meandthestereo

Video Game: The Beatles: Rock Band
Publisher: MTV Games / Electronic Arts
Developer: Harmonix
Systems: PS3, Wii, XBox360
Release Date: September 9, 2009
Decision: 4/5 All in All

1. Background:

Since the release of the game Rock Band, it has seemed like the Holy Grail of music games were the Beatles.  When Rock Band came out it allowed for four players to play at the same time and there were four people in The Beatles.  Also, the same year Rock Band came out Guitar Hero released its first band specific game in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.  But getting the Beatles to even allow their songs to be played in a game seemed like a pipe dream, let alone allow a full game to be made.

The aforementioned Aerosmith game was not exactly a quality product, and the Beatles, who have always been shy to release their music online, did not seem receptive to the idea.  At the time it seemed far more likely that they would join the growing chorus of detractors of the music game genre.  Apparently, though, it was Metallica that convinced the Apple Group, the name of the group of holders to Beatles music rights, that a quality representation of the Beatles’ work could be produced.  Specifically it was the guys at Harmonix playing a Metallica song on an early version of Guitar Hero that did it.

So after so long the game was finally released.  And its easy to see the care that was put into it. Read the rest of this entry →