It had to happen sometime. I finally got to play The Beatles Rock Band. We were at my brother’s for Hanukkah yesterday and the night before his kids got to open the box and set up the game. I played quite a bit and had a great time. For those not familiar with this game (or the few others like it) you have video game controllers in the shape of instruments. The game they bought came with a replica of Paul’s bass guitar and a set of drums. They had an older guitar from a different game and a microphone. Unlike some of the other games, one of the players will sing here and you have to stay in key and in time with the song. I found I did my best with the bass and with the singing. I could not at all get the hang of the drums.
The real genius of the game lies with the music. If you have four players, one will have the bass, one the guitar, one the drums and one singing. If the bass player is off from the music, you don’t hear that instrument until that player can get back in time with the song. It’s quite fun (and a bit hard at times). In order for this to happen, they not only had to digitally re-master the songs, they had to deconstruct them and put them back together.
For the early Beatles songs this was quite a challenge. All of the instruments were recorded on one track with the vocals on the other. They had to take the instrument track and filter out each instrument and then put them back together. For some of the earlier songs, it sounds ok, but for the later songs, when each instrument may have had its own track it sounds brilliant.
To enhance the experience, they created digital versions of the group from each era (early, middle and late) and placed them into different settings to fit the music. So for I Want To Hold Your Hand, they are singing on the Ed Sullivan show. For I am the Walrus, they are in a psychedelic paradise and so on. With a great sound system, you could buy these games just for the music because it sounds crystal clear, just like the re-masters themselves.
I highly recommend this game for those who have video game systems. Unfortunately, I don’t have one, so if anyone is looking to give one away or buy me a Hanukkah present, you know what to get!