BuzzBuilderz Holiday Gift Guide – Beatles: Rock Band

*** DISCLAIMER*** OK, so this isn’t social media based nor is it technically tech, but gimme a break. I think everyone should own this and now I’ve (sort of) created the means to do it. On with the post!

My mother left me with two very important guideposts for my life:

1. Forget ‘em if they can’t take a joke (censored for delicate audiences), and

2. There is no band greater than the Beatles.

Now we could sit here and debate this second point for hours, but for the sake of this special holiday post, grant my premise about the Fab Four. Consider it your holiday gift to me, a gift you didn’t even have to wrap!

While the impact of The Beatles continues to be felt, their presence continued to elude the world of music based video games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero.

Until now.

The great thing about these video games is that they really give you the feeling that you’re creating this great music (unless you play Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, which features a number of Joe Perry solo tracks. That guy singing? Not so much). Whether you’re playing guitar, singing, drumming, or slappin da bass they’ve done a great job of creating an authentic-feeling experience and a fairly diverse catalogue. The latest trend in these games has been dedicating an entire game to one band like Aerosmith or Metallica.

Finally, this past September, the Rock Band line of games released their collaboration with the boys from Liverpool: A 45-track masterpiece following the lads from their humble beginnings in Liverpool’s Cavern Club to the rooftop concert that would prove to be their swan song. The digital artwork (and it is artwork) is nothing short of jaw-dropping, and the selection of music includes early hits (I Saw Her Standing There), later hits (Something) and tracks designed to lead off B-Sides so people could skip them (Within You Without You).

In addition, there is downloadable content (DLC) that so far completes the Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper’s and Rubber Soul albums – playing the entire B Side of Abbey Road as one continuous track is like a rite of passage for this game. Online play is smooth and fun – finding other people looking to play along with is not difficult at all.

The game is available for PlayStation 3, XBox 360 and Ninetndo Wii – price varies by console but is usually around $50. If you have the means and can locate it, the collector’s edition box set includes a Hofner bass controller and Ludwig drum kit ala Ringo; George’s Gretsch Duo and John’s Rickenbacker guitars are sold seperately, but if you have controllers from another Rock Band or Guitar hero game, it is very likely that it will be compatible – check here for a list of compatible hardware.

This game is hours of fun, can be played be expert gamers and casual gamers who are just big Beatles fans. I’ll leave you with this clip of my favorite Beatles song, available for download ONLY on the Xbox 360 at the time of this post (NOTE – this is not how multiplayer appears during actual gameplay – everything shares the screen and is much easier to read):

Tags: Abbey Road, Beatles, Downloadable content, Gifts, GuitarHero, Holidays, PlayStation 3, Rock Band, Video game, Xbox 360