G l i t c h y G o b l i n !

Yet again I bring you my thoughts on another music game.  Don’t worry, there will be 2 more this year.  This go around it’s all about Green Day:  Rock Band.  Now, I’ll say this to start off:  it’s good if you like Green Day and bad if you don’t.  That should immediately divide everyone in half.

PROS:

It’s pretty difficult. This is a great thing, especially on the back of Lego Rock Band’s easy setlist.  Most of the tracks are what guitar-based music game players refer to as a “chord fest”.  This term means that you’ll be doing a lot of chords a lot of the time.

But it’s not boring because of this. Usually, so many chords constitute a setting in of boredom after a while.  This is not so in this game, because it’s mostly REALLY FAST MUSIC.  That’s the main reason as to why it’s difficult.  You’re playing this chord fest at a really fast pace.

All the band members and venues look and feel like they should. If you like Green Day, then you’ll feel right at home.

There are lots of extras, like pictures and videos of live concerts.  These are unlocked not only by playing the main career but also by completing challenges like playing all of American Idiot at once.

Finally, American Idiot. I’ve been waiting to play this album on Rock Band forever.  This is one of my favorite albums of all time, and it was a delight to finally play it in all of its glory.

CONS:

Once again, if you hate or slightly dislike Green Day, then buy something else. It was pretty much only made for Green Day fans.  However, the only exception to this might be if you are a Rock Band guitarist looking for a way to practice chords (I know some people are bad at them).  This would instead be a great way to practice.

Chord fests hurt. The problem with playing this many chords at this speed is that your hand will start to hurt really quickly.  Their first albums are the worst at doing this.  As their sound progresses, they use the extreme speed/chord fest combination less and less.  So, as you go through the career it hurts less and less.

Even further than this, if you CAN play chords but don’t like to, then as stated earlier about halfway through the career there aren’t many more songs like that.

Some achievements are only solo.  It doesn’t tell you this, though.  Sometimes you have to be playing in your own career, and sometimes you can be playing in a friend’s and still receive them.  If you are unsure, you should probably look them up.

These games are starting to tire even me. After having played an upwards of 14 band-based music games through in their entirety, it’s starting to get a little repetitive.  Hopefully, Rock Band 3 will fix all of this with the Pro modes and Keyboard instrument.

Anyways, the verdict remains that it’s a pretty good buy if you like Green Day, and it isn’t if you don’t.

Even though the music game genre is being flooded with endless titles, I still need them in my life. I consider myself pretty good when it comes to anything with fake instruments, and I constantly think about adequate charting, what a new game’s setlist could be, or what I will have to do to 5-Star every song on every instrument. The addiction hasn’t died in me yet. Since so many games came out toward the end of last year, I could only pick and choose what I bought.

Now, upon scouring the internet I have found that some games I chose to skip over are now $20 or under (like Spirit Tracks *gasp*). Therefore, I got Lego Rock Band.

PROS:

There are the occasional songs that should’ve been done before now. Songs like We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Ghostbusters, Two Princes, Final Countdown, and even Kung Fu Fighting are featured here and are the only place to find them on Rock Band.

There’s a ton of unlockable things. Since it’s a Lego game, there are many unlockable pieces for your character and even pieces of furniture you can buy for your Rock Den.

The gems look like Legos! The colorful gems falling down the highway that cross the strike line (music game terms meaning the notes that come down) are now shaped like legos. Kinda like how in The Beatles: Rock Band the gems are saturated colors.

There are bosses to fight, kinda. They’ll just tell you something like, “The harder you rock the more you blow up this building” and that’s what you do. It shows the building blowing up in the background while you play.

Rock Band DLC that the game finds “family-friendly” enough is playable automatically. I have mostly metal and stuff (so those songs weren’t in there), but some of my dlc and some of the Rock Band 1 songs were there to break up the monotony of some of the setlists.

CONS:

The overall song list isn’t that great. Some of these songs you’ll get tired of really fast, sometimes to the point of frustration.

It gets repetitive in the worst places. You’ll see a new song in the new venue you’ve unlocked and will say, “Cool!” Then the next gig will be a one song setlist with a “random” song. Guess what? It’ll probably be the song you JUST PLAYED.

With the characters being made of Legos, it kinda gets rid of the “I’m a cool rockstar” feel. It feels unrealistic… mainly because it is.

A lot of the different options and modes aren’t explained very well. At one point I was unable to progress any further in the “story” until I did… something. I just played every gig that had been unlocked that I hadn’t played yet for about 2 or 3 more hours until finally I could progress.

There’s no Endless Setlist. One of my favorite things about Rock Band 1 and 2 is the gig that makes you play every song in the game in a row. For the first game that particular gig was over 4 hours long, and for the second game it was over 8. This “Endless Setlist” is just 30 random songs, including your DLC, not in order of increasing difficulty. Argh.

This game is worth $20 but just barely. I’m glad I didn’t buy it last year.

This game is amazing. The vocals have been fine-tuned, the visuals are stunning, and while the song choice is a tad limited, Beatles Rock Band is a magnificent love letter to the greatest rock band of all time.

Play this game, and until then, rock out with the opening and a remix.

LEt it be, Golinites. -GG