When my brother and I were very young, and a song by The Beatles came on the car radio, our parents would ask: “Who’s this, kids?”
“The Beatles!” we’d always yell from the back seat. This was less because we recognized the group’s catalog and more because we realized our parents only asked us this question when a Beatles song was playing. The Beatles were so much more to them than just a band: They were a cultural legacy that needed to be passed down to us, the babies of the baby boomers.
The first thing my mom said in 2007, after playing the original Rock Band for the first time, was: “They’ve got to get some Beatles on here.” Fortunately for her, at about the same time, George Harrison’s son Dhani was thinking the same thing.
The Beatles: Rock Band, released Wednesday for Xbox 360 (reviewed), PlayStation 3 and Wii, blends the now-familiar, four-player music game with the best songs possible.
Gorgeous, Beatles-themed graphics make the game more than just a list of songs, although the short track list (and some questionable song choices) keep it from being the perfect Fab Four experience.
Still, it’s a near-perfect vehicle for introducing the Beatles’ melodic music to young gamers, or for cementing the best of ’60s pop into their minds, four decades after the influential band’s breakup.
Save for a few small tweaks, The Beatles: Rock Band takes its gameplay directly from Harmonix’s Rock Band series. Up to four people can play guitar, bass, drums and vocals using special instrument-shaped game controllers and following the colored button cues that flow down the screen. You can buy a $250 bundle with high-quality replicas of the Beatles’ actual instruments, but most existing instrument controllers will work.
The big tweak to the gameplay in Beatles is the addition of vocal harmonies. Up to three microphones can be plugged in so you and two friends can sing the call-and-responses and close harmonies that helped make the Beatles’ music so magical. (A “harmony trainer” mode teaches you the tough ones.)
If everybody wants to sing the lead part, that’s fine too, but the game rewards you with high scores for nailing all the parts. And there’s a more intrinsic reward as well — it feels awesome to sing as part of a group. It’s Beatles: Rock Band’s unique addition to the music-making fun at which the videogame series excels.
It’s usually tough to get people to play Rock Band, but having three people on vocals with such well-known, singable songs really attracts a crowd. Beatles: Rock Band is thus, purely by accident, the best karaoke game ever: I’ve never seen so many people join in singing in unison to a videogame as I have anywhere Beatles is being played, whether on trade show floors or at bars.
I’ve heard many Rock Band veterans complain that the music in Beatles isn’t as challenging on the guitars and drums. I couldn’t tell you, as it’s plenty challenging for me (hovering between Medium and Hard settings, depending on how drunk I am). If you’re approaching Beatles as a game to be beaten, however, you’ll likely blast through it in a couple hours, unlocking cool rewards like photos and videos from the band’s history.
Once you’re done with the game’s 45 songs, there are plenty of challenges and Achievements to pass, and the game helpfully keeps track of your progress on each. I am never going to receive the “I Got Blisters on My Fingers” achievement, awarded for hitting 100 percent of the notes in “Helter Skelter” on Expert-level drums.
The game’s story mode takes you through the Beatles’ career, or at least a mythologized, whitewashed, cartoon version of it in which no one ever had any sort of disagreement over anything. The major venues in which the Beatles played, like Liverpool’s Cavern Club or New York’s Shea Stadium, are re-created. For the band’s latter years, spent in the studio, the game’s levels are what Harmonix calls “dreamscapes” — imaginative graphic representations of the rich visual imagery evoked by songs like “Octopus’s Garden” or “Yellow Submarine.”
The game’s list of 45 songs features many more obvious favorites: “Paperback Writer,” “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” “I Saw Her Standing There.” Rights to the Beatles’ songs are not cheap, so it’s understandable that the game has about half the songs of a typical Rock Band or Guitar Hero release. But with a shortened track list, some of the choices seem a bit odd. Why The Shirelles’ cover “Boys” and not Lennon and McCartney’s “Love Me Do“? Why “Dig a Pony” instead of the next track on Let It Be, “Across the Universe“?
Yes, many of these songs will probably be released as downloadable content — the entireties of Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band and Rubber Soul will be available this year — but why lead off with anything but the best of the best?
Passing judgment on The Beatles: Rock Band is thus difficult for me. Apart from the music, there’s very little to distinguish the gameplay from the first Rock Band. But that music makes all the difference. I’ll probably play and enjoy this game more than anything else this year.
When I started thinking about what bands I’d like to teach my (theoretical) children about, I couldn’t think of any groups from my own youth — all I could think about was the Beatles. Beatles: Rock Band is a fab way to pass the band’s music to the next generation.
WIRED The best music game paired with the best pop music ever; beautiful visual accompaniment; added vocal harmonies.
TIRED Short track list with some questionable choices.
$60, MTV Games
Rating: 
Read Game|Life’s game ratings guide.
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