Tech: The Beatles - Rock Band

Just a couple of years ago, the unprecedented success of "Rock Band" and "Guitar Hero III" made it seem like the music game would dominate store shelves forever. Since then, though, waves of me-too titles, including Konami's ill-fated "Rock Revolution," one "Rock Band" sequel and several "Guitar Hero" sequels, have killed whatever momentum the genre once had. New music games are being met with yawns instead of cheers, because there's only so many plastic instruments you can cram into a living room.

Reversing this trend would take something big. Bigger than Jesus:



Yes, the Beatles have finally gotten their own music title. Now you can play as John, Paul, George, and Ringo in the ultimate Beatles simulator. "The Beatles: Rock Band" features 45 master Beatles tracks covering their entire career, from the moptop days of playing in London clubs to the trippier fare of the later albums.

The core gameplay of the "Rock Band" series is unchanged, save for the ability to sing in three-part harmony. You'll still be staring at those endless multicolored note gems, except this time everything is "fab" and "groovy." There's really no reason why the songs in this game couldn't be DLC for the main "Rock Band" games, but I suspect getting the licensing issues sorted out would have been a nightmare.

To Harmonix's credit, the game takes its Beatles license seriously and does everything possible to immerse you in Beatlemania. I'm not a hardcore Beatles fanatic, but even I got a kick out of hearing clips from that legendary Ed Sullivan performance or looking at old photos from the Beatles' studio vault. While you're banging away on your plastic drums, you're treated to psychedelic renditions of the later studio songs, like "Octopus's Garden" or "Here Comes the Sun."

Still, when all is said and done, 45 songs aren't that many, especially considering that Harmonix is going to release much of the rest of the Beatles' catalog (including the rest of "Abbey Road" and "Sgt. Pepper's") as DLC that you'll have to pay extra for. Like the Beatles' career, it's good while it lasts, but it all ends pretty abruptly.

Rating: 83/100