Games for Lunch: The Beatles: Rock Band
In a nutshell: There's something in the way it moves me.
9/8/2009 5:17 PM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 2
Developer: Harmonix Music Systems
Publisher: MTV Games
Release Date: Sept. 9, 2009
Systems: Xbox 360 (reviewed), PS3, Wii
ESRB Rating: T
Official Web site
0:00 I've played this quite a bit already, with a bunch of random strangers at E3. Shockingly, I found that a game that combined two of my favorite things -- Rock Band and the Beatles -- was lots of fun! Will it be as fun to play alone in my living room for an hour? We'll see.
0:01 As I open the disc case, three pieces of paper fall out: an ad for the digitally remastered Beatles catalog on CD; a note about how to connect the Xbox to the Internet (to buy more songs); and a code for a FREE
BEATLES: ROCK BAND AVATAR SHIRT! HELL YES!
0:02 The game disc itself just repeats the cover image of the black-and-white Beatles running away from fans. I'm disappointed at the lack of a
large green apple image.
0:03 This minute spent getting my Rock Band instruments out of storage. I wasn't sent a set of the new, Beatles-inspired instruments that come with the Limited Edition, but in my E3 playing they seemed remarkably similar to the regular
Rock Band 2 instruments, so I don't feel too bad.
0:07 The past four minutes were spent transfixed watching
the excellent animated intro for the game. I've seen it before, but this time it's in wonderfully smooth, big-screen HD rather than jerky, small Internet video on my computer monitor. A much better experience...
0:08 The game "recommends" that I create a song cache, a settings file and save data, in full-screen messages with large letters. Relatively painless...
0:13 OK, I just wasted five minutes trying to get the game to auto-calibrate with my fancy auto-calibrating guitar controller. The audio portion works fine, but the video calibration doesn't seem to want to work. Enough of this ... there are Beatles songs to be played! Story Mode ... Local Play ... I log in a drum set and we're on our way.
0:15 Liverpool, 1963. The lightly animated black-and-white collage scene tilts and whirls to the tune of "I Saw Her Standing There," eventually centering on the Cavern Club, where a brown-suited man waits outside the door. The menu tells me I have 0/4 songs completed and 0/9 photos unlocked.
0:19 Just finished playing "I Saw Her Standing There" on Expert drums. It's remarkably easy ... 95-percent of the song is just repeating the same simple, on-beat pattern of four notes over and over. The hardest part is trying to avoid the hand cramps that come from hitting the yellow drum EVERY SINGLE BEAT. None of this is enough to overcome the sheer awesomeness of the song, or of playing along with it, though. A great introduction to the game. My five-star performance (99-percent of notes hit! 428-note streak!) unlocks two photos of Paul: in the studio and ... combing his hair. Yay?
0:20 Oh, before I move on, I like the way the interface has been tweaked slightly from
Rock Band 2. The colors are brighter and easier to make out. The target area for the notes is slightly larger. The multipliers and score numbers are bigger and easier to read. In general, things feel less cluttered and easier to read at a glance.
