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I remember the first time I played Guitar Hero, I was totally unsure about how I felt about playing a game with this plastic guitar. However, before long I was hooked – I had enjoyed music games such as Gitaroo Man before, but this was something else. Although not the same as playing a real instrument, it gave me a real rush and I would play the game for hours on end, a real sense of achievement when I finally managed to beat the next song that I’d been stuck on – beating Cowboys From Hell on Expert was probably one of proudest moments of my gaming life.

Since then however, the franchise has evolved – and Harmonix handed over Guitar Hero to Neversoft in order to create the next big hit – Rock Band. Not only could you now play guitar, but they had created drums and a microphone as well. Again, I was a little wary of these new additions, but was pleasantly surprised – although the guitar will always be the instrument I feel most comfort and satisfaction playing. Rock Band had a new, sleeker style than that of Guitar Hero, and introduced the idea of Character Creation, which is something I’ve always loved. Before long I was rocking out to Welcome Home by Coheed and Cambria with my family and friends, and loving it.

Now that Guitar Hero introduced their own “band” play, with matching drums and mic, Harmonix is in competition with its firstborn, ever striving to create something new to up the ante. With Guitar Hero now on its fifth main title,  several band-specific spinoffs have emerged – such as Guitar Hero Metallica, and Guitar Hero Aerosmith. So it may come as no surprise that Rock Band have announced their own band-specific title – The Beatles: Rock Band.

The game has been developed with contributions from some of the original band members such as Ringo Starr and Sir Paul McCartney, alongside some of their close contacts and relatives. The title will not be cross-compatible as the previous Rock Band titles, and is instead a stand-alone title with some new mechanics and features not seen before – including up to six player gameplay with two extra microphones for three player vocal harmony alongside the instruments. Also – whether or not this can be seen as a good thing – many audio cues such as booing and cheering have been removed, as well as any actual audio change from using the guitar’s whammy bar. This is supposedly due to wanting to keep the ’sanctity’ of the original music, although it could feel a little lacking if you’re used to playing the previous titles. As with Guitar Hero’s band-specific titles, the game will feature virtual versions of it’s band members – John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and George Harrison. Unlike Guitar Hero’s band-specific titles, however, the track list is comprised entirely of 45 Beatles tracks, as opposed to a mix of their own titles and influential bands.

The game will include most of the regular modes seen in Rock Band titles – Story (The Beatles’ answer to Career mode), Quickplay, Versus modes, and Training. No-Fail mode has been carried over from Rock Band 2, allowing players to play the game with no risk of the song ending due to bad perfomance. Additionally, anyone playing on ‘Easy’ difficulty will be granted this privalege automatically. However, features such as in-game cash and ‘boss’ stages have been removed from the title in an attempt to keep the game simple – perhaps to appeal more to the band’s older fans who wish to only enjoy the music.

Naturally, the game will be released as both a standalone disc, compatible with the older instruments from the previous titles, and a boxed version which includes one guitar modelled to look like a Hofner bass guitar, a Ludwig style drum set, a microphone and stand, and apparently some extra content that is currently unannounced. Two more guitars are available for purchase – based on the Rickenbacker and Gretsch guitars, but will be sold separately. There will also be DLC released in the future, including full albums such as Rubber Soul, and packs of small batches of songs.

The Beatles: Rock Band is due for international release next week, on Wednesday the 9th of September (09/09/09), to coincide with the release of the remastered collection of the Beatles CDs which are released on that date.

The gameplay itself looks like a solid title, although some of the regular features are missing in order to keep the game clean and simple. When it comes to a title like this, it’s really a matter of taste – if you are a Beatles fan, or music-game fanatic, this looks like a solid game that’s well worth the purchase – especially if you fancy the new three-player harmonising. However, if you’re not bothered with Beatles music, and aren’t much of a singer, its really not worth it with all the other Rock Band and Guitar Hero titles available – including Guitar Hero 5, which is due very soon.

-Leon