Hands-on review: The Beatles: Rock Band

On September 9, one of the most hotly anticipated video games of the year -- in multiple years, even -- finally arrives. It's The Beatles: Rock Band, marking the first time the music of The Beatles has appeared in a video game. Considering the albums of The Beatles -- as of the time of this writing, at least -- are not even available for download from iTunes, this is a massive coup and one that deserves some serious praise for those who managed to pull off this feat.

I'm a big Beatles fan and this weekend I gathered about eight fellow Fab Four enthusiasts and we put the game through its paces -- all 45 songs in one night of rocking.

You can jump right into the game and play any song with up to four instruments, but serious players will want to work through the story mode, which groups the songs of the band into eras, starting with "Twist and Shout" at Liverpool's Cavern Club and working up to the group's final performance from the rooftop of Apple Corps, where you get to play "The End" (the "final" song on the game that had been a secret until now). It's a real walk (rock?) down memory lane, but it isn't long before some of the game's weaknesses start to show.

The first problem: Song selection. For every "I Want to Hold Your Hand" there's a "Boys." For every "Ticket to Ride" there's a "Dig a Pony." Even songs that you might actually like to hear once in awhile -- say, "Octopus's Garden" or "Yellow Submarine" -- become a little aggravating to actually perform. Still, the majority of the songs on the game are worthwhile, but virtually everything my co-gamers were hoping to find in the game -- "Hey Jude," "Yesterday," "A Day in the Life," "Rocky Raccoon," "Norwegian Wood," "Michelle," and -- the most-wanted title of all -- "Happiness is a Warm Gun," was invariably absent. Perhaps some of these titles will hit the game as downloadable content in the future, but I'd certainly prefer to get the hits up front.

Putting aside the songs, the gameplay is solid. Anyone who's played any recent four-piece music title will be familiar with the basics, but The Beatles: Rock Band adds one big new feature to the mix: The ability for up to three people to sing simultaneously, harmonizing on three different lyrics tracks. This sounds absolutely awesome (if you have enough microphones and players), but in reality it doesn't work out nearly as well as you'd hope. Why? Because most people can't even sing the main vocal line of a song, much less harmonize it. Unless your group has professionally trained singers, it's actually pretty hopeless. On some of the simpler songs with two-part harmonies, we managed to do so-so with the duets, but on trickier tracks with three-part harmonies, more often than not the room sounded like a slaughterhouse as singers hopelessly tried to find the right pitch for a lyric they'd never actually sung. Maybe this is something that improves with (lots of) practice, but even after 45 songs, we weren't much closer to success than at the start and largely gave up on harmonies.

A few changes to gameplay have been made from the older Rock Band games. The drum solo is now gone (The Beatles probably didn't want you messing up their music with your ridiculous beating on the drum kit), and for the first time all the songs are unlocked from the start, so there's no need to suffer through story mode if you just want to play a few favorites. (Though you'll miss out on all the animations, "dreamscapes," and unlockables like photos of the band, if you don't.) One thing I really didn't like were the changes made to the colored indicators at the bottom of the screen that show you what note you're playing. The indicators are now smaller, dimmer, and harder to make out, which means you'll miss more notes than you should.

The novelty of this game -- nothing but Beatles, no "opening acts," no user-created characters -- makes it incredibly unique and interesting, but it does tend to wear a little thin after the fourth or fifth hour. Around song 35, Beatles fatigue began to set in even among the most die-hard of fans in our group, and by song 42 someone actually suggested we quit and play Guitar Hero 5 instead. We stuck it out, though, and I'm happy we did. But will I go back and play through all the songs again? That I can't say. Unlikely.

Bottom line: Beatles fans should run (screaming) to get this game, as getting to play some of these tunes as virtual Beatles is an unmatched experience in the world of rhythm gaming, but those who are merely curious about the title may want to try playing with a friend before they sink their $60. (Not to mention those premium instruments, none of which I had the opportunity to try out.)

And yes, I got blisters on my fingers.