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IGN Review of LEGO: Rock Band
It's kind of a sign of a game genre's ultimate success when it gets its family friendly license versions. Seemingly everything, from fighting games to first person shooters, has made an attempt at an all inclusive version. And while rhythm games have already had these to an extent, the release of LEGO Rock Band is a pretty major addition, even if it's one that should have come out a year ago when both these franchises were fresher.
LEGO Rock Band is basically a skin swap for Rock Band 2. I would hope that rhythm games in general are ubiquitous enough that I don't have to explain the concept of playing guitar, bass, drums or singing along with your favorite rock songs. But if you are clueless about what these games are all about, you're kind of out of luck with LEGO Rock Band. See, there is no bundle pack for this game, it's disc only. Which means that you have to own instruments already.
Warner Bros Interactive, MTV, and Harmonix assume you are already a fan of Rock Band when you get this game. So then why the family version? Your family already owns a version of Rock Band. At its core, the game plays exactly like Rock Band. Everything is in the same place, it looks, feels and acts the same. You still go on a tour playing random or created setlists in different venues. So if you love Rock Band, great. And if you're sick of it, you'll stay sick of it. The game does feel a little more forgiving than Rock Band 2, though, as I was definitely hitting notes late on some parts and still scoring on them.
So what do you get with this version? The wacky LEGO personality that has made the other family LEGO games so fun. It's a little strange since there is no corresponding set to purchase, like there was for LEGO Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or Batman. Instead you get venues and characters based off of the more classic or generic sets. All of the venues are based around these sets. Places like castles, haunted house, underground mines, and even UFOs. All of the stages are vibrant and there's a lot going with background dancers and moving set pieces. It's more interesting than a lot of the dingy club locations of regular Rock Band.
The whole presentation is adorable, that much is certain. From the LEGO version of the snarling tiger on the main menu screen, to the animated cut scenes showing the misadventures of your band and roadies, to the little LEGO versions of David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. It's all so damn cute. You can customize your little band and earn costumes as you progress through the story mode and your customized band and entourage members show up in the cut scenes. It's very charming and if you've got kids that love the other LEGO games they'll dig it a lot more than the grittier band members of regular Rock Band.
The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions certainly aren't pushing the physically limits of the system, but they look sharp and vibrant in HD. The Wii version however looks terrible. I expect the Wii version to be a lower resolution, but it still comes off hideous. Text is hard to read, the characters are jagged and things look blurry. By comparison, Rock Band 2 on the Wii looks worlds better, so I know this game should be able to run just fine on the system.
Unlike its competitor, Band Hero, LEGO Rock Band opted for a set list that could still arguably be called rock. There are plenty of songs for kids to enjoy like Rascal Flatt's version of "Life is a Highway" or "Accidentally in Love" by the Counting Crows: songs that were featured in Disney's Cars, and Dreamworks' Shrek 2, respectively. There are also some contemporary pop hits from the likes of Pink, The All American Rejects, and Vampire Weekend. A sprinkling of classics from Elton John, The Jackson 5 and Queen round out the setlist, with room for novelty songs like "Kung Fu Fighting" and the theme from "Ghostbusters".
Having such a varied setlist is both a blessing and a curse. Everyone is sure to find a couple songs they love in the group (Holy crap, Ghostbusters!), but it's doubtful anyone is going to like all of this (Lostprophets, seriously?). And with only 45 songs in the game you'll be playing these tunes over and over and over. If you already have Rock Band 2 DLC some of it works for LEGO Rock Band, which definitely helps keep the repetitiveness down. But really there should be more songs. Rock Band 2 has 80 songs. Even Band Hero has 65. Thankfully you can export the tracklist from LEGO Rock Band and play it in Rock Band 2, though it'll cost you an additional $10.
The DLC features are limited to the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, too. So even if you have Rock Band 2 on the Wii, with a ton of downloadable songs, you can't access them in LEGO Rock Band. The music store isn't available either. Not the Rock band 2 music store, or even a separate dedicated music store. You get nothing. You can't even export the songs from LEGO Rock Band into Rock Band 2 on the Wii. This kills the Wii version. I'm permanently stuck with these 45 songs even though I spent hundreds of dollars on DLC for the previous game? Screw that. Considering the game is the same price too this instantly becomes a total ripoff for Wii owners.
And while a lot of these songs are great songs, that doesn't make them great Rock Band songs. "We Will Rock You" is a classic Queen track. But the bass line and drums are literally the same three notes repeated and the guitar doesn't even come in until the last 30 seconds.
There are a couple of new gameplay features, most notably Super Easy mode. For guitar and bass the game takes out the need to use the fret buttons. The colored notes still come down, but players can hit any, all or none of the frets, so long as they're strumming. Likewise with drums players can hit any of the pads, as long as they're doing it in time. The kick drum is hit automatically too (a feature that can be turned on in any level of difficulty). Vocals turns the mode into the stationary bouncing ball visual for the lyrics, and completely removes pitch measuring. As anyone that's played Rock Band 2 will remember, the "talky" scoring is completely broken, so players can literally make any noise into the microphone and score 100 percent on the song. That combined with the fact that the vocals always compliment your performance (the "messy" rating has been relabeled as "okay". "Weak" is now "good") makes the whole experience very patronizing. It all feels like the videogame equivalent of an over complimentary parent who tells their kid what a great singer they are when they actually suck.
But really, Super Easy mode isn't for the kids. I've seen kids as young as six wail on guitar on Expert, and they can certainly figure out Easy. It's for my tone deaf dad who doesn't appreciate getting booed off stage. It's for my sister's friend that just can't seem to grasp the concept of pressing colored buttons and strumming. It's for the non gamers who have no intention of actually getting good at this game. Ultimately I've found that no-fail mode works just fine for these people, making Very Easy mode unnecessary.
There is also a new feature called the Rock Power Challenge. At various stages in the tour your band will have to use the power of rock to do something wacky like destroy a building, summon a thunderstorm, or escape a t-rex. While you play the song (which is something that fits with the situation) a music video of sorts plays in the back, instead of the normal on stage performance. It's similar to the dreamscapes from The Beatles: Rock Band, only more humorous and less acid trippy. My only problem is that the gameplay for the Rock Power Challenge is a weird little "take turns" playing the song. I'm not sure why the developers thought forcing players to sit out for a portion of a song makes it more fun, but that's what happens. And the sections you do get to play make no sense. Half of the time I didn't get to play the iconic synth chorus for Europe's "The Final Countdown". How am I going to pretend to be Gob Bluth like that?
Ultimately what really throws me off about the game is that many of the Rock Band 2 features have been removed. There is no online multiplayer of any kind. Likewise the challenges aren't in there, which was a really nice alternative for single player progression and practice. All you get is the tour, which is plenty, but it doesn't make sense for a full priced game to have half the songs and half the features. There is also just a lot of little things like the too frequent and too long loading screens that make the experience hard to get into with a casual group.
©2009-11-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved
LEGO Rock Band is basically a skin swap for Rock Band 2. I would hope that rhythm games in general are ubiquitous enough that I don't have to explain the concept of playing guitar, bass, drums or singing along with your favorite rock songs. But if you are clueless about what these games are all about, you're kind of out of luck with LEGO Rock Band. See, there is no bundle pack for this game, it's disc only. Which means that you have to own instruments already.
Warner Bros Interactive, MTV, and Harmonix assume you are already a fan of Rock Band when you get this game. So then why the family version? Your family already owns a version of Rock Band. At its core, the game plays exactly like Rock Band. Everything is in the same place, it looks, feels and acts the same. You still go on a tour playing random or created setlists in different venues. So if you love Rock Band, great. And if you're sick of it, you'll stay sick of it. The game does feel a little more forgiving than Rock Band 2, though, as I was definitely hitting notes late on some parts and still scoring on them.
So what do you get with this version? The wacky LEGO personality that has made the other family LEGO games so fun. It's a little strange since there is no corresponding set to purchase, like there was for LEGO Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or Batman. Instead you get venues and characters based off of the more classic or generic sets. All of the venues are based around these sets. Places like castles, haunted house, underground mines, and even UFOs. All of the stages are vibrant and there's a lot going with background dancers and moving set pieces. It's more interesting than a lot of the dingy club locations of regular Rock Band.
The whole presentation is adorable, that much is certain. From the LEGO version of the snarling tiger on the main menu screen, to the animated cut scenes showing the misadventures of your band and roadies, to the little LEGO versions of David Bowie and Freddie Mercury. It's all so damn cute. You can customize your little band and earn costumes as you progress through the story mode and your customized band and entourage members show up in the cut scenes. It's very charming and if you've got kids that love the other LEGO games they'll dig it a lot more than the grittier band members of regular Rock Band.
The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions certainly aren't pushing the physically limits of the system, but they look sharp and vibrant in HD. The Wii version however looks terrible. I expect the Wii version to be a lower resolution, but it still comes off hideous. Text is hard to read, the characters are jagged and things look blurry. By comparison, Rock Band 2 on the Wii looks worlds better, so I know this game should be able to run just fine on the system.
Unlike its competitor, Band Hero, LEGO Rock Band opted for a set list that could still arguably be called rock. There are plenty of songs for kids to enjoy like Rascal Flatt's version of "Life is a Highway" or "Accidentally in Love" by the Counting Crows: songs that were featured in Disney's Cars, and Dreamworks' Shrek 2, respectively. There are also some contemporary pop hits from the likes of Pink, The All American Rejects, and Vampire Weekend. A sprinkling of classics from Elton John, The Jackson 5 and Queen round out the setlist, with room for novelty songs like "Kung Fu Fighting" and the theme from "Ghostbusters".
Having such a varied setlist is both a blessing and a curse. Everyone is sure to find a couple songs they love in the group (Holy crap, Ghostbusters!), but it's doubtful anyone is going to like all of this (Lostprophets, seriously?). And with only 45 songs in the game you'll be playing these tunes over and over and over. If you already have Rock Band 2 DLC some of it works for LEGO Rock Band, which definitely helps keep the repetitiveness down. But really there should be more songs. Rock Band 2 has 80 songs. Even Band Hero has 65. Thankfully you can export the tracklist from LEGO Rock Band and play it in Rock Band 2, though it'll cost you an additional $10.
The DLC features are limited to the 360 and PS3 versions of the game, too. So even if you have Rock Band 2 on the Wii, with a ton of downloadable songs, you can't access them in LEGO Rock Band. The music store isn't available either. Not the Rock band 2 music store, or even a separate dedicated music store. You get nothing. You can't even export the songs from LEGO Rock Band into Rock Band 2 on the Wii. This kills the Wii version. I'm permanently stuck with these 45 songs even though I spent hundreds of dollars on DLC for the previous game? Screw that. Considering the game is the same price too this instantly becomes a total ripoff for Wii owners.
And while a lot of these songs are great songs, that doesn't make them great Rock Band songs. "We Will Rock You" is a classic Queen track. But the bass line and drums are literally the same three notes repeated and the guitar doesn't even come in until the last 30 seconds.
There are a couple of new gameplay features, most notably Super Easy mode. For guitar and bass the game takes out the need to use the fret buttons. The colored notes still come down, but players can hit any, all or none of the frets, so long as they're strumming. Likewise with drums players can hit any of the pads, as long as they're doing it in time. The kick drum is hit automatically too (a feature that can be turned on in any level of difficulty). Vocals turns the mode into the stationary bouncing ball visual for the lyrics, and completely removes pitch measuring. As anyone that's played Rock Band 2 will remember, the "talky" scoring is completely broken, so players can literally make any noise into the microphone and score 100 percent on the song. That combined with the fact that the vocals always compliment your performance (the "messy" rating has been relabeled as "okay". "Weak" is now "good") makes the whole experience very patronizing. It all feels like the videogame equivalent of an over complimentary parent who tells their kid what a great singer they are when they actually suck.
But really, Super Easy mode isn't for the kids. I've seen kids as young as six wail on guitar on Expert, and they can certainly figure out Easy. It's for my tone deaf dad who doesn't appreciate getting booed off stage. It's for my sister's friend that just can't seem to grasp the concept of pressing colored buttons and strumming. It's for the non gamers who have no intention of actually getting good at this game. Ultimately I've found that no-fail mode works just fine for these people, making Very Easy mode unnecessary.
There is also a new feature called the Rock Power Challenge. At various stages in the tour your band will have to use the power of rock to do something wacky like destroy a building, summon a thunderstorm, or escape a t-rex. While you play the song (which is something that fits with the situation) a music video of sorts plays in the back, instead of the normal on stage performance. It's similar to the dreamscapes from The Beatles: Rock Band, only more humorous and less acid trippy. My only problem is that the gameplay for the Rock Power Challenge is a weird little "take turns" playing the song. I'm not sure why the developers thought forcing players to sit out for a portion of a song makes it more fun, but that's what happens. And the sections you do get to play make no sense. Half of the time I didn't get to play the iconic synth chorus for Europe's "The Final Countdown". How am I going to pretend to be Gob Bluth like that?
Ultimately what really throws me off about the game is that many of the Rock Band 2 features have been removed. There is no online multiplayer of any kind. Likewise the challenges aren't in there, which was a really nice alternative for single player progression and practice. All you get is the tour, which is plenty, but it doesn't make sense for a full priced game to have half the songs and half the features. There is also just a lot of little things like the too frequent and too long loading screens that make the experience hard to get into with a casual group.
©2009-11-03, IGN Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved