Though Rock Band 2 has been going strong for nearly a year now with its constant stream of downloadable content, it was only a matter of time before Harmonix would bring out a sequel.  That will happen on September 9th of 2009 (09/09/09 Clever, eh?) with the release of The Beatles: Rock Band.  If any band deserves to have an entire game dedicated to them, it would be the Beatles, a band who throughout their career touched the hearts and minds of generations of people.

To do this band justice, Harmonix couldn’t just take Rock Band 2 and re-skin it with Beatles paraphernalia.  Instead they built the game from the ground up around the band.  This also means that some changed had to be made to the game play.  The most notable of which is the addition of three part harmonies.  Some Beatles songs did go beyond that, so for those songs they picked the three best harmony parts and charted those.  This translates to a possibility of six players playing the game at once, which lends itself well to being played at parties.

Another key point to this game is accessibility.  Harmonix want for this game to be played and enjoyed by people of all ages and skill levels.  No Fail mode is easily accessible, and if someone picks the Easy difficulty in your band they will not be able to fail out.  It’s a nice setup, and it means that people who have never played a music game before can get in and just have fun with their family and friends.

Visually the game has a very unique stylized look.  The venues you’ll play in are all inspired by actual venues that The Beatles had played in.  It goes a bit further than that though, during some songs you’ll transport into a psychedelic dreamscape that shows off an interpretation of what the songs mean.  That is a very creative way of spicing up the levels as well as showing that a lot of care is going into this game.

The Beatles: Rock Band will ship with 45 songs on the disc, including favorites like Day Tripper, Hard Day’s Night, I Want To Hold Your Hand, and others.  Downloadable content for the game has also been announced.  The first two pieces of DLC will be the full Abby Road album and an exclusive single to Xbox Live, that being All You Need Is Love.  Proceeds for that single will go to the Doctors Without Borders Charity.

The game is coming soon for the Xbox 360, Playstation 3, and Nintendo Wii.  It will be sold as a standalone game disc as well as a Special Edition Bundle.  We look forward getting this one in for review.

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About This Author: Filippo Dinolfo

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