Help!

Should you buy The Beatles Rock Band?!?

The game has been out for several weeks now, and I’ve heard everything from “it’s the best Rock Band game ever made," to “it just feels like a song pack packaged for $60 dollars.”  What I haven’t heard is whether or not people should buy it, and if so, how one makes that determination.  Having been fortunate enough to have it gifted to me and thus freed from the guilts and bias of purchasing, and having played it from beginning to end in one sitting, I now feel I can help advise you on whether or not this is game is indeed worthy of a hard day’s night of income.  Besides, this post took me years to write, so will you take a look?

How could I dance with another?  

Since I’ve essentially just billed myself as a perfectly unbiased judge of this product, allow me to come clean with all my own particular baggage.  I, like many, "like" The Beatles, but can never confess to having ever "loved" The Beatles.  I have never actively ignored their music, I’ve just never really purchased any of their music.  Since the advent of downloadable music and its becoming the primary channel of my music buying, the unfortunate and hesitant nature of Beatles label Apple Corps has kept that option off the table (well, off the “legal” table), and thus off of my immediate interest.   That said, every time I’ve ever heard a Beatles song, I usually enjoy it, so I guess I would consider myself an “opportunistic" Beatles fan in that I will listen to it when it's readily available, but no more.  The truth is, all the Beatles knowledge that I possess, and will display during this post, has come almost solely from my experience with this game.

So may I introduce to you…

So what “is” The Beatles Rock Band?  Is it a completely new version of Rock Band?  Is it just a song pack?  Does it do or add anything new? 

The short answer is “Yes” to all the above, the good and the bad.

The Beatles Rock Band is more of a "variation" of the Rock Band franchise than a true sequel, consisting of 45 songs ranging over the entire lifespan of The Beatles roughly ten year tenure as a band, and within that mostly songs that attempt to evenly reflect the groups evolution over that period of time.  The game includes the same 4 player local & LIVE game play options as others in the Rock Band franchise, though obviously without the ability to choose custom avatars, customize look and clothing, band name, instruments, etc. 

The story mode is probably the biggest departure for the series, since the mode no longer consists of choosing cities and venues to play in, but rather living out The Beatles entire career by transitioning between Beatles "eras," starting out in The Cave in London, them progressing to the Ed Sullivan Show and eventually to Abbey Road studios and so forth.  This means that rather than the somewhat “open world” aspect of previous games, you only choose from a selection of songs with the current “era” you are in and progress linearly from era to era by completing all of a current era's songs.  I was able to play the game from start to finish (a first me in a Rock Band game) by just pressing the “A” button, and imagine most people playing the story mode will do the same.  You can, of course simply play any song in the “quickplay” mode at any given time without having to "unlock" the songs.

The game also varies in the presentation of the songs, quite dramatically.  The reason you can’t choose venues to play in is that while songs played in venues like Ed Sullivan Show or Shea Stadium play like most other Rock Band songs, with avatars performing on stage with randomly generated camera cuts, when you move on to the Abbey Road studio, the game features a unique music video for each and every song.  This means songs like "Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band" and "Yellow Submarine" feature exquisite custom animations and cinematics, something we’ve yet to see in a Rock Band game before.  And to quote Ringo himself from the Microsoft E3 press conference, "...the graphics are very good."

Lastly, the biggest, and perhaps saddest, difference is that this game will be the ONLY platform for any Beatles songs in the foreseeable future.  Unlike other Rock Band games and DLC, you will need to have this particular disk in your console in order to play Beatles songs, and you must play it in this game's context.  That said, there are innumerable goodies that accompany the disk, including photos, trivia, and film footage from the Beatles’ history, so there is some consolation.  Also, it is likely a licensing issue that prevents The Beatles from transferring out to the wider world of Rock Band, and perhaps one day down the road this will be different.

So can money buy me love?

The stage is set, but as yet, I have yet to get to the real thesis of this article: should you buy it? 

My answer:  Depends on what kind of Beatles fan you are. 

Beatlesmanicas

If you are one, you should rush out to a store,  if you don’t have one, buy a console of your choice (as of now Xbox 360 or PS3, but soon to be Wii as well), buy the game, and buy the boxed set of peripherals if you don’t own any other plastic band set already.  Like, NOW.  Seriously, stop reading, go get it. 

Alright, I’m being a bit silly, but what better way to experience The Beatles than in this loving tribute to the band?  From the history, to the photos and videos, to the custom animations, to the beautifully remastered stereo tracks, this is a MUST have for existing Beatles fans.  If you’ve never been into the whole “Rock Band” craze and have wondered what all the hub-bub was about, this is the perfect opportunity to get connected with the millions of others who have grasped on to this amazing genre. 

Now it's likely that true fans may be somewhat disappointed with limited selection of songs and a few noticeable omissions like Help, Strawberry Fields Forever, She Loves You, Penny Lane and many others that even I knew about.  Still, you can bet your bollocks to a barn dance that these songs will eventually make it to the game as DLC, just like the entire Abbey Road album will be doing shortly.

And seeing as you already don’t care too -- much for money, it should be easy to pick up this game or put it at the top of your nearest Holiday/Birthday gift list.

Casual fan or “Opportunistic” fan

This is my category, so this will be skewed to my own experience, but I think this will be an accurate take on the "opportunistic" fan. 

Would you believe in love at first sight?  I’m sure it happens all the time, and I think for anyone who geuinely likes Beatles songs, but has just never found the time to get "in" to the Beatles, that this is gift sent from beyond the grave by Lennon and Harrison via Ringo and McCartney to finally serve up their music in way that will make you a Beatles fan for life.

One of the things I’ve always loved about Rock Band is its ability to introduce music in a way that one can “actively” listen to it.  While I will listen to songs on the radio, and occasionally be compelled to pick up a song or an album from iTunes, I find it hard to just “sit and listen to music” without engaging in some other task.  And what that usually means is that I’ll hear a song, but not “learn the lyrics” or really get a chance to say I “know it.”  Rock Band provides the perfect platform, since you don’t have to just “sit” there and listen, but you get to actively participate in the performance of the music.  Combine that “active” listening component to a once casual enjoyment of The Beatles, and you will not only come to the sudden realization of why The Beatles are considered one of the best bands to have ever to existed, but you will now have a repertoire of 45 of their best songs on which to build.

I used to think that I was only a fan of the “early” Beatles, before they went psychedelic or Motown.  But after playing this game, I think for the first time ever, I actually enjoyed songs like "Yellow Submarine" and "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and to my surprise, I can’t get "Get Back" out of my head.  There’s something about the way the game progresses chronologically through The Beatles collection that gives the dramatic shifts in style and tone some context, and makes it far more pleasant to experience.  Also, I think the “active” listening component provides an appreciation that you can’t get from straight up listening.  Without going off on too much of a tangent, I get the same experience from playing Jonathan Coulton songs on my guitar.  When I first heard Coulton, I wasn’t that impressed, but after I learned to play a few songs myself, I suddenly realized these were the best songs written by any living artist, or so I felt.

So in case you’ve missed it, I think if your financial situation is ok, and you’ve ever been a casual fan of the Beatles, or better, ever wanted to become a bigger fan of the Beatles but just couldn’t find the right venue, then this is an easy recommend even with the price tag. 

Not a Beatles fan or not sure

I hate to end on a somewhat darker note, but despite the glowing review and recommendation thus far, I can’t in good conscience recommend this game to someone who either knows they don’t care for the Beatles (even if they like the Rock Band franchise) OR doesn’t "hate" The Beatles, but has never been impressed by their songs or style.

The truth is, this game offers very little in terms of innovation for the Rock Band franchise.  It doesn’t offer any new multiplayer modes, LIVE support, customizability, or anything that would make this game worth buying on its technical merits alone.  This game works ONLY because it is a tribute game, and if you aren't sold on the band which is the object of said tribute, then you might as well ignore this game completely. 

It’s true that this game might be a good “gateway” game for people that have never been into the “hard rock” nature of previous games, and I can see this game being a great addition to parties in which there are large population of females in the audience who might have otherwise been turned off by the somewhat singular nature of previous Rock Band song lists.  However, since you can’t cherry pick songs into your other Rock Band experiences, and since there is no current plans to bring Beatles DLC over to other Rock Band games, I can’t imagine anyone who does not explicitly want an exclusive Beatles experience being happy with their purchase.  This game is not unique enough or "enlightening" enough on its own to change someone’s opinion about The Beatles.

That said, several people who didn’t know anything about The Beatles were over at my place briefly while I was playing, and they commented on how much they liked the music, so it’s always possible that if you are completely clueless about The Beatles, this might be your revelation, as it was for me as a casual fan.  However, I highly recommend you know where you stand with the English mop-tops before dropping $60 on a blind bet.

And in the end the love you take is equal to the love you make

So in the end, I strongly suggest you first take the time to figure out where you are as a Beatles fan:

• For previous fans, casual fans, and aspiring fans, this is a great way for you to experience or dive deeper into a craze that the four lads form Liverpool incited in the world forty years ago. 

• If you just don’t know, then this is probably not a safe purchase on its own merit as an iteration on the Rock Band franchise. 

• If you clearly despise The Beatles, then this game will be about as welcome as a “Yoko Ono Sings Songs from the Public Domain” album. Shudder… 

As for this reviewer, I played The Beatles Rock Band, now I’m a believer…

…wait, wrong band.  But now that I think about it, The Monkees Rock Band...???