The Beatles: Rock Band, the latest from the rival series to Guitar Hero, couldn’t really be a much bigger game. They’re the biggest band in the world, but not known for their embrace of technology: no songs on iTunes, stereo/mono only mixes for the remastered albums (no 5.1 surround, no Blu-ray). But now they’re the big music game rival to Guitar Hero 5 for Christmas. So can it win out? Read our full The Beatles: Rock Band review to find out.
The Beatles: Rock Band is no more than the sum of its parts. It is an absolutely cracking collection of 45 classic Beatles tunes, with more available to download (including “All You Need Is Love”). It is also a spectacularly polished history of The Beatles – you play from The Cavern Club to the roof of Apple Corp’s headquarters, with tracks culled from the band’s entire career.
Along the way you get beautiful photos of the band, cut-scenes charting their career, psychedelic dreamscapes overlaying the tracks based at Abbey Road studios and, best of all, spliced-in real sections of studio chatter used as start and end-of-song markers. It’s a beautifully polished game, with lots of attention to Beatles detail and approved by the curators of their legacy – with Yoko Ono apparently having personally altered the way John Lennon’s avatar’s eyebrows moved etc.
The Beatles: Rock Band is, as all music games are, far better played in a gang. Up to six players can share three mics for vocal harmonies, plus the usual drums and guitars. And unlike the heavy rock Guitar Hero, or poptastic SingStar, really will work for entire families. Everyone knows The Beatles.
That’s not to say The Beatles: Rock Band is without problems, though. The difficulty, dumbed down for families, still isn’t easy enough (and with too much of a leap from the easiest setting to to the next one up) for absolute beginners to videogames. Do not expect your granny to pull off My Guitar Gently Weeps’ solo – she’s more likely to pull a Pete Townshend with your plastic guitar. On the other hand, the Guitar Hero and Rock Band hardcore are going to trounce most songs first time out even on harder settings.
The Beatles: Rock Band also suffers from being literally no more than Rock Band themed around the fab four. At least the linear slog through single-player isn’t really necessary – all but one song is unlocked from the start for multi-player. But the download section also won’t let you access other Rock Band tracks – only the extra Beatles ones.
As well as having to pony up for downloads, there’s also a lot more hidden costs in The Beatles: Rock Band. You may not have all the instruments you want, and to play the vocal harmonies you’ll need a USB splitter and three microphones. Quibbles and wallet-pinching aside, The Beatles: Rock Band is a must for fans of the band, well worth it for most music game fans (particularly those with families) and gamers in general too.
