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PreviousThe Beatles: Rock Band Review
Xbox 360 PlayStation 3 Review by Johnny Minkley
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"As made famous by." Guitar Hero veterans will remember that phrase all too well as the euphemism employed early in the series to convey the fact that you were playing not the original version, but a cover. "As made famous by Boston"; "As made famous by Queen"; "As made famous by Ozzy Osbourne".
How times have changed. Billions of dollars and tens of millions of game sales later, master recordings are the standard rather than the aspiration, and recording artists increasingly find themselves legitimately labelled "As made famous by Guitar Hero", or "As made famous by Rock Band".
From banging on record label doors, begging and bidding for content on a tight budget, to rockers falling over themselves even in a sober state to bag a place on what have become playlists that can make a band - that's happened in just four years. But as big as Activision and MTV's music giants have become, they're not The Beatles. Nothing and no-one else is.
So the first important point to make about The Beatles: Rock Band is that it's amazing it even exists. It's music's most valuable catalogue, one which has still never been released digitally - yet next Wednesday gamers can download All You Need Is Love from Xbox Live, with full album downloads of Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper already confirmed to follow.
Thomas the Tank Engine is not worthy, Ringo.
Complete the Story mode, and the endlessly rolling non-developer credits reveal a Gordian knot of unfathomable corporate complexity and competing interests. Somehow, Harmonix has not only handled that, but has then gone on to produce a celebration of such incredible care and artistry it sets a new standard by which all band-specific game experiences will be judged in the future.
Viewed purely as a Beatles experience, it has exceeded the expectations of even this obsessive Beatlemaniac. As I noted in my preview, MTV could easily have shoved out a Beatles track pack with great fanfare and, piggy-backing on the release of the remastered catalogue, it would hardly have tanked. But that, aside from anything else, is not how The Beatles work.
The reason I stress this point is because of the complaints levelled at the tracklisting. Why only 45 songs, when Guitar Hero 5 packs 85 and Rock Band 2 (if you include the free downloads) served up over 100? And what's with the song selection? Where's "Help!", "She Loves You", "Hey Jude", "Strawberry Fields"? It's just a massive con to exploit gamers via DLC, right?
Four points. First, 45 Beatles songs stack up pretty well next to the 28 Metallica tracks in the box for their Guitar Hero gig, the rest contributed by "friends"; second, how many artists are there who have 45 songs strong enough to justify a commercial release?; third - boring commercial reality time - these songs must cost a staggering amount to license and MTV does not have an infinite vault of money; and fourth, how many tracks on average do you genuinely love in the average Guitar Hero/Rock Band release? Be honest. I can only speak personally here, but every single track on The Beatles: Rock Band, whether it be a particular drum fill, a swooning bassline, ingenious harmony or classic riff, contains a memorable, enjoyable gaming moment.
Vocal harmonies in action during Day Tripper.
The game is structured to lead the gamer through the high points of The Beatles' remarkable career, with songs specific to each period: from the early days of The Cavern Club, to the US-conquering appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, followed by the hysteria of gigs at Shea Stadium and the Budokan, the retreat into Abbey Road Studio 2, and that final legendary performance atop the roof of Apple's London HQ.
As a snapshot of a career's output, it's clearly not comprehensive and is more akin to listening through the Red and Blue compilation albums. Yet, as an entertainment experience, it's so much more. For a Beatles geek, the archive material is a joy, and testament to the efforts not just of Harmonix, but predominantly Giles Martin, son of Beatles producer Sir George, whose fastidious efforts in picking through the original masters has facilitated the inclusion of rare studio outtakes.
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15 July, 2009 [1]
Release Date Out now!
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daddygerplex
06/09/09 @ 02:22
+3
Managed to get this yesterday.
Completely agree its fantastic. Hope it sells enough to make up the huge licencing costs! |
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Emilia'sHorse
06/09/09 @ 07:17
+1
Very well written review. Your love of the Fab Four is obvious and it rubs off on the reader, to good effect.
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GreatUncleBaal
06/09/09 @ 09:06
+3
Brilliant read, I'm not the biggest fan of guitar games but this looks great - the harmonising stuff sounds like really good fun - except for the people who will have to listen to it in the room :)
Now go and make a Rolling Stones one, I'll buy both.
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 06/09/09 @ 10:15
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Ninja_Tino
06/09/09 @ 09:12
+4
I'll still be playing this when I'm Sixty-Four by the sounds of it. Also, The End is the penultimate track.
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StooMonster
06/09/09 @ 10:08
+1
Even Eleanor Rigby would like to have a go on The Beatles: Rock Band.
Me too, although as the only rhythm / singing game in my household is Lips, it's going to cost a pretty penny. I was also tempted to buy the remastered 13 disc CD collection that is also out on 09/09/09 -- won't buy the rumoured iTunes version as I prefer CD quality to 256-bit AAC -- but fear The Beatles might cost me a several hundred quid in a day. I've seen two of them out in the real-world: Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney. |
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squarejawhero
06/09/09 @ 10:12
+2
If you've got Lips, get the Band In A Box from Smyths toy store for thirty five quid (if there's any stock left) and you've got a guitar, three mics for harmonies and a drum kit. Get a twenty quid xplorer guitar from Amazon and there's your band.
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+7
"Is Ringo the best drummer in the world?"
"He's not even the best drummer in The Beatles." I never realised that was literally true. Ask any competent drummer who the most creative and important player of the last 45 years is and 90% of them will tell you otherwise. In much the same way that Hendrix can't technically hold up against the great rock and prog guitarists yet he basically invented modern rock guitar is regarded as a god amongst guitarists, the same is true of Ringo. His playing doesn't sound like anything now, but listen to all pop drumming pre-Ringo, then listen to She Said She Said or Ticket To Ride to pick two, and you will hear ideas that are now commonplace in pop drumming that just didn't exist before him. It is somewhat tragic that thanks to Lennon's stupid quote all non-drummers now see Ringo as some incompetent fool, when he actually is the best drummer of all time. |
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metalangel
06/09/09 @ 11:51
+3
You don't *have to* love them. My missus hates them, for example, which firstly precludes me from getting this and secondly from having her even try to play it with me. A shame, as this is the first music game which maybe kinda sort perhaps might interest me.
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+3
[quote] Zomoniac said: Ask any competent drummer who the most creative and important player of the last 45 years is and 90% of them will tell you otherwise. In much the same way that Hendrix can't technically hold up against the great rock and prog guitarists yet he basically invented modern rock guitar is regarded as a god amongst guitarists, the same is true of Ringo. His playing doesn't sound like anything now, but listen to all pop drumming pre-Ringo, then listen to She Said She Said or Ticket To Ride to pick two, and you will hear ideas that are now commonplace in pop drumming that just didn't exist before him. It is somewhat tragic that thanks to Lennon's stupid quote all non-drummers now see Ringo as some incompetent fool, when he actually is the best drummer of all time.[/quote]
I take it you've never heard of Buddy Rich, or Gene Krupa, or Keith Moon, or Jon Bonham, or Michael Shrieve or even Phil Collins etc etc etc!!!??? Ringo was and always will be totally average at best, only made famous because he was a Beatle. He's probably a lovely bloke, but not a great drummer and certainly not the best of all time and your comparing him to Hendrix is a joke. |
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Saturn_Ascends
06/09/09 @ 12:49
+1
Great review, really makes me want to give this a shot despite not being a fan.
What excites me the most though, is the fact that they're doing a Pearl Jam: Rock Band project to be released next year. Hopefully they'll put the same care and attention to detail into that game too. |
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FortysixterUK
06/09/09 @ 12:50
+2
This was an excellent review, with your affection for the band AND the game coming through clearly. I've always been a Beatles fan, but finding myself increasingly irritated by the extreme costs of video games these days, I was going to let this Beatles based game passby until I saw it sub £25.00 or so...but maybe I'll make an exception here and put down my WOW axe in favour of a Beatles Axe instead. With the Beatles re-mastered back catalogue about to be released and a game based on their music to bring it all to different generations, it looks like Beatlemania will hit the UK once again before the band pass into history and become even bigger legends.
Good review, very inspring.
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/09/09 @ 13:56
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+7
I take it you've never heard of Buddy Rich, or Gene Krupa, or Keith Moon, or Jon Bonham, or Michael Shrieve or even Phil Collins etc etc etc!!!??? Ringo was and always will be totally average at best, only made famous because he was a Beatle. He's probably a lovely bloke, but not a great drummer and certainly not the best of all time and your comparing him to Hendrix is a joke.
Rich and Krupa were both awesome players, but they were jazz masters and a lot of what made them great is completely inappropriate to pop music. Everyone else you listed came after Ringo, and were no doubt heavily inspired by him. Collins himself actually said "Starr is vastly underrated. The drum fills on the song "A Day in the Life" are very complex things. You could take a great drummer today and say, 'I want it like that.' He wouldn't know what to do." Not being able to play 64ths in 19/4 whilst standing on his head a la Peart, Donati, Portnoy et al doesn't lessen his brilliance as a drummer. He played exactly what the songs needed, in a way that few others could. |
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+2
I'm buying me some love this Wednesday!
PS: One of the best reviews I've read in many recent years. "So the first important point to make about The Beatles: Rock Band is that it's amazing it even exists. It's music's most valuable catalogue, one which has still never been released digitally - yet next Wednesday gamers can download All You Need Is Love from Xbox Live, with full album downloads of Abbey Road and Sgt. Pepper already confirmed to follow. This is really important, in my opinion. It's like we're being witness, and also players, to a moment that will be remembered in time. I used to think that I was dreaming, that this was to big a thing to turn out and be real. The sweetness of it, it's that it is!
Edited 2 times,
most recently on 06/09/09 @ 15:24
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Jonny5Alive7
06/09/09 @ 14:28
+2
On some guitars you get they have a place for the Xbox Live mic to plug into them, does anyone know if these can be used to do the harmonies bit as well as guitar at the same time?
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RobotRocker
06/09/09 @ 15:36
+7
Number eight *BELCH* Number eight *BELCH* Number eight *BELCH* Number eight *BELCH* Number eight *BELCH*
Oh wait.... |
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+3
@ Zomoniac
You know, on reflection I was definitely harsh on Ringo in my first post, he certainly fitted in well with the Beatles sound and to be in the Beatles meant he had massive influence on the world of music as so many people were listening to them at the time, but I feel that he's certainly not what you described as 'the greatest drummer of all time'. Hell, Ringo even said of himself: [quote]"Whenever I hear another drummer I know I'm no good. I'm no good on the technical things [...] I'm your basic offbeat drummer with funny fills. The fills were funny because I'm really left-handed playing a right-handed kit. I can't roll around the drums because of that."[/quote] He's probably being modest, but at least he appreciates that he has deficiencies in his drumming and is therefore not the 'greatest' by any margin. That doesn't stop him being appreciated by other drummers though, you mentioned Mike Portnoy and he credits Ringo as an influence. I would however, take point about a few of things you mentioned: [quote]Zomoniac said: Rich and Krupa were both awesome players, but they were jazz masters and a lot of what made them great is completely inappropriate to pop music.[/quote] I don't know how you think they had no influence on pop music, given that they probably inspired the likes of Ringo et al and their penchant for amazing drum solos was copied by many a rock drummer after them. When specifically on the subject of drumming Krupa, for example, did things that seem laughable NOT to exist in modern drumming: From Wikipedia: His drum method was published in 1938 and immediately became the standard text. He is also credited with inventing the rim shot on the snare drum. At Krupa's urging, Slingerland developed tom-toms with tuneable top and bottom heads, which immediately became important elements of virtually every drummer's set-up. Krupa also developed and popularised many of the cymbal techniques that became standards. His collaboration with Armand Zildjian of the Avedis Zildjian Company developed the hi-hat stand and standardized the names and uses of the ride cymbal, the crash cymbal, the splash cymbal, the pang cymbal and the swish cymbal.[/quote] So it's not as clear cut as it seems to simply dismiss the older guys like Krupa from having influenced the things that became standard in the world of drumming or indeed the development of music whether it be Jazz or Pop, which is why on reflection I appreciated some of the things you said about Ringo ;) Peace and Love man ;)
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/09/09 @ 16:52
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monkeywithnoeyes
06/09/09 @ 15:54
+3
the 3rd excuse for there only being 45songs on disc makes no sense to me. "boring commercial reality time - these songs must cost a staggering amount to license and MTV does not have an infinite vault of money" - they have already paid for the licence to bring us the whole existing back catalog (or atleast the songs on all the albums) which is why we already know they're to be offered as dlc... so how can licencing be an issue for only including 45 songs when they've already paid to licence the confirmed dlc track listing?
Fact is, they ofcourse want to make as much money from this as possible and will of held back several well known songs in order to do so. You'd be foolish to believe that they're not already sitting on most of the dlc, complete with landscapes, simply waiting to release them at a steady stream over the next few months. That dlc is already made and completed..the only reason why theres not more songs on the disc is so they can make more money..its as simple as that, so why pretend different? its not going to make any difference
Edited 1 times,
most recently on 06/09/09 @ 16:55
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