore the backgrounds. Here I would miss notes because I was swept away by the background graphics! Whoever did these art collaborations needs to be given a bottle of Champagne. Maybe two. They were incredibly beautiful and a sheer perfect tie-in with the songs many times. I would gladly watch someone else play so I could watch the visuals.
Yes the "gig" shows you get early are fun - period appropriate screaming fans at Shea Stadium. I have to comment that the audience at the Budokan looked completely caucasian, surely some non-causasians should have been there? Still, a minor complaint.
Gameplay is as mentioned superbly fun, and not just because of the stellar music. You get real harmonies, which is a breakthrough for these main pair of products (GH and RB). Sing along in harmony with a friend, sometimes even three part harmony. If you have a mic stand you can even hook up your mic and play drums while you sing, play guitar while you sing, since there's no "hand clapping" or other stuff you have to do.
There are a few minor complaints. I nailed 100% several times and got nothing at all. No gold stars, no visual indication. Since I like to go through and get 100% on all songs, there's no easy way to see which to replay. The between-gig navigation is a bit rough, you have to literally page through them so you can't just scan the list. Even when you're looking at a given gig you have to go "in" to the gig to see which specific songs to work on. I really like having a scan option so I can look through for what I want to play with.
You earn photos with your stars (i.e. actual photos of the Beatles to look at) but I'd have liked something a little more fun. More instruments? I realize they want their gigs to all be period-specific with the right instruments and clothes but it still would have been cool to give the option.
Also, you are forced down their path in its completeness. You can't get past the Cavern until you play EVERY gig in it. Then you move on to the Ed Sullivan show and so on. In every case you have to play every single song. I'd really like to have the normal "earn X stars and progress" in case there's a song you're really eager to get to.
You do get to download additional songs if you want - so if the killer set list built into this game isn't enough, you can always get more!
I want to comment in general that the equipment you have for playing any of these music games matters a LOT. We have the Ion drum kit and the wireless guitars. I highly, highly recommend getting both of these. Playing any of these music games (and especially the Beatles!) on cheap gear can really frustrate you quickly. Spend the money to get better equipment. You'll find you play the games for months and months because they are so much fun. You'll also find that your real life dexterity and drumming skills will improve *amazingly*.
Finally be sure to sit through the 10 minute long (I'm not kidding) credits. You get to unlock an encore :)
Feel free to contact me with any questions at all! I have the full set list posted on my site.
UPDATE: Several people have emailed me asking if this can be played single player. YES. You play single player through the entire game if you wish. Also, if you're alone in your house, you can still play multi-player with people on Live, so you can have fun four player music by going online and finding other players through the Live network. |
Wonderful game--my throat is sore
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| Review Date: September 9, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Nathan Hale, Way out west |
Amazon delivered on the "pre-order and get it on release day" promise. I received the game 10 AM day of release. Thank you UPS and Amazon!
Fantastic game. Even the transition screens between songs have been lovingly crafted. Every inch of the game is very well thought out.
Make sure to get MULTIPLE MICROPHONES! The singing include three part harmonies that are very fun, we spent the first few hours of the game just singing. If you can still find it, I recommend buying the "Lips two microphone bundle," as it costs the same as the single packaged Xbox 360 wireless mic (and it includes TWO of that same mic--as well as the LIPS karaoke game.)
You know how most music games have three, maybe four songs that you LOVE to play? Well, EVERY song in this game is like that. It's magical. |
Fab! Fab! Fab!
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| Review Date: September 10, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Rick, Houston, TX, USA |
I can't top the previous review but I can say that I agree 100% with the 5 star rating. The music is fantastic and very well adapted to the game format. The graphics and the realistic animations are superb. I grew up in the UK when the Beatles were just getting started and remember "Beatlemania" very clearly. This brought back the old tingles as I played the songs all over again and was swept along in the nostalgia of the lovingly recreated backgrounds.
We played last night as soon as the package arrived and got to the first Abbey Road session - I'm looking forward to the rest of the game and then trying out the vocal harmonies etc.
If you like the Beatles music (who doesn't?) and enjoy the challenge of Rock Band or Guitar Hero I would say go ahead and get this game...you will not be disappointed. Now where's my old copy of Sgt Pepper??! |
A great Beatles experience, AND a great Rock Band experience
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| Review Date: September 10, 2009 |
| Reviewer: C. Wynes, Dyersburg, TN |
I've completed the game and am overall quite pleased with it. I'll take several points about the game in turn...
Song Selection: The song selection included many of my favorite Beatle tunes. I'm sure we could all make our own list of 10-20 songs we wish had been in the game, so I won't bore you with mine, but if you can connect to XBox Live (or PSN for folks with that version) you'll be able to fill in some of the gaps over the next few months. The full Abbey Road and Rubber Soul albums are confirmed to be upcoming as downloadable content, expect them to cost about $15 each.
Music Quality: It's the Beatles! And it sounds terrific. The game uses the new mixes of all the albums which were released today along with the game. The only time I noticed a real distracting difference is that the strings in "Hello Goodbye" seem to be much more prominent, and I personally didn't care for it. But that's a minor gripe.
Game Difficulty: There was alot of discussion that the game would be too easy for veteran music game players. I was actually pleasantly surprised by the interesting charts on guitar and bass. True, there are no real scorchers in here of the likes of "Free Bird" or "Painkiller" from previous Harmonix music games. But there is a pretty good mix of songs across most of the difficulty spectrum, with some potentially challenging riffs and interesting hammer-on parts ("Octopus' Garden" and "Dear Prudence" stand out in that last category.) Also, as most of the songs are 2-3 minutes long, the total possible score is lower than on many modern songs in other games, and therefore the margin of error for getting Gold Stars is much tighter and earning them is more of a challenge.
Presentation: The animated musical sequences at the beginning and end of the game are beautifully crafted. Most of the songs from the Beatles' studio period have fantasy/psychedelic videos playing behind the note chart which look very nice as well, though I'm usually too honed in on the chart to notice them. On the menu navigation side, I liked the improvements in the quickplay menu over that in Rock Band 2. You will now see your personal best score AND how many stars you earned for that score next to the song name, so if you want to go back and gold star everything you can see what you're missing. It also shows you your overall ranking and ranking among your friends for each song when you're highiighting it. I have one other minor gripe with the game, and that is that while they took care not to put the "ding" sound effect for earning a star while playing, and they eliminated the ability to bend notes (you can still do it for star power, here called "beatlemania", but it won't affect the sound of the track), they put in a sound effect for earning and using star power. It's only noticeable in the studio songs, as the live ones instead increase the volume of the screaming fans when you do so. Minor gripe, but I'd wish I could turn it off to get the pure Beatles track without the little "swoosh" sound every so often.
Extras: By playing through the story you unlock Beatles photos, which can be viewed from the main menu and are accompanied by a paragraph of text describing the historial context of the photo. You also unlock "prizes" that can be viewed or listened to, including the Beatles Christmas Album and a clip from the concert at Shea Stadium (named of course for the famous Cuban guerilla leader, Che Stadium... oh wait that was the Rutles). As far as gameplay-related extras are concerned, there are a number of achievements on the XBox version (and I assume trophies on the PS3 version) encouraging you to meet certain goals within certain songs, such as getting a long note streak or hitting all the hammer-ons without strumming any of them. You can also play through challenges to unlock new gamer pics and in-game icons.
Overall I'm quite pleased with this game both as a Beatles fan and as a fan of the Rock Band music games. I certainly hope it does well enough in sales to justify Harmonix adding the rest of the Beatles songlist as downloadable content over the next year. |
Great game for the greatest band ever!
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| Review Date: September 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Yovan Basurto, LA, USA |
This review is mostly to counter the retarded moron who gave this game 1 star for no reason other than to defend his crappy taste in music.
This game is amazing and was made with care by Beatle fans. Is pretty easy but the real fun is in the vocals and the beat to these great songs are so good that you forget about the easy nature of the game. Another thing that I can't fault the game for is the amazing backgrounds! They distract me while playing causing me to miss notes because they are so eye catching and amazing.
Enjoy fellow Beatle fans! |
A "Revolution"ary Game!
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| Review Date: September 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Carita, Ontario, Canada |
This game hits all the right notes in my opinion. The art style is beautiful, the song selection is rich and inspired, the storymode was interesting, and the photos and trivia info to be collected make replaying each song to go after those 5 star ratings a worthy effort indeed.
I have noticed that a few people are upset that there are only 45 songs, as opposed to the 85 or so that generally come on a RB game disc. This is understandable, I suppose, but it did not upset me personally and I will explain why. When I buy a normal RB game I usually don't *know* 45 on the songs on the disc anyway. So getting 45 songs that I both know and care about seems like a far better alternative to me. It is really a quality vs quantity thing to me. Besides that, I doubt that liscencing Beatles music comes cheap.
If your goal is to plan different songs for hours and hours this is likely not the game for you. But if you genuinely love The Beatles mssic and you want to experience something truly special and unique within the rhythm games genre then this is a title that cannot be ignored. It is very obvious that a lot of dedication, hard work, love and care went into the development for this product.
As stated in my title: a "revolution"ary game; the people at harmonics do not need to quit their jobs to become "paperback writer"s and this "bird can [definately] sing".
So the verdict on Beatles Rockband can be summed up rather easily: "Got to get you into my life" (which they need to release as DLC at some point, but I'm sure it will be eventually.) Either way, I am very satisfied with my purchase and this will be the first game of the genre where I actually *will* buy more music for it. Highly recommended! |
Worth the wait
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| Review Date: September 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: jalcruces, Las Cruces, NM |
I've only read a couple of the reviews. One says the game is too quick. What? Ok, well, first, the graphics are really cool. In fact the only complaint I have is that the early Beatles' hair is too short. It's like, "Hello!" they were known for their long hair back when they first started. You could not see the tops of their ears. And somtimes the members look very much like the real band... and sometimes (different artists working on the project?) Paul, for instance, on "The End" looks like a little piggie, ugh.
The game itself takes you on a history of the Bealtes chronologically. This is really a cool way to do this for all the newbies and younger gamers who may not really don't know who the Beatles are.
The differences between this game and the original Rock Band and Rock Band 2 that make this soooo much better and pleasant, are 1) you don't have those horrible clunky sounds whenever you navigate. 2)In practice mode, the songs are slowed down without altering the pitch. So you can actually hear the song as you're practicing it. 3) On the Quikplay menu it not only shows you your score for each song, but the level at which you completed this score, and when you highlight the song, it shows your "live" ranking. 4)On the Achievements menu it shows you your progress on the single achievements.
The background noises and chatter during taping are all stashed in there and really add a great feel to the game. One thing I really wish they hadn't have done was chop off most of the songs rather than have the origianl recording endings. The Beatles had alot of great song starts and alot of great song endings... and it's sort of ... well... just not right to cut those off.
Also of note is that the version of "Within You, Without You", is the "Love" version with the beginning and rock beat of "Tomorrow Never Knows" (which I kinda like, actually,... though it was kindof confusing at first cus John started off singing the song and I was like, "what?"). Just so you know.
Overall, besides that it's just great to have these great songs to play and listen to, this is a really really cool game!!
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Taking a trip through time and music
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| Review Date: September 11, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Cloud, Canada |
This is going to be a slightly strange review since the obvious idea with this game is to either introduce you to the Beatles or it's a full-blown tribute to what you can't argue is one of the most influential bands ever. And yet, I'm only a small fan, not this massive worshipper that can sing all their songs and there's some songs that to be honest, I don't care for. But while there's still a couple of those, I find the more I was playing through the story, the more a lot of the music opened up but for those of you wondering, this is strictly a Beatles release, unlike the band-centered Guitar Hero games, Beatle and only Beatle music are on this so nothing as far as solo careers and the like (too bad, no "Imagine" or anything from Wings) with further album DLC's on the way but if you are a massive Beatle fan, this will instantly attract you to it.
Story: Well there is a "story mode" but essentially it starts with the band playing at the Cavern Club and from there they move onto the Ed Sullivan Show, Shea Stadium and finally end at their rooftop appearance on the Apple Corp. building. In the middle of these is their psychedelic period where they were messing around in studio, only the song has been given the visual treat of a "Dreamscape" which is unique to each song, some are pure 60's LSD kaleidoscope-influenced whereas others you get some very simple-yet-beautiful hilltops and flower gardens.
Graphics: What makes Beatles Rock Band work is its extraordinary attention to detail and I'm not just talking about band members looking like their real-life counterparts but also their specific appearances at certain times such as Paul's beard and John's hair on the Apple Corp building (though the beard looks odd and John's hair looks more like dreadlocks than long hair). The dreamscapes in all their variety look stunning and there can be some really trippy stuff but also there's some fashion on the crowds and fans that match up and the intro to the Ed Sullivan show appearances have passerbys watching the show on store window televisions. It's certainly better than the realistic meeting the cartoonish avatars in Guitar Hero 5 anyway.
Sound/Music: Now obviously this is going to be the biggest portion of the game and to real let the sound spectrum go nuts, listen to the psychedelic stuff since some of that stuff can get...bizarre. But the music is the star here and everything from the straightforward "Ticket to Ride" (my favorite) to the indescribable "I Am the Walrus", a lot has been included here. Also added are some audio clips of the band either in the studio or just clips of them in concert (even the closing credits of the story is one long take of the band chatting in studio). What made disappoint and it certainly does for me is not what was in but rather what's not in as far as song choices. I love "We Can Work it Out", it's not here. "Across the Universe", "Blackbird", "Penny Lane", "Strawberry Fields Forever", "I've Just Seen a Face", "Hey Jude", "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and I'm sure several others are missing in action and while I hope they're DLC eventually, with the announced album DLC's of Sgt Peppers, Rubber Soul and Abbey Road, those songs might still be a long way off.
Gameplay: Pretty much the same as any Rock Band or Guitar Hero release. Notes will appear on a highway and you're to strum and hold the correct colored fret to advance, and if your a drummer, this includes using the foot pedal and the 4-pad drum kit. Songs range in difficulty from easy to expert and I'll admit, some songs on expert can be kind of surprising. Riff's perfectly fine, easy enough to handle than it's like whoosh! big solo with tons of hammer-on's. It's not like playing say Metallica songs where you know your fingers are going to get a workout soon, there's songs here that I didn't even know were to go crazy. Also, some songs barely feature the guitar so you might even find yourself strumming the parts from a Rhodes piano or the string section. People might lament the fact that barring a few tricky sections, the game is relatively easy, especially if you're a Guitar Hero nut (or even a Dragonforce fan...for some reason) but that also makes the game really easy to get into. And with the no-fail option from Rock Band 2 available, it's very easy to get a party going and not berating your aunt cause she can't get the riff to "Day Tripper" on easy right.
For the collector in you, we have photos of the band that are unlocked when you meet certain requirements (those being 3-star a song, 5-star a song, complete a venue in story mode or collect a certain amount of photos which nets you a cool little prize). What's nice about these is that they're not tied to a specific instrument or difficulty so you might go through the story mode changing from guitar to bass like I did but you'll still get your photos rather than "sorry, you started as guitar, you finish guitar if you want these photos"). A benefit to these for Beatle fans is that checking them out gets you some info about the photo with factchecker Paul McCartney himself verifying it. And like I said, there's some studio chatter and live recordings of the band during the song loading and when the song's finished so you're practically surrounded by all sides of Beatle stuff.
One thing I have to mention though: this game's tracks can NOT be transferred to Rock Band 1 or 2 thanks to the dreamscapes of the songs but also the new 3-part harmony tracks for the vocals so they're pulling an Activision here and not allowing cross-combatibility but whereas Activision just did it for the cash (I'm sure GH Metallica and Aerosmith and even Smash Hits could be DLC), it makes sense for the Beatles Rock Band game but be warned that for those you want a massive setlist on one game that combines all DLC from RB1/2 and this are out of luck. Obviously the benefit is that the instruments from the games will work on this so whereas you can't take new DLC track "All You Need is Love" into Rock Band 2, at least the instruments for it will work.
Like I said, I'm not this massive fan of the band but there's a lot of songs that I do like so I don't know how this game will work on new people (if there is any left anyway) but for Beatle fans, this is obviously a purchase and you've probably already bought it already along with the remastered CD's (available in both remastered and original box sets too) and while the story mode is short with the achievement for beating the story mode in 24 hours is a joke....4 hours maybe, if that and there's only 45 songs with of course the omissions I mentioned but at least the music that is here is timeless. |
Very Authentic and Rockband did it right.
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| Review Date: September 13, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Parrish C. Moore, Germany |
I love music games just as much as any other gamer, but after a couple of the Guitar Hero's and Rockbands. I found myself bored with it. I traded in the Guitar Hero's because I felt that Rockband was getting the gameplay right and in my opinion the songs were much more catchy. That may be because I listen to more hip-hop than anything and when i do hear rock music it's usually on MTV. So of course they have alot of that music in there games. BUT ON WITH THE BEATLES ROCKBAND!
This game is very authentic for the band. I only know because one of my best friends loves the Beatles and I have learned some things about them since then. I like the fact that the game tweaked alot of different things on the visual side to make this game look kind of like the 70's era. Examples- when you hit a note small stars spark up from the track, The notes at the bottom have a more squared vintage look, and the characters and atmosphere are very authentic to what you could see at a Beatles show. The game really has the 70's trippy look, lol. If you know what I mean. Especially when you get into some of their songs where they depict what the song is about in the background. Such as being under water for Yellow Submarine. It's a very cool feature that made this game very different.
As far as features go, everything as the other Rockband's are the same. There is a new feature where you and 3 friends can use the mic and instruments also. That is very cool feature but it's one of the only ones that I have noticed.
The Story mode takes you through the biggest performances of The Beatles. With each venue there are screaming fans and huge crowds to set the mood. the more you collect 5 stars you recieve photo's of the band and everytime you finish the 4-5 song set you recieve a challenge. Which is pretty much a high score challenge to do each song in a row.
That's pretty much it for the review. I feel that Harmonix really captured the band in a great way compared to the 2 prior Guitar Hero titles Aerosmith and Metallica. The game is worth a rent for everyone but a must buy for Beatles fans. |
Loved it!
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| Review Date: September 14, 2009 |
| Reviewer: W. Ramirez, |
| While I admit it is quite short, My family loved it. We really enjoyed the story mode and look foward to downloading more songs to play. This game is for a true Beatles fan, someone who can listen to their songs over and over again. Enjoy! |
A total blast for those who appreaciate a consistant musical experience!
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| Review Date: October 2, 2009 |
| Reviewer: K. Phillips, Washington, DC |
I'll get strait to the point...
The Beatles: Rockband is an awesome way to experience the music of the Beatles for the first time or the ten-thousandth time. The game takes you and your friends (up to 6 can play) on a smooth cruise through the Beatles career as you visit episodes of their career spanning from Liverpool club basements in 1963 to the Apple Record's rooftop! Great FUN, great Music! This edition of Rockband soars where others have consistently faltered, the mucial experience is 100% quality all the way through. You just should not quibble over the fact that once in a while you are strumming a guitar controller yet the game is actually playing a Cello or other instrument. Your playing a playstic quitar for petesake!! The music is good, you many of the songs even if you are only 13, and overall it just flows well.
(the following 4 paragraphs are meant to be read aloud, while leave you breathless in a vain attempt to keep up with the lack of breaks in the paragraph structures...the lack of punctuation it is intentional, and quite fun!)
One of the strong points of this game is that it is the first Rockband title that is nearly as enjoyable to play as it is to just watch. Instead of being bored to tears while others play (because either A)it is not your turn to play, or B) you lack the intestinal fortitude to have fun in the face of acute personal embarrassment), you will still have a great time with this title because, lets face it...the Beatles rock! Additionally, as you watch others having fun without you (as it is most likely the case that your friends are not acknowledging your presence or even your existence while you stand on the sidelines and they rock out), you will have the distinct pleasure of watching some great Beatles inspired visuals and previously unseen historical elements put together by the designers at Harmonix and George Harrison's son that the players cannot see; so you get to have a great bit of personal satisfaction as you tell those greedy plastic guitar bogartin' players about the things they didn't get to see while the hogged all the controllers!
This point gives me pause...but only for a moment. I think that someone out here needs to point out the one of the tragedies of this entire genre of games, you really can't watch the fantastic scenes while your are playing! You the player have no clue what is going on as you mind-numbingly strum the plastic flippers of your favorite 'guitar'. You'll only occasionally acknowledge the overly brightly colored splashes of garbage that could have been drawn by a five year-old child armed with an arsenal of half-melted crayons for all you care! Yes, those great images are there, but you cant see them as they'll lay in the periphery of your vision because you dare not avert your narrowly focused eyesight away from the colored thingys flying towards you at a frenzied rate on something that resembles never ending one-lane road of color impregnated finger-twisting hell, but is actually called a 'fretboard'! But I digress, because I am not here to slam the games that take our everyday non-guitar-playing mortal existence of mediocrity into the stratospherically overblown heights of becoming a non-guitar-playing, colored-button-mashing, GOD of mediocrity for the entire time that we chose to escape our contented mediocre non-guitar-playing lives! ;-)
This brings me to the best part of the game! While playing this game, we get nothing but pure unadulterated Beatles!!! We are missing a 'few' and by that I really mean A LOT of the key Beatles songs like Hey Jude, Elenore Rigby, or We Can Work It Out or any of the other great Beatles songs released to the public, but lets face it, these games are marketed to drive not only the purchase of the game, but the DLC (down-loadable content) as well, and if Harmonix has a plan it certainly includes the release of these fine songs for a healthy price...CHA-CHING. Thankfully the Beatles library of songs is so darned good that we do not have to endure the typical marketing established by all the previous plastic guitar game creators since it is not possible for the devs to slip obscure crap-songs into this game. It is a well known fact that deep-down in our hearts we all loathe the previous Guitar "X" and Rockband iterations, and yet we still go wallowing back to our favorite 'instrument' (using that term VERY liberally), for more abuse that is certain to generate early-onset arthritis in half the game playing population aged 10 to 35. It is a known point that very time we let one of these games into our library, the developers entice us a string of hit songs in the beginning of the game, then place our befuddle brains and fingers on a slipper-slope of less than stellar to over-played mediocre songs through the remainder of the first half of the game, at which point our dulled senses willingly allow the developers to force a bowel movement of obscure content upon us for next 45% of the game, only to give us great hits during the last %5 which make us feel as though our bodies have been magically cleansed, enabling us to forget that we really only like the game 25-35% of the time we are playing it.
Truly the only REAL downside to this game and it's content is that The Beatles: Rockband is a standalone product, and Beatles songs are NOT PLAYABLE on other versions of Rockband. You won't be able to used your saved bands, from RB/RB2, nor will you be able to play any content from those titles while your Beatles: RB disc resides in your X-Box 360...and the pain goes BOTH WAYS! So, if you had hopes of buying some great Beatles DLC while you remain tight-fisted with your hard earned money and avoid buying the whole game, you can forget it; because game merchandising doesn't work that way, and the world isn't one giant Burger King allowing you to have it your wayyyyyyyyyy. If you like that kinda thing it looks like you'll need to go get a hamburger instead of playing The Beatles: Rockband.
BTW- my review is inspired by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw, a fine reviewer of video games notorious for his penchant of using adult language and as little punctuational as possible in his animated video driven column aptly titled, "Zero Punctuation". Check out Yhatzee's work for the real-mccoy at the escapistmagazine website...And, should you fail to laugh out load or spew your drink at the monitor or simultaneously do both in the very shocking brutally stated truth of his sentiments, then quite a few high-minded filthy-mouthed people would likely say you have no real sense of humor at all...and you should probably crawl back under your rock, and ignore him and those other people altogether. I think he is funny as hell! ;-) |
awesome
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| Review Date: October 4, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Linda Brisley, newington, ct |
| Cool graphics. Very neat features in comparison to other rockband and guitar hero games. Good times. |
Beatles Mania
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| Review Date: October 7, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Melissa M. Brothers, Washington, IN USA |
| This is awesome! It has gotten the whole family involved. My husband didn't have any use for the xbox until this game came out! He loves playing with my 3 sons! |
This game is fab
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| Review Date: October 8, 2009 |
| Reviewer: B. McGraw, Boston |
I love music and I love videogames. This is possibly the most amazing union of the two. Yes there aren't enough songs, but each song is presented in such a gorgeous manner that it is obvious this game was a labour of love. The visuals are gorgeous, the song selection is strong (with more songs to be released later) and it just feels so positive and good and ejoyable.
To be fair, it feels easier than other Rockband/ Guitar Hero games, but it is forgivable since the story mode takes you through the Beatles catalog in chronological order as opposed to through ascending levels of difficulty so it is possible that some tweaking was done so as not to make the players heads spin too much. That's my only "complaint" regarding this game. Otherwise, it's gorgeous.
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The best band-specific rhythm game available
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| Review Date: October 20, 2009 |
| Reviewer: Adam Robinson, Charleston, WV USA |
Forget about other band-specific music games, folks--this is the only one that matters. Throw your Aerosmith and Metallica games out the window, and don't bother with Van Halen. None of them can touch the golden excellence achieved by Harmonix's loving tribute to one of--if not *the*--greatest pop-rock groups of all time: The Beatles. Yes folks, The Beatles: Rock Band is really that good.
Harmonix really outdid themselves with this one. Sure, the core game is essentially the same as Rock Band 2. Players pick up plastic guitars, bang on fake drums, or sing their lungs out on a mic (which is, for all intents and purposes, quite real), following lyrics and note charts for big points. Harmonix didn't exactly change anything or shake things up, and that's probably for the best. After all, Rock Band and its sequel are very simple to pick and up play, and a game bearing the name and likenesses of The Beatles deserves to be enjoyed by anyone and everyone. Complicated technology would get in the way of that enjoyment, so thank goodness Harmonix stuck to the basics.
So the tech is easy to use; what about the music? That is the point of playing a game like this, so it's a good thing the music is some of the best ever written. But it's also the game's only serious flaw: if you don't like The Beatles, this game probably won't change your mind. There aren't any tracks from other artists like in the aforementioned Guitar Hero band-specific games, so you'll get naught but Beatles here. But what a great collection of Beatles tracks it is, ranging from early hits like "Twist and Shout" to the aptly titled "The End." These songs are much easier than your typical Rock Band tracks, which goes a long way to opening the game up to casual players, and of course they're a great deal of fun to play.
I think that's the primary element that separates The Beatles: Rock Band from similar music game experiences: fun. There's an air of excitement from the moment the game's intro movie begins, carrying through each tune, every unlocked extra (lots of photos and movies to be earned), to each era of The Beatles' career. Sure, the game completely ignores the rough patches (no Yoko Ono mucking up the works in this game), but perhaps that is for the best. A scene with Paul and John arguing might hurt an otherwise positive experience for most players.
The complete track list is shorter than the usual music game--just 45 on the disc, with one DLC song available at the time of this writing ("All You Need Is Love")--but they're all great choices. Still, there are a few glaring omissions, such as (my personal favorite) "Hey Jude." What is available is presented through the venues in which The Beatles originally (and famously) performed, such as the Ed Sullivan Show and Shea Stadium. After their final stage show, songs begin in a studio, progressing into "Dreamscapes" that are trippy, beautiful, and wonderful to behold. Also, you can't import these tracks into other Rock Band releases, but that would probably ruin the experience anyway. The Beatles: Rock Band is about experiencing The Beatles' music as authentically and fun as possible; and in that regard, this game excels brilliantly.
So is The Beatles: Rock Band right for you? If you're a Beatles fan, the answer is an enthusiastic "yes," but you probably bought the game on Day One. Casual fans and curious parties should still pick this one up--you won't be disappointed. But as I said before, this game likely won't change your mind if you can't stand the band's music. This is all-Beatles, all the time, so steer clear if that's not your thing. For everyone else, have fun--preferably with a little help from your friends. |
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