The Beatles: Rock Band

The fab four have done the insane and are releasing their music in a game before the expected outlets such as iTunes. Has Apple Corp’s gamble on the creators of the Rock Band/ Guitar Hero franchises, Harmonix, paid off, or has it left our plastic guitars weeping?

The Beatles: Rock Band is a title which knows its audience. From the outset it pulls out all of the stops to ensure that Beatle fanatics are pleased and treats the band with respect, all while somehow creating a game that is a fantastically fun party hit. Even from the introductory cartoon you can tell that the game just oozes character and attention to detail- the short animation is created by the same people as the Gorillaz music videos and their fantastic art style combined with the Beatle nods will make fans squeal with glee. The same can be said about the ending movie too, but it has a slightly lower visual impact.

After the game finishes booting you are presented with the title’s front end, an area which I found slightly disappointing. While there are certainly nice touches (scrolling around the menus with the different instruments gives different noises now, for example) it doesn’t blend visually with the rest of the game. It just doesn’t feel very Beatles-like – take out the silhouettes of the band and you’re left with something that looks like something from the iPod game Phase (which was also made by Harmonix). With so much material to work with, you’d think that the developer could have put Blue Meanies scurrying around in the background or something.
On a lesser note (but still slightly perplexing) it was odd to note that quickplay came before the game’s main story mode on the main menu. I understand that it’s a party game, but the whole point of the title is to follow the band’s progression through history, something the story mode excels at.

The story mode is the game’s focus- players follow the Beatles as they travel from venue to venue, playing in stadiums ever increasing in size until the band decide they’ve had enough of screaming girls and being bombarded with jelly babies and retreat to Abbey Road’s studio. Between each venue players are shown nicely presented mash ups of archive photographs, arranged alongside appropriate Beatles tunes. While short and easily forgotten, they serve nicely to introduce each era that the band went through and amply illustrate each set list’s tone- whether it’s the drug laced Sgt Pepper’s or the gig on the Apple Corp roof.
Each venue is nicely represented- you can tell that Harmonix made use of old reference photographs and film to reproduce each stage (from the formation of John, Paul and George on the Ed Sullivan show to the placement of recording equipment on the rooftop gig, everything is perfect). Some things seem slightly strange, such as the American audience in Japan, but generally the developer did a fantastic job.
Obviously the latter half of the band’s discography would be extremely dull if they just sat in the Abbey Road studio for each song, so Harmonix made the wise decision to create a unique ‘dreamscape’ for each track. These sequences basically turn the latter half of the tracklist into a series of generally amazing music videos, each having a different twist according the the song being played. For Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, for example, the band play the first half of the song in a gazebo before a small audience whilst wearing their hilariously camp costumes. The second half of the track sees the gazebo magically transform into a hot air balloon, with the song’s lyrics appearing in the surrounding sky as Ringo sings.The game even manages to look good on the Wii version. Fab stuff. Evidently music games still haven't yet managed to aquire the ability to give characters guitar straps though.

While the revisions to the gameplay won’t be getting any awards for innovation compared the series’ history, the game does feature one notable addition- multiple vocalists. For the first time the game actually encourages players to sing and play guitar/bass/drums at the same time as up to three singers are allowed at once. If your band mates aren’t up to snuff, you could always give the extra microphones to onlookers, theoretically allowing for up to 6 people to be playing at once. Huzzah!
In-fitting with the game’s party aesthetic, revisions have been made to the game’s difficulty. Playing Easy puts “no fail” mode on by default and it can be triggered for the other difficulties from the main difficulty screen. Hard seems slightly easier than normal, but expert still gives enough of a challenge to make even veterans fail out on a couple of songs.

So while the game’s overall presentation and gameplay are top-notch, a few moans could legitimately be made against the set list. To put it blunt, it’s short and has some glaring omissions. Where’s Hey Jude? Strawberry Fields? Harmonix has promised full albums to be available as DLC (and given their track record, you can take their word for it) but it’s still pretty short- we completed the game’s full 45 song story mode in one 4 hour sitting. When people are paying roughly £175 for the full band kit, we wouldn’t be surprised if they felt slightly hard done by. 
In Harmonix’s defence they have made a Beatles game with Beatles songs. When you look at the rival title Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, that game only has 41 songs in. Even worse, only about 20 of those are actually by Aerosmith. Kudos to Harmonix for sticking to their guns and not diluting the game with unrelated, unwanted filler.
The developer goes further yet to try to add value to the title- each good performance in story mode unlocks goodies (for example getting 3 stars in a song will get you an annotated archive photograph and getting 5 stars will bag you 2 of them), the best of which include the rare Christmas record (more or less a Beatles Christmas podcast) and behind the stage footage and interviews with the band. You are constantly unlocking stuff as you go through the game, giving a constant feeling of progression even after the story has technically finished.
For the more hardcore gamer there are some seriously challenging trophies/achievements to earn, complete with Beatles jokes for names (“I’ve got blisters on my fingers!”). If you want all of them you’re going to have to have serious skills and a lot of patience.

The Beatles: Rock Band is a fantastic title that does exactly what you’d hope. It’s a well presented game which does everything possible to please the fans, while also manages to be immediately accessible and yet still challenging for those who need it to be. It’s crafted with care, attention and, most importantly, respect- something another series has seemed to lack recently. Hopefully Harmonix will put as much love into Rock Band 3 next year. If they do, we’re in for a corker.

Want to hear more about The Beatles: Rock Band? We discuss it in our podcast here.