Review: Lego Rock Band
Game: Lego Rock Band
Format: XBox 360
Developer: Harmonix and Travellor’s Tales
Publisher: MTV Games and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment
One of the strongest aspects of the Rock Band series is that the developer, Harmonix, have been very careful not to over do things by releasing a new game each year; unlike another high profile rhythm game franchise. Until recently there were only two Rock Band games, and the series has been supported with hundreds of downloadable songs that work on both Rock Band and Rock Band 2. Arguably, it is this level of support that has allowed Rock Band to win the support of the hard core gamer.
This year saw the release of two new Rock Band titles: Beatles Rock Band and Lego Rock Band. Clearly the aim is that of winning over other areas of the market – the former is aimed towards the older casual gamer. Lego Rock Band, on the other hand, is aimed at getting a foothold in the tween market; with a set list made up of dozens of recognisable inoffensive tracks.
As soon as you start the game up you are greeted by Super Grass’ song “Grace”, with the lyrics; “Save the money for the Children”, blaring out at you multiple times, letting you know what the focus of this game really is from the get-go.
Everything about this game is very familiar to any one that has ever played a Rock Band game before.
Anyone that has ever played a Rock Band game will know what to expect from this game. Armed with the plastic instrument of your choosing: guitar, drum, or microphone, you do your best to match the on screen button prompts. There is a new Super Easy Difficulty that seems perfect for even the youngest of players. Essentially you can press any button you like and it will be recognised as a correct hit. The main meat of the game is the Story Mode, which follows the adventures of your Lego Band as they tour through the Lego universe. Levels are based on recognisable Lego sets such as the Pirate set and the Race Track set.
The characters are very charasmatic, and there is lots of room for customisation.
As you play through the set lists you earn Stars and Fans based on your performance as well as and Lego studs to spend on new characters, clothes, and instruments. There are dozens of characters to unlock from pirates, to ghosts, to aliens; so there are always plenty of items to purchase.
There are 9 Rock Challenges in the game which must be beaten in order to progress to the next area. This serves as a fun distraction, with amusing animations in the background such as demolishing a sky scraper or fending off a robot T-Rex. As amusing as they are however, they really are of little concern to the player as all of their attention tends to be on the notes they are supposed to be hitting, rather than the flashing lights in the background.
Lego Freddy Mercury in all his glory. Just don't expect him to sing any Nirvana songs though.
Like Guitar Hero 5 this game features some real life musicians such as Iggy Pop, David Bowie, and the band Queen; although all in Lego Form. These characters can only be used to play their own respective songs. So for instance you will not be able to have Lego David Bowie performing The Ghostbusters Theme.
The Rock Band standard is to have all downloadable songs working in every game. To a certain extent that is true here, but it only applies to family friendly songs. Any song that is rated higher than PG will not work in Lego Rock Band. This is a little disappointing to anyone that has spent a lot of money on songs for previous Rock Band games. It is understandable, as this is the family friendly version of Rock Band – most reasonable parents would probably not want their little Johnny 5 year old singing his heart out to Gay Bar by Electric Six for example.
Every song in the game is capable of being exported to your hard drive and used in Rock Band 1 and 2, as each new copy of the game comes with an export code that can only be used once. However this costs a further 800 Microsoft Points to authorise. The fee is part of the licensing agreement between Harmonix and the record labels, allowing us to transfer the songs between games, but this extra charge for something you have already paid for seems a little steep.
REVIEW ROUND UP:
GRAPHICS: 4/5 Any one that has ever played a Lego game or a Rock Band game before will find this game very familiar looking. The background animations that take place during the rock challenges are very charming, but a little pointless to anyone playing the game, as your attention should focused on the notes you are required to hit.
SOUND: 3/5 A decent mix of tracks that are all family friendly. Some tracks seem a little out of place in a Rock Band game (Walking On Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves for instance), but overall it is a decent selection of mainstream tunes.
GAMEPLAY: 3/5 This game plays exactly the same as any other Rock Band game, with an added SUPER EASY difficulty for those that have difficulty playing the game on easy. The Rock Challenges at the end of each segment of the Story Mode are, on the surface, a welcome distraction. Although all they really ask of you is that you perform the song to the best of your abilities, which is exactly the same objective as any other part of the game.
LONGEVITY: 3/5 The real fun in this game comes from playing with all four players at parties. There’s plenty of fun to be had with the songs on the disk, and a reasonable selection of downloadable tracks to choose from. It is a shame that the higher rated songs you have already downloaded for other Rock Band games will not work in the game, but it is entirely understandable why that is the case.
OVERALL: 3 Guitar Solos out of 5 For anyone that has small children, and worries that some of the content of other music games may not be entirely appropriate for them, then this is the music game for you. For everyone else, you can probably skip this game and not miss out on anything too monumental. Although, having said that, some may find the urge to import Ray Parker Jr’s “Ghostbusters” to their other Rock Band game too great to resist.
[starreview tpl=16]
question. are guitar hero instruments compatible with rock band games (and vice versa). this sounds ideal for my girls
The instruments are interchangeable. The only issue comes with the drums. In RB there are four pads whilst GH has five, so I don’t think it works moving RB drums over to GH. Correct me if I’m wrong though people…
I think that they do allow you to use the drums from Rock Band on Guitar Hero, as I have a friend who only has the Rock Band kit, but has been playing Guitar Hero 5 religiously. I know for a fact that the Guitar Hero drums work on Rock Band though, despite having an extra pad.
Speaking of instruments, I am a little disappointed that they didnt make Lego Themed instruments for this game. I would have loved a plastic guitar that looked like it was made out of lego for instance!