Review: The Beatles: Rock Band (PS3)

Based on the company's Rock Band series, The Beatles: Rock Band is a multiplayer-focused music game in which you use replica instrument controllers to play along to the band's music, following the visual prompts to play guitar, bass drums or vocals. All pretty standard for band games now.

The presentation, however, is above and beyond. Not only have the Beatles' likenesses been captured wonderfully in their digital avatars, but all of the venues, crowds and voice-overs are faithfully recreated or sourced from the archives. All the menus, loading screens, graphics and sounds have a whimsical sixties vibe to them. Even the the coloured note symbols are now paler pastel shades, and your 'rock energy' (formerly Overdrive) is amusingly re-named Beatlemania. Screaming fans with braces and sixties-style hairdos shriek during your live performances.

The band character models appear slightly caricatured; not excessively so, just enough to avoid the 'uncanny valley' problem while still looking recognisably like them. As you play through the game's live venues and studio years, the characters get older, beardier and dress appropriately. The attention to detail is fantastic. The live venues take you from Liverpool's Cavern Club, onto America and the Ed Sullivan show, New York's Shea Stadium, and Tokyo's Budokan arena. For their studio years, the band appear in fantasy settings filled with Beatles imagery of bandstands, trumpets, yellow submarines and clouds. It's a shame you'll have to focus on the scrolling note icons or lyrics, because a lot of these wonderful background animations can go unnoticed! The 'story' finishes with the band atop the Apple Corps building, playing their last songs. The outro movie is genuinely touching.

Authenticity even extends as far as the controllers. The Beatles: Rock Band comes with a guitar controller styled after Paul McCartney's Hofner bass guitar. Lennon's Rickenbacker and Harrison's Gretch Duo are also available separately (and expensively!). The drums controller is actually just the Rock Band 2 wireless drum kit with a Beatles-themed metal foot plate and drum cover. They're of good quality; the new guitar's fret buttons do not rattle so much as the old ones did, and the drums are less likely to break under extreme use. Since Rock Band 2's instruments never made it to UK stores, these might be of interest to some, although they're not available to buy separately. Thoughtfully, of course, you can use any existing Rock Band or Guitar Hero kit with the game.

The choice of music for the game is a fairly good spread of their old poppy love songs, the weirder stuff they made when they discovered drugs, and everything in between. There will always be favourites someone will miss; anything not particularly suited to the four instrument setup has been omitted (Eleanor Rigby, Let It Be, Yesterday, etc.), but the songs included are bound to please. It's unusual for any music game to have a completely excellent tracklist, and even more unusual for that to be from just one band, but The Beatles: Rock Band quite honestly manages it. There may only be 45 songs on the disc, but they're almost all good ones. There aren't many bands that could pull that off.

And they're surprisingly fun to play, too. Their earlier songs are faster and more rhythmic, throwing up plenty of chords for the guitarists and steadier beats for the drummer, while later songs have a bit more form to them, more interesting solos and a playful quality. Expert players won't be particularly challenged, but there are some really enjoyable note charts here. Being great sing-along songs, naturally the vocals option is very appealing too, and Harmonix have capitalised on this, adding the best new feature to music games in ages: harmonies.

The actual implementation of vocal harmonies is to be applauded for being both uncomplicated and versatile. Up to three microphones are supported, so any song can be sung by three people, whether it features harmonies or not. Those that do can be played with or without them activated, and even with them activated they still remain an optional score-booster. A second (and third) pitch line represents where to sing around the melody, or where the backing vocals are, but each line is not locked to any particular microphone. Any singer can use any line, switch at any time, or ignore it completely. You get bonus points for getting them right, so for those who can hold a tune, it's an excellent feature. When it's done properly, it can sound amazing. The only down side is that it's such a brilliant addition, the regular Rock Band game feels incomplete without it.

The expanded singing options make The Beatles a more party-centric game, as singing and parties go hand-in-hand more easily than complicated plastic instruments do. Sadly, the game is only supplied with one mic, one guitar and the drums, but if you're eager to get the most out of it, two more mics and a second guitar are highly recommended. It is easily one of the most entertaining party games in recent memory, and the fact that it's all Beatles music helps to narrow the age gap and get everyone involved. As a single-player game, challenge can be found in completing the trophy/achievements, many of which are seriously difficult. There are also archival photos and videos to be unlocked by playing through the story mode's venues, and a bonus song available for completing the game. Thankfully, all other songs are available to play right from the start, in quick-play.

Although The Beatles has more accessibility options than Rock Band 2 - notably a more prominent 'no fail' mode and less faffing about to get a game started - it's fallen some way behind Guitar Hero V's efforts to please. You still can't add a player or change difficulty mid-song, nor can you mix and match instruments any way you like.

The only other criticisms we'd level at the game are fairly trivial ones. The lack of drum-fills and guitar effects is one, probably due to not wanting to 'alter' the music too much. The lack of Rock Band platform compatibility is another one, although having spent some time with the The Beatles, it would seem weird playing their music 'as' anyone else. If anyone deserved the standalone game treatment, it's them. And if this is the sort of standard we can expect from any future band-exclusive Rock Band titles, then we say bring it on.

Rating: 8 / 10

Words by Daniel James