As a huge fan of The Beatles: Rock Band developer Harmonix’ earlier rhythm action games, Frequency (2001) and Amplitude (2003), both for the PlayStation 2,  I rushed out on the day of European release in 2006 to buy their next opus, Guitar Hero, and lugged the first of many a miniature plastic replica instrument peripheral home. I was almost instantly blown away by this evolution of the genre; the ‘feel’ of playing the music was unparalleled and holding the little toy guitar in my hands enhanced the experience far more than I had anticipated. It was revelatory.

Guitar Hero and it’s first sequel were developed for RedOctane who, in 2007, were acquired by games publishing giant Activision. The series has continued in the form of umpteen iterations, sequels and spin-offs of varying quality, chiefly coded by Neversoft (previously renowned for it’s Tony Hawk’s series of skateboarding games), but also assisted by various other developers as the franchise has been converted to and adapted for many other systems. Meanwhile, Harmonix was acquired by MTV Games, the interactive arm of Viacom’s famous music television brand, and began work on their new, multi-instrument take of the genre: Rock Band, of which The Beatles: Rock Band is the third incarnation.

Since 2008, the lead titles of both brands have been released for the three most popular consoles of the time: Nintendo Wii, Microsoft’s Xbox 360 and Sony’s PlayStation 3. On these systems each game now supports the default set-up of guitar, bass, drums and vocal track. Recent innovations include, in Guitar Hero 5, the ability to play as any combination of up to four of each instrument, rather than being confined to the traditional band combo set up, and in The Beatles: Rock Band, two and three-part harmonies are supported, a feature that instantly establishes itself as one of the most entertaining and challenging disciplines.

These music games are also now made up of songs (usually 80 plus on disc, plus increasingly vast libraries of paid-for downloadable content (dlc) for online console users) by the original artists, where earlier games featured (generally quite authentic) covers by skilled session musicians. Naturally, all the tracks featured in The Beatles: Rock Band are not only by the original artist, but are also the newly digitally remastered versions. However, the retail disc features ‘just’ 45 tracks. When you consider the price of the remastered albums, not to mention the quality of music on offer, this doesn’t seem unfair. Online dlc will be released over the forthcoming months and will include the remaining tracks of the Abbey Road, Sgt Pepper’s… and Rubber Soul LPs.

It is important to note that to play this game requires at least one instrument peripheral, though even a single cheap, USB compatible mic will allow you to sing along to a kind of all-Beatles karaoke. Purchasing – either with the game or separately – the new set of lovingly recreated Beatles instruments is a not inconsiderable investment, but most certainly a ‘nice thing to have’. Happily, after some frosty times between the respective publishers and developers in the past, now most peripherals are cross-compatible between the rival titles. So if you already have some GH and/or RB instruments lying around you should be able to partake by buying the software only version, as I have.

The fundamental mechanic for playing both guitar and bass is that you must hold the fret buttons indicated by a forward scrolling note ‘highway’ and strum as the coloured notes pass the bottom of the screen. The drums are not dissimilar though obviously instead of fretting and strumming you are hitting and kicking the bass pedal. Singing is just that, although the game measures and rates your performance on pitch and sustain, so you only need to be able to carry a tune and breathe – not necessarily to sound ‘pretty’. An extremely wide range of levels of ability is catered for, from a ‘no fail’ mode, through Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert settings. While it can be frustrating at first, in fact seemingly impossibly hard at times, I cannot recommend strongly enough pushing yourself to advance to and play on the higher settings. The experience becomes immeasurably more rewarding and ultimately long-lasting if you do so. The feeling that you are ‘generating’ the music increases to a degree commensurate with the amount of notes that you ‘play’ yourself. Furthermore, thanks to a well thought out and refined system of multipliers and manually activated ‘boosts’ (known of course in this title as ‘Beatlemania’), the game functions not only as a wonderful social experience (both locally and online), but also as a dedicated ‘score attack’ game, with the many modes and challenges (some unlockable) providing further incentive to play (and perform) better.

The game opens with a quite stunning cinema, combining both traditional cel animation with CG to spectacular effect. This takes some of the visual ideas and cues from George Dunning’s 1968 feature animation Yellow Submarine and runs with them, creating an astonishingly imaginative and vibrant scene-setter, encapsulating the band’s career in just a few short minutes of fantasy. It’s worth completing the game’s main story mode for many reasons, one of which is seeing the spectacular resolution to this piece – one of the finest and most evocative game openings I have seen since those of Soul Blade and Final Fantasy VIII on the original PlayStation over a decade ago. As well as this, each chapter of the story, representing a different phase of The Beatles’ extraordinary career, is linked to the next by a short animated sequence depicting the events of the time in a beautifully condensed edit.

Another strong recommendation is that you resist the temptation to dive straight into a song on first loading the game. Make your first port of call the options screen and take some time to calibrate your instruments (NB: some peripherals are self-calibrating). Also, do check that you are getting the best out of your home audio/visual set-up by activating Dolby Digital 5.1 sound, bass boost and video overscan mode as appropriate, as these are all set to ‘off’ by default. Spending a few moments here can make an enormous difference to the feedback you receive from the game and therefore greatly enrich your experience.

As chronological progress is made through the band’s history, the setting of the real-time animations that run in unison with the music ‘behind’ the player information and screen furniture change appropriately. Beginning with Twist And Shout at The Cavern in waistcoats and ties in ’63, the hair and outfits evolve with the music as The Beatles play on The Ed Sullivan Show and at the Shea Stadium in the US around ’64/’65 before jetting to Japan’s Budokan in ’66. It’s the three subsequent chapters, representing the band’s non-touring years from 1966 to 1969 where one of the finest treats the game has to offer makes itself apparent. Each of the 19 songs from this extended period (including Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, I Am The Walrus and Something) are set to a brilliant visualisation or ‘dreamscape’, created and choreographed especially to compliment the music. Each does a tremendous job of further communicating the experience to player and onlooker alike. The story, bar a ‘hidden’ epilogue, concludes appropriately on the Apple Corps Rooftop in 1969 with the likes of Dig A Pony and Get Back.

As much as I could always admire and enjoy a lot of The Beatles’ work, I’ve never felt moved to purchase and own any of their records. The music always felt impersonal to me somehow, like it was everybody else’s and not mine. Not only has playing through this excellent game has provided me with a new-found appreciation for John, Paul, George and Ringo as musicians, it’s also made me realise how much of a soundtrack to my life their songs have been, just as with millions of others – and not merely something ubiquitous that should be allowed to almost wash over me. Growing up in the 70′s, the band had only recently split, and I have countless memories of hearing them, whether it was via my Mum playing her vinyl, on BBC Radio 1 or children’s programmes utilising numbers like Yellow Submarine, Octopus’s Garden and Here Comes the Sun. Having now attempted some of Starr’s notoriously ‘underrated’ rhythms on Expert level, I’m perhaps beginning to understand why over forty years of being the most maligned Beatle has engendered in him the rather bizarre and irksome personality that he now seems to possess.

Rock Band (2) is one of my favourite videogames of all-time, and this is a fine, fine standalone version of it. Additionally, when you take into consideration a selection of unlockable Beatles multimedia, including backstage footage, rare clips and previously unreleased audio of the lads in the studio, you are investing in a fairly essential digital resource as well as a top quality videogame and Beatles compilation. Most of all though, you should play this with a group of good friends, play and sing along together and  – unless you really don’t like The Beatles – you will soon discover that you are having a significantly emotional experience, due not only to the timeless music of the four men from Liverpool, but also due to the fabulous job Harmonix has done in integrating it into a captivating whole.

9/10

Test Freaks Freak Score: 9/10

An edited version of this review also appears on music website Neon Filler