Lego Rock Band (Xbox 360) Review
A BrutalGamer.com review.
Ah Lego. You are the plastic pal of my youngsters days – as opposed to the plastic pal of my teenage days which I had to throw out due to irreparable punctures… ahem, anyway. You really can make pretty much anything better by making it out of Lego – with the possible exception of sanitary towels, suppositories, condoms and cake. So Warner have partnered with Lego studio extrodinaire Travellers Tales to license a more family friendly Rock Band title.
The issues I have with this game, and I want to deal with these upfront, are two fold. Firstly 45 songs – what the hell! Secondly, who is this game for? It is such a mixture of tracks that is struggles to find a sizeable chunk in any demographic to latch on to. I can appreciate they probably wanted to aim it at a broad family audience but many tracks are obscure for the average family member – who really would of thought about putting Counting Crows or The Coral in a mass appeal tween/family title? Now I can appreciate the tracks used and know 98% of them and like the general feel on a personal level – I just am not sure this will work on a larger demographic.
OK, now onward and upward. The game is basically Rock Band 2, re-skinned, 40% of the features removed and some features added to make it way easier. First what’s missing. The biggie? Online play – wow the crowd turned nasty in here fast! Now I know that was a large component of the other games but this is more truly about the family thing in your front room rather than playing drums for a group of 11 year olds in Utah. The career mode has been dumbed down, stripped of it;s globe trotting and rename Story Mode and the challanges from RB are gone as well.
So what has been added? Well you can now implement a Very Easy mode that renders it impossible to really mess up. If you are on drums you get auto-kick and only need to strike a pad at the right time. With guitar you strum at the correct time, no frets needed. With the mic the pitch meter is removed and you get a standard karaoke text line to follow. This is more an extension of the No Fail mode of other versions but works a treat for ham fisted oldies, tone deaf mates/partners and little kids. My son struggles with the guitar and drums at times but on Lego RB he was over the moon with his new found “skills”. Sure it dumbs things down to the point of “See light – Press button” but it pleases the audience it is intended for and empowers them to try the harder levels later on.
Graphically the came looks good. As mention this is really a re-skin of the RB2 game right down to the tentacles of Lego and Lego snarling tiger on the front screen. The Lego Freddie Mercury and Iggy Pop are great fun too! Everything is relevantly shiny and looks made of brick, including the note bars on the music tracks that tumble down the screen. It has a really solid, cute Lego vibe that brings the harsh tones of the Rock Band aesthetics down to a more family friendly level.
Musically the game is all over the place as I mentioned before. There are plenty of favourites to choose from Ghostbusters (Ray Parker Jr), We are the Champions (Queen), Song 2 (Blur), Word Up (Korn version!), Monster (The Automatic), Crocodile Rock (Elton John), Summer of ’69 (Brian Adams) and so on. As I say a real mixture! I mean do the kids playing these even know who Elton John, Korn, Bryan Adams, David Bowie or Spinal Tap really are? That said the tracks are well done and do offer something for everyone although some have been poorly translated to the game and make you appreciate the craftsmanship that Harmonix bring to these titles. Some titles have say no guitar for 40 seconds and then the same few chords or you will end up playing hand claps on the guitar or some such – it just feels badly scripted is all.
Longevity is a potential issue because at only 45 tracks, compared to Rock Band 2′s 80 or Band Hero’s 60+, you will end up playing the same tracks a lot! Unless that is you splurge on some DLC as Lego RB is compatible with the normal Rock Band store, increasing it’s life some what. You can also rip the songs from Lego Rock Band via a purchasable code like you did with the original Rock Band songs and then import them in to Rock Band 2. To be honest I personally had little issue with the limited track list as it scratched the itch for family based tunes as we spent a few hours belting out Ghostbuster, Kung Fu Fighting, We will rock you and many others. Like any other music game of this genre it comes down to your affinity with the tracks on the list.
The story mode is good as you make your way though various Lego themed sets all drawn from the back catalogue of items available on the Lego store. There are some fun “boss battle” situations in the game, similar to the ones in Guitar Hero 3, but it employs a weird play a little then watch a little strategy that feels a little jarring. At least during these times you get to watch the on screen action. Is it a cash in? Yes. Does it demonstrate that both franchises are in desperate need of a make over? Yes. Is it good fun – hell yes!
Final Thoughts:
Lego Rock Band is a great little package for a more family orientated approach to the genre. I prefer it over Band Hero for the tracks even though they are a little schizophrenic. My main grips here are that it lacks focus on who it’s target is, the price is a little steep for the content you get and several features are missing that would of been great. That said for the money you get 45 tracks, some memorable, some not and some are obscure. You get the cuteness of the Lego world through the on screen shenanigans of the Lego stars and you get a kid friendly version of Rock Band. This is an ideal game for your kiddies/tweens to play over the holiday season and a good place to draw in family members that might shy away from the complex stream of notes flowing down the screen of the bigger titles like Rock Band 2 or Guitar Hero 5.
PS3/Xbox 360 track-list
- All American Rejects – “Swing, Swing”
- The Automatic – “Monster”
- Blink-182 – “Aliens Exist”
- Blur – “Song 2″
- Bon Jovi – “You Give Love a Bad Name”
- Boys like Girls – “Thunder”
- Bryan Adams – “Summer of 69″
- Carl Douglas – “Kung Fu Fighting”
- The Coral – “Dreaming of You”
- Counting Crows – “Accidentally in Love”
- David Bowie – “Let’s Dance”
- Elton John – “Crocodile Rock”
- Europe – “The Final Countdown”
- Everlife – “Real Wild Child”
- Foo Fighters – “Breakout”
- Good Charlotte – “Girls & Boys”
- The Hives – “Tick Tick Boom!”
- Iggy Pop – “The Passenger”
- Incubus – “Dig”
- Jackson 5 – “I Want You Back”
- Jimi Hendrix – “Fire”
- Kaiser Chiefs – “Ruby”
- Katrina & The Waves – “Walking on Sunshine”
- The Kooks – “Naïve”
- KoRn – “Word Up!”
- KT Tunstall – “Suddenly I See”
- Lostprophets – “Rooftops”
- P!NK – “So What”
- The Police – “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic”
- The Primitives – “Crash”
- Queen – “We Are The Champions”
- Queen – “We Will Rock You”
- Rascal Flatts – “Life is a Highway”
- Ray Parker Jr. – “Ghostbusters”
- Razorlight – “Stumble and Fall”
- Spin Doctors – “Two Princes”
- Spinal Tap – “Short & Sweet”
- Steve Harly – “Make Me Smile”
- Sum 41 – “In Too Deep”
- Supergrass – “Grace”
- Tom Petty – “Free Fallin”
- T-Rex – “Ride a White Swan”
- Vampire Weekend – “A-Punk”
- We the Kings – “Check Yes Juliet”
- The Zutons – “Valerie”
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18 Dec 2009, 11:40 am
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18 Dec 2009, 1:08 pm
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19 Dec 2009, 3:54 am
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