Beatles Rock Band – Review – Xbox 360

The Egg-man, Sergeant Pepper, and William Campbell? They have a few things in common, the most prominent being the Beatles.

From the creators of the Rock Band series and the first 2 Guitar Hero games, comes a tribute to one of the greatest Rock & Roll Bands of all time. So is Harmonix newest title worthy of being on the same tier of greatness as the Beatles are?

Game play
Like most music/rhythm games, you select an instrument you want to play, then the song, then the difficulty. Colored buttons drop down to the bottom of the screen to a bar. You job is to press the correct button on your instrument-shaped controller. There are 8 venues to choose from, each venue has 4-8 songs to choose from. The places that you may choose from include: The Cavern, Shea Stadium, The Ed Sullivan Show, Abbey Road, and Apple Corps Rooftop. As you unlock songs and finish sets, they unlock pictures that coincide with what you are playing.

Graphics
You play as the Fab Four. Their images look pretty accurate to what they looked like in the 60s. At each venue, they divide their sets between images of the location and possibly a music video. During some of the songs, they will the Beatles dressed up as a Walrus, part of a marching band, or even in a submarine. Harmonix also put a psychedelic spin on things, adding a kaleidoscope effect with groovy colors. Another awe inducing event is fireworks in a song. The “Highway” or the place where the notes stream down, seems to be a little more grainy then previous games, though it just might be my opinion. As you hit each note, they disappear into graphics of little notes.

Sounds
There are a total of 45 songs to date in the set list; this is small compared to any of the other games. Though Harmonix has promised to release full albums in the near future.  The list of songs seems weak compared to what the Beatles have produced. Some of the songs like: I am the Walrus, Happy Birthday, Yellow Submarine, and Come Together play nice and are easily recognized. Others like: Hello Bulldog, Dear Prudence, and I Want You seemed to be fill-ins. They left out Hey Jude, Help! and Strawberry Fields Forever were left out, among other songs, which really disappoint me.

Achievements/Difficulty
There are a total of 50 achievements. Most of them are easy to get. Collecting all Beatles pictures, finishing all of the songs, 5 starring all songs, going through all songs in 24 hours, getting a high note streak on a certain instrument, and getting 1 million cumulative points for each instrument are some of them besides the career story ones.

Overall
This game is somewhat of a disappointment. The amount of cash that you spend here for what you get is pretty off-beat. If you are willing to pay for more songs and love the Beatles enough to play it past the first few play throughs, then I would recommend it.

Score: 8 out of 10

Written by WallLessFury

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