Overview:  The Rhythm game genre is one of my personal favs.  I love music, and I think the interactivity with some of my favorite music that these games offer  is awesome.  I was first introduced to Guitar Hero 2 on the XBOX 360, and since then I have purchased every game involving plastic instruments for the 360 since.  I have 3 plastic drum sets, 5 plastic guitars, and 3 microphones now...  yeah, I'm hooked.

I have been very skeptical about entire music games devoted to single bands.  So far the Guitar Hero franchise has "gone there" with Aerosmith, and Metallica...  Aerosmith was OK, and Metallica was fucking awesome.  I wonder though...  Metallica is one of my favorite bands of all time, how widespread is their appeal to the target audience of these games.

Now here comes The Beatles:  Rock Band.  There is no question that their appeal is widespread...  I don't know a single person who doesn't know and love at least a couple of their songs.  This game was a potential gold mine as soon as it was announced.  This game takes you through The Beatles career chronologically.  The songs are grouped according to the general time they were released.  It is basically a sequential list of songs that you go straight down, but there is so much atmosphere in each venue and dream sequence that it really gets you excited about playing each song.

The Good:  The track list is excellent.  Of course, I can't think of many Beatles songs that I wouldn't be happy to have included, so deciding on these songs must have been difficult.  There are 45 songs announced but some songs double up (Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band/With a Little Help From My Friends).  So really there are 43.

The guitar/bass/drum note highways are laid out well.  While easy, most songs are a lot of fun to play on instrument, and all songs are fun to play on at least one instrument.

3 singer harmonization is possible now.  This works perfectly, unfortunately I do not know many people capable of harmonizing, aside from my wife.  I could not convince my voice to do anything but match the note of the lead vocal track.  I will continue working on that.

There are a ton of Beatles goodies that you can unlock, such as pictures and video clips.

DLC packs will be released each month throughout the rest of the year.  All you need is love was released on the release date of the game.  The entire Abbey Road album will be released on Oct. 20th.  The entire Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album will be released in November, and finally the entire Rubber Soul album will be released in December.  These packs are very welcome in my track list, and I look forward to seeing the additional dream sequences that will most likely be included (All You Need is Love included its own custom dream sequence).

Speaking of dream sequences, they should be explained/mentioned in this section as well.  There were several years during The Beatles brief career in which they did not tour, but holed themselves in their recording studio on Abbey Road.  Any song recorded during this time in the game starts out in Abbey Road Studio, and gradually fades into a "Dream Sequence".  For example:  Yellow Submarine starts in the studio but quickly fades into an entirely aquatic scene featuring none other than the Yellow Submarine, and each of the members of The Beatles.  Each dream sequence looks beautiful, and you can't really get enough of them.

The graphics are quite good.  They are what you would expect from a Rock Band title.  Not too realistic, a bit cartoony, but you certainly can tell that Paul is Paul, Ringo is Ringo, George is George, and John is John.  In each Beatles rendition the members of the band look accordingly (John has his long hair, and Paul has his full beard by the end of the story mode).

The Bad:  Not enough songs...  Every single song that the Beatles ever released should be included...  Get on that shit Harmonix!!

Songs are all pretty easy...  I managed to get 5 stars on every song on expert on guitar...  scored 100% on many of them as well.

Verdict:  If you like music, and the rhythm game genre, buy the damn game.  That is really all there is to it...  now I am going to go listen to some Beatles music and get through the rest of my day at work.

5 out of 5 Rofls