Green Day: Rock Band

By - Richard J.

Green Day has played a large role in the modern punk scene since they went mainstream in 1991. They've had a lot of ups and a lot of downs, but most famously their last "up" which produced to critically acclaimed albums American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. SinceAmerican Idiotwas released, Green Day has come back to the forefront of the music and overall entertainment industry. With Green Day being a modern punk legend, and with their catastrophic success lately, it was a no-brainer for Harmonix to provide the band with their own Rock Band game; The Beatles being the only other band to have this oppourtunity.

While the game is quite enjoyable - especially for Green Day fans - it feels like Harmonix was more interested in shoving this out to fans, opposed to spending time crafting a game that could reach the calibur of The Beatles: Rock Band.

Like every other Rock Band game, Green Day: Rock Band revolves around pushing buttons on plastic instruments as coloured "notes" come down the "note highway". I won't go into detail on how the game is played because between the Guitar Hero and Rock Band games, anyone interested in playing this game based on my review has already played one of these games. The tracks in Green Day: Rock Band are some of the best I've played in any Rock Band game.

One highlight of Green Day: Rock Band's gameplay are the various Green Day songs to play. They have a nice mix of garage-punk power-chord fests, and more atmospheric and complex songs. However, the biggest problems with the song selection is that Green Day is not really a band that can carry an entire game based on their catalog. There are a lot of gems, but you will find yourself getting tired of the songs quite quickly which makes it less appealing to those who plan on playing the game for hours with friends in a drunken haze. On the other hand, will those people even care? Despite the songs not being the best, playing through Brain Stew/Jaded or 21st Century Breakdown among many others can be a huge rush that a lot of other Rock Band songs don't provide.

Green Day: Rock Band features to main modes, quickplay and career. These are where you can play either by yourself or in a band to complete all of the songs in the game. In the career mode, After playing songs, you'll earn "cred" and unlockables. Cred will allow you to unlock special challenges which usually add more songs to play. The other unlockables in the game are photos and videos. The photos are of various performances from the band and photo shoots of the band. They are all quite nice and very high quality. The videos - as you likely guessed - are short videos focused around the band. While these aren't great, they are something extra to look forward to unlocking and do blow a couple of minutes.

Just like every other Rock Band game, Harmonix has made full character models of the three members of Green Day; Billy Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tre Cool. While these character models aren't the best looking out there, they do look pretty damn cool. Especially considering how much they look like their real life counter parts.

Apart from the character models, the game also features the standard crowd from Rock Band 1 and 2, and also some Green Day specific stages. The biggest problem with the stages are that there are only three. As you can tell, Harmonix has borrowed heavily from the previous Rock Bands to create Green Day: Rock Band. Overall, the graphics in Green Day: Rock Band are fairly average. There's nothing that stands out, but they do look pretty nice. However, for a game like Green Day: Rock Band, graphics are not a priority. Thankfully, the graphics here stay true to the Rock Band series.

Where Green Day: Rock Band really stands out is it's audio. Being a music game, this is essential. The audio on every track is outstanding and there are no hiccups or any drop in quality throughout. However - when I was playing on my SDTV - the audio levels from the menus to playing the songs seemed to drop. This would cause me to constantly have to pause a song and adjust my TVs volumes more than I would have liked to. Apart from this small annoyance, I can't ask for anymore from the audio in this game.

There is one glaring aspect in Green Day: Rock Band which upsets me when I play it. This same nuisance was in The Beatles Rock Band, and that is how they choose to package songs that should have been in the game as DLC. Now in Green Day: Rock Band, it is no where near as bad as how The Beatles: Rock Band withheld such classics as Hey Jude in order to sell them as DLC, but it's still frustrating. The single from 21st Century Breakdown; Know your Enemy, is not anywhere to be found in the game. This leads me to believe that it will be sold as DLC within the coming weeks or months. What makes matters worse is that Harmonix included "Song of the Century" in the game and considers it a full song even though it is only 58 seconds of singing, and nothing else.

Unfortunately, that is not the only glaring annoyance in Green Day: Rock Band. For anyone who is a fan of Green Day, you'll know that the band is very opposed to censor ship. The latest move against censor ship was not putting 21st Century Breakdown in Walmart stores because Walmart wanted them to sell censored versions of the album. However, in the game all of the swearing in every song is censored. Now Green Day has agreed to censor their albums in the past, but all songs from 21st Century Breakdown should not be censored. I believe that Harmonix should have kept all of the songs uncensored, even if it caused the game to receive an "M" rating from the ESRB. It also makes me wonder why the members of Green Day would have such a change of heart over a silly video game.

One of the best parts of Green Day: Rock Band - and every Rock Band game for that matter - is of course the replay value. This is a game that you could play for months. With challenge modes, tons of achievements, and online play, this game is great for local or online multiplayer. Green Day: Rock Band can be a definitive party game, as long as all of your party guests are Green Day fans.

All-in-all Green Day: Rock Band is a great game, as long as you are a Green Day fan. With a setlist that is exclusively Green Day, non Green Day fans may want to stay clear. The biggest issue with the game is that Green Day: Rock Band is the least appealing of all Rock Band games. In Rock Band 1, 2 and The Beatles Rock Band, there are songs that appeal to many. In Green Day: Rock Band, the songs are specifically for one crowd of people. Also, the game just feels like Harmonix slacked off a bit. The special movements for the characters are pretty basic, and there are only three stages/arenas to play in. If you are a fan of Green Day, then I highly recommend that you pick this game up. Those who are not fans of the band, at least wait until the price drops before you take the plunge.

PROS

• Great gameplay
• Fun setlist to play
• Good graphics
• Outstanding audio and soundtrack

CONS

• Songs can't carry game on their own
• Not as much appeal as other Rock Band games
• Purposely withholding popular songs for DLC
• Unnecessary censorship

RATING: 7.25/10

A copy of Green Day: Rock Band was provided for review on the Xbox 360 by the games publisher, MTV Games.