Review Score:

I’ve got blisters on me fingers!

After a night-long adventure on tour around the world, I’m back and ready to report on this rock and roll experience. Rock Band: The Beatles is similar to recent Guitar Hero titles that feature Aerosmith, Metallica, and (soon) Van Halen. However, unlike Activision’s titles, this swingin’ 60s spinoff features only the main event. You will spend the entire game as John, Paul, George and Ringo, moving through their career and their music from Liverpool until the end of Abbey Road.

The game features 45 of the group’s top songs, from “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” to “Octopus’s Garden.” All of the tracks sound wonderful, as all were digitally remastered specifically for this game. Every guitar note, every sitar pluck is crystal clear. The auditory experience is then enhanced further by the hordes of screaming teenage girls that flail and faint during just about every track, and the chatter of the band members that can be heard in between. These little touches really give the game a personal feel.

Visually, the Liverpool lads are also given star treatment. In most music game titles it is very hard to watch the characters on screen while you’re in the heat of things, but in this game you’ll be fighting to keep your eyes on your fretboard. The story mode goes through the band’s career. From their early performances across the Atlantic, to their debut on the Ed Sullivan Show, all the way to their final rooftop performance in 1969, you’ll see flawlessly recreated venues. That’s not to mention the band members themselves, who undergo a transformation from well-dressed Brits to long-haired hippies before you can say, “Day Tripper.” Even the fretboards themselves look like magical rainbows out of an acid trip.

The developers really took great care to make sure everything in this game was faithful to the Beatles name. Paul, Ringo, and Yoko Ono were even involved in production, and helped with a lot of the creative choices. You can’t get closer first-hand advice than that.

The tracks themselves are surprisingly difficult for what basically amount to 3-chord songs. The developers blended together several guitar parts, and even allow for the player to finger notes made by different instruments. All this is a staple in the Rock Band franchise, and was done in the name of making the game more challenging. They definitely succeeded. The game’s story mode is not sorted by difficulty, and you’ll be running into a nice mix of easy tracks and hard licks for the duration. Several of the songs left me with cramped hands, and though none of them were exactly “Free Bird,” there is plenty here to keep your fingers dancing the tango.

Now, let’s talk bonus material. You can unlock a bonus photograph of the band in story mode by completing each song with 3 stars,  another for 5 stars, and you get another for completing each venue. As you accumulate photographs, you’ll also unlock other bonus materials, including historic videos of the actual band. The need to get all of this bonus material will keep you coming back to the game and shooting for those five stars, so yay for replay value.

As far as innovation goes, I’m sorry to say there isn’t much. However, that’s what Guitar Hero 5 is out for. I don’t think you’re picking up Rock Band: The Beatles expecting a brand new revolutionized music game experience.  You’re probably getting this for, very simply, the Beatles, and seeing as you will get just that in every feasible sense, I cannot dock points for lack of innovation.

Rock Band: The Beatles delivers on almost every front. It recreates the feel of having been on tour with the group in the 60s, gives you a challenging gameplay experience, and rewards you with prizes that are actually worth shooting for. With the promise of more downloadable material to come, I have to say that this game will hold a very high place on my shelf until Rock Band: Led Zeppelin comes out sometime late next century.

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