When Rock Band was released in November of 2007, it was a landmark for home video games as, for the first time ever, rockers could play along to their favorite songs not only as a guitarist or bassist, but as a drummer or even a vocalist.
While this formula flourished (so much so that the Guitar Hero series switched from being guitar only to being full-band in less than a year), the place it failed was in it’s attempt to attract other generations into the market, much like the Wii has been attempting to do.
History
When Rock Band 2 was released in 2008, Harmonix emphasized that it was, more or less, an update to the Rock Band platform and wasn’t meant to really include any significantly new features. With that being said, Harmonix didn’t really innovate the game itself, therefore the generational appeal was unchanged.
In September of this year, Harmonix released the much-anticipated The Beatles: Rock Band. This game worked more as a piece of art than an actual game itself. It began the process of branching out to the older generation, but it certainly left some of the younger generation behind.
With that, Harmonix worked with Warner Bros. to create Lego Rock Band, a game that is so family-friendly, it is among the first Xbox 360 games to bear the “Family Games” seal on the cover.
Features
Obviously the game is more family-oriented, so the setlist is much more kid friendly than previous Rock Band titles. The song selection on the disc features such songs as “Two Princes” by Spin Doctors, “Accidentally in Love” by Counting Crows, “So What” by P!nk, and “Life is a Highway” by Rascal Flatts. That does not mean, however, that the veteran rockers and hard rock fans are left in the dust completely with this title. The game also features such highly-requested tracks as “Fire” by the Jimi Hendrix Experience, “Dig” by Incubus, and “The Final Countdown” by Europe. In addition to the various on-disc songs, several of the more kid-friendly downloadable tracks from the Rock Band platform, as well as tracks that fit the family-friendly criteria set by Harmonix and Warner Bros. from the original Rock Band disc.
One thing that I wish Harmonix would’ve done to further support this title would be to export tracks from Rock Band 2 so that players could use the more family-friendly tracks from the disc of Rock Band 2 in the kid-oriented setting of Lego Rock Band. Instead, Lego Rock Band can be imported into Rock Band 2, which is great since every track on the setlist can be imported, but at the same time, the fact that the import is one-way, unlike Band Hero and Guitar Hero 5, makes Lego Rock Band feel even more so like a side game.
The career mode of Lego Rock Band is pretty much a refined version of Rock Band 2. You create a band, including customizing the Lego Rockers in your band as well as the members of your entourage. While this is a cool idea, it doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Instead of being presented with seemingly endless options, the customization options are somewhat limited. While there are literally hundreds of Lego pieces to use to create your rockers, the skin tones are pretty random in regards to what piece of clothing they are associated with, which can cause the characters somewhat frustrating to create when you are going for a very specific look.
The coolest thing that Lego Rock Band has done is definitely the Rock Power Challenges during the story mode. Much like the Dreamscapes in The Beatles: Rock Band, the Rock Power Challenges take a song and base the events that occur in the background around the song. The premise of these Rock Power Challenges is that someone in the area has a problem and your band uses the power of rock to solve the problem. The problems range from construction workers having difficulty demolishing a building (in which your band plays “Tick Tick Boom” to help out) to Aliens needing a jumpstart for their ship (in which your band lends a hand by playing “The Final Countdown”). The animations are very well done, and always do a good job incorporating the action in the background to what’s going on in the song.
One section is clearly lacking in this game, however. There are virtually no online capabilities in this game whatsoever; not in gameplay or leaderboards. The only online feature is the fact that you can export your tracks to Rock Band 2 for $10. While the game tries to get the family together, online play is something that has been expected in not only the music video games genre, but in video games in general for the past three or four years.
Presentation
The graphics have been completely overhauled for Lego Rock Band. The style has obviously been Lego-ized for the theme of the game, but some of the animations don’t quite match up with the song thats being played. It’s generally fine, however.
The Lego characters themselves and the environments look great and the cutscenes are humorous and pretty well-made. The art style of the game in general is a huge plus. The loading screens are also really nice as they will include either facts about the songs or funny little “Lego Legends”. One of the highlights is certainly seeing some of the favorite characters from the Rock Band series made into Lego versions.
Gameplay
Simply put, the game plays like Rock Band 2. The timing window seems a tad looser, but other than that, the game plays just like Rock Band 2.
The song selection is slightly better (in my opinion) than Band Hero in terms of being friendly to all instruments, but the clear winner here, as it was with Band Hero, is the vocalist. The songs are meant to be a blast to play together in a family or party setting, so it’s excusable, as it was in Band Hero.
The Verdict
Lego Rock Band is probably a more well-made game than Band Hero, but it lacks the features of Band Hero, as well the online play. It also trails Band Hero by about 25 songs.
The game is not bad by any means, it just lacks in certain areas. The animations are very well done and the full-exportality is crucial for contributing to the overall Rock Band platform. That being said, a gamer probably wouldn’t be completely missing out if they bought this game, played through career mode, exported the songs and then traded the game in to a local game used game dealer.
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