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LEGO Rock Band
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Graphics & Sound:
Much like Activision's recent release, Band Hero, LEGO Rock Band is Harmonix's attempt to reach out to a new demographic, the family. Mind you, if your family is anything like mine, they already have a blast with Rock Band, plus all the other music-based games, at holiday gatherings and such. But with LEGO Rock Band, you not only get more family-friendly music, but also the draw of the adorable LEGO characters and their world.
For starters, you can customize your own LEGO character for your avatar, complete with the clunky little bodies we've all grown up with. While you'll start with just a few heads, body styles, and accessories, soon you'll be opening up additional goodies like crazy. If you don't have avatars for all four band members, LEGO Rock Band will throw some in there for you. Now you're ready to rock! While participating in the Story Mode, you'll get to experience lots of different LEGO-themed areas, like construction zones, a haunted house, and even a pirate ship! Everything is authentically LEGO, from the studs you collect to spend as money to the little LEGO blocks that represent beats that stream toward you while playing the songs; even the Menus are decidedly LEGO'd versions of the typical Rock Band fare.
When it comes to music, the song selections are more of the family-friendly variety, with something for every generation. Whether it's Queen's "We Will Rock You" or Vampire Weekend's 'A-Punk," there's quite a variety to choose from. Bands include Incubus, Pink, The All-American Rejects, Kaiser Chiefs, The Kooks, Good Charlotte and even Ray Parker's Jr.'s classic spirit-fighting anthem, "Ghostbusters." There were also several songs/artists in there that I was completely unfamiliar with, which is odd to me because I like a wide variety of music and keep up with what's out there through XM. Maybe it's a tween thing and that's why I was in foreign country with a few songs? A special treat happens during some songs when the LEGO-likes of Queen, David Bowie and Iggy Pop take the stage. All are cool, but you simply haven't lived until you've seen a LEGO-ized version of Freddie Mercury and company. It's definitely worth seeing. |
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Gameplay:
If you've played any version of Rock Band, you have a good idea of what to expect here, although LEGO Rock Band definitely throws a few new tricks in the mix. You can take the stage as the singer, the drummer, the bassist or the guitarist using your previously purchased Rock Band controllers, with up to 4 people playing together locally or 2 - 4 online. Once you have your band all planned out, you can choose your mode of play. Freestyle Mode is the easiest to jump in and play and is great for parties. Here, you just select your rockers, venue, song(s) and difficulty and rock out! All of the songs are available to you without needing to unlock things like in Story Mode, and even your downloaded songs from other Rock Band versions are here for you to play - as long as they are family-friendly songs, of course. If you want to progress through the background story and your band's meteoric rise to stardom, select Story Mode. Here, you'll begin as a lowly band with only a camper to their name and a pretty empty Rock Den. As you work your way through gigs and venues, you'll start to unlock tons of goodies for your Rock Den, make money to purchase upgrades and buy new vehicles that will allow you access to new gigs in places you couldn't previously reach before. You'll also be tasked with Rock Power Challenges on a pretty regular basis. Here, you'll have a job to do using the power of rock! It can be anything from cleaning ghosts out of a creepy old house, to defeating an angry octopus, and even razing a building with your rockin' skillz. When you nail the Rock Power Challenges, you'll net many more studs and fans than a normal gig, so these are definitely worth the trouble. Plus, there's a really cute animation that plays while you are doing them, if you can take your eyes of the action to watch them.
You can spend some time in your Rock Den, customizing it to your heart's content with all of the goodies that are available and even more once you unlock them. Want a shark to hang on your wall? You can do that. How about a metal sign you swiped from a construction site. Done! In the Rock Shop, you can snag cool accessories (both pre-existing and unlockable) like a spooky mic or pirate-themed duds and everything in between. Kids could spend hours playing around in these two areas. For the uninitiated, there are Practice Modes where you can brush up on your skills without the fear of failure. Finally, little rockers can shop for DLC in the Music Store, just like in the other Rock Band versions, but parents can rest assured that only family-friendly songs can be acquired. |
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Difficulty:
There are five different difficulty levels to play on LEGO Rock Band, literally something for everyone. On Super Easy, the player doesn't have to worry about pitch while singing, only timing. The same goes for the various instruments. Simply hit the drum pad or tap any button/strum on the guitar/bass at the right time and you are golden. On Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert, things get increasingly more difficult. If you are singing, you have to match your pitch and timing. As the difficulty levels ramp up, more and more perfection is expected in order to score higher points, and higher points are what you need to score more gear and earn more stars for opening venues. The pitch bar where you are required to hold your notes gets shorter and shorter in higher difficulty levels, which means you have to nail it because there isn't a lot of time where you can make up for screwing up earlier, like there would be on easier settings. As for playing the instruments, you'll notice a large increase in the number and complexity of the notes as you ramp up in difficulty. However, you are never stuck because each player can change the difficulty for every song that is played.
Unlike Band Hero, which I noticed was decidedly easier than its Guitar Hero predecessors, I didn't find LEGO Rock Band to be much easier than the standard versions of Rock Band on the various settings. So don't worry about this version being dumbed-down. Instead, it simply gives you plenty of range when it comes to difficulty levels so everyone can find a comfort zone. |
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Game Mechanics:
Just as in other iterations of Rock Band, LEGO Rock Band has you stepping into the shoes of little LEGO rockers. Singing is just a matter of following the pitch bar and matching your pitch and timing to the words scrolling ( Rock Band or Karaoke Revolution style) or appearing at the top of the screen (such as in SingStar). If you are playing the guitar or bass, you'll hold down the colored fret button that matches the one on the screen, scrolling down the guitar neck towards you. When the colored note passes the target area, strum the strum bar. If multiple notes of the same color in a row are headed your way, then keep the fret button depressed and strum when they pass the target mark. A sustained note means you'll hold down both the fret button until the note ends, but strum normally. Chords require you to hold down multiple colored fret buttons at once and strum. Whew! You can get a little creative during those long, stretched-out notes by using your Whammy bar (the little metal bar sticking out of your guitar). If you press it towards the guitar during your long note stretches, you can bend the sound to add a little oomph to your tune. For the drummers out there, the premise is much the same - hit the corresponding colored drum pad when the colored beats appear on screen. A long orange bar indicates that you need to use the kick pedal, or you can set the kick pedal to Automatic for an easier go of it. Be sure to visit the Tutorial section if you need to practice.
Of course, the name of the game is earning stars (up to 5 for each song), but you'll also want to earn studs to buy vehicles and stuff for your Rock Den and you'll need fans to unlock new staff to help you on your journey to rock stardom. While you are playing, you may see areas that are glowing. Nail these notes and you'll fill your Energy Meter. When your Energy Meter surpasses the halfway full mark, you can unleash it for more points by sending your band into Overdrive, up to an 8x multiplier if you can hit Overdrive with the rest of your bandmates. The key here is to drive your crowd wild and keep your Crowd Meter at the max. Since you are playing as a band, if one member suffers and is doing poorly, it will drag the whole group down. But by the same token, other band members who are doing well can help a fellow bandmate get back on their feet. Even if you are bombing and your Crowd Meter drops all the way to zero risking some of your earned studs, at the end of the song you'll have a chance for redemption by hitting Recovery Gems in a LEGO Stud Bar that appears at the top of the track.
All in all, LEGO Rock Band is a great addition to the wonderful family of Rock Band games. If you've got the equipment, there's no reason not to pick this one up. Yes, it has fewer songs than previous releases, but your kids will love seeing the LEGO surroundings and you can always utilize your previous DLC, so there's plenty to sing. You can even export these songs back into your other Rock Band versions for $9.99 if you start to miss your hardcore avatars. If you have any doubts, rent it, but chances are this one will spend a good deal of time in your 360 if purchased. |
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-Psibabe, GameVortex Communications AKA Ashley Perkins |
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