I’ve established a tradition on this blog of reviewing games that came out several months ago, thus cementing the absolute irrelevance of my commentary to the majority of the intertubes for whom content goes out of date in about a day. It’s kind of the opposite of a magazine that’s delivered by ninjas every 3 hours to ensure cutting-edge coverage. Thing is, unless a game is truly awful I like to try to finish it (or at least finish with it, which is not always the same thing) before deciding my opinion of it, and these things take time.
So, I got Lego Rock Band for Christmas and we just finished the main story mode last night. This is a game that’s averaged 70 on Metacritic, and has basically been described as the lazy, ugly child of the Rock Band series. What a load of old bollocks.
I can only take from the critical reception that most reviewers are so incredibly jaded, and their hearts shrivelled to the size of a small pea, that they have no concept of pure fun any more. Either that or they have their heads wedged so firmly up their own backsides that it impaired their ability to play. Because in fact, Lego Rock Band is a really fun game. Ok, it has some limitations such as no online play (we play locally 95% of the time anyway so no biggie) , and it’s basically a carbon-copy of Rock Band with different songs, a Lego theme, and a couple of minor additions, but so what? TT Games have perfected the art of making very amusing games with the Lego brand, and this is no different. If you find none of the cutscenes, Rock Challenges and little Lego costumes and settings amusing, then something inside you has died since childhood and you’re officially a grumpy old fart. I must admit that when LRB was announced I did a double-take and wondered WTF they were thinking, but having played it I take it all back; this game justifies its existence just by being funny, fun to play and hugely endearing.
And let’s talk about the setlist. It’s shamelessly popularist, filled with tracks that almost everyone recognises and that many music snobs will hate. I was a little reticent about the list at first, barring a few classics like Song 2 – but when we actually played it, it turned out that a whole bunch of these tracks were outrageously fun to play. It’s not arty, it’s not revolutionary, but my goodness it’s fun. Plus, you can export all of them to your Rock Band repository, which is great and means the content is given an extended life after the game itself is finished.
Speaking of which, I got The Beatles : Rock Band at the same time, and LRB has had about 10 times as much play time as that, simply by popular opinion. TB:RB has the authenticity, the brand power and the credibility, but when push comes to shove, it’s just not as much fun to play. It’s certainly not a bad game, and clearly features some good music (and some duds too – sorry Beatles fans), but it’s hamstringed by being entirely uncompromising, forcing you to play everything in the story ladder in a rigid tiered order with zero personal choice, and refuses to allow you to play anything other than Beatles music for the entire time you’re playing it (despite the hundreds of other tracks sitting on my hard drive). I’m sure die-hard fans love it, but for everyone else it’s a blinkered game that seems quite willing to sacrifice broader enjoyment in favour of encouraging you to appreciate how goddamn awesome the Beatles were, to the exclusion of all others.
It certainly encourages players to buy into the myth that The Beatles single-handedly defined music in that era and everyone else was riding in their wake. For people who don’t worship them, it’s something of a straight-jacket of a game that’s enjoyable only in relatively short bursts. Personally, a Capcom-inspired “The Beatles vs The Rolling Stones” would have made a much more interesting game (which could have been followed up with Oasis vs Blur, Michael Jackson vs Jarvis Cocker, and who knows what else) 
And hey, just let me export the songs to my catalogue, where they would enter the normal rotation, because they’re not going to get played very much otherwise, which seems highly counter-productive. Again, I think egos are getting in the way of enjoyment here – I’m a customer, and I like The Beatles (well, some of their stuff anyway), but I like lots of other music too. I want to be able to add this content to my wider collection – why won’t you let me? No doubt because the corporate behemoth that oversees The Beatles brand doesn’t want me to, which doesn’t exactly endear me to their cause.
I buy games for entertainment, and from my perspective LRB has been short-changed in the reviews on that front. You won’t receive as much kudos for it as TB:RB from your elitist game reviewer friends, but what do they know?
February 1st, 2010 at 6:09 pm
I didn’t think that LRB got that bad reviews… and surely a 70% average isn’t too shabby!
It really confuses me WHY you even got TB:RB, after all it seems rather clear that you only have a very fleeting interest in The Beatles. Whilst I can appreciate your thoughts about not being about to export the songs to RB2, to me thats no biggie! I prefer to play TB:RB songs as part of the game, with the setting and graphics to TB:RB.
BTW, for “personal choice” in TB:RB, I tend to use this little know feature called quick play… About 95% of my time playing the game is using this little know play mode. You may not have heard of it, but if you look hard enough, you might find it on the menu
For the record as well, as an owner of a selection of music games, including GH:WT, RB2, RB, and TB:RB… TB:RB gets the most play time, not just by me, but also Roz and Elliot as well (and that’s not just my influence as a Beatles fan).
I think that sometime you need to accept that other people have opinions…. And you know what? They’e entitled to them! Hell, I don’t judge people who enjoy playing the likes of Just Dance or Singstar Disney… Whatever makes them happy! And if some people aren’t that enamored by LRB, or actually enjoy TB:RB as it stands, so be it.
February 1st, 2010 at 6:29 pm
My blog, my opinion – I thought that was pretty obvious. I’m not denying anyone else their opinion, simply stating mine. I’m not sure why that offends you (except that you’re a bit touchy about the Beatles
) Feel free to post a balancing tirade on your blog about how amazing TB:RB is compared to everything else, it’s a free internet 
I was obviously talking about Story Mode, which I consider a significant part of the game. We can play Quick Play, but a) we like to play the story mode first, and b) for random playing we usually play Rock Band 2 since we have 5x the choice of tracks there so we have way more variety. The ability to export is probably less of an issue to you because your track collection is already scattered across lots of games (and you’ve bought a lot of DLC specifically for TB:RB), but our collection is 90% elsewhere so it’s a much bigger deal.
I find it ironic that you’re telling me I should let people have their own opinions, when you’re the one commenting on MY blog to protest my opinion of something. I posted this in my own personal space because it’s my view. So really, which of us is trying to deny other people an opinion, hmm?
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:30 am
I played LRB and it IS really fun of course, but on the Wii I can tell you the presentation is incredibly sloppy compared to ps3/360. The animations look like 12 fps indeo video which really distracts from the gameplay. This kind of makes me feel a bit sick because the notes etc are all dead smooth but the video isn’t.
But for kids (which I presume is who their mostly going for) it’s sloppy and frustrating for them. The super-easy mode is a great kid addition though (way better than bandheros beginner mode), they should could any correct colours hit though and give you a bonus.
Also playing it on a bandhero drum set they don’t have an option to flip the wii buttons, so up is down, the joystick doesn’t work etc.
The button sequences to get into the game are quite random and hard for my little niece and nephew to ‘get’. It’s a big pain to realise someone isn’t very good and needs a lower difficulty, you need a full restart.
I think it was LRB that wouldn’t allow a non-scrolling vocals display with tiny text which is next to impossible to read on an 46″ lcd with the wii’s composite only out.
So overall the Wii’s terrible scores compared to ps3/360 are justified I think. That said, it’s still obviously stacks of fun and the drum training mode is the best
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:21 am
Gotcha – presentation is fine on the 360 though (not stunning, but perfectly respectable). I didn’t notice the missing vocal options – I did try non-scrolling once on RB but found it harder, but then there’s no real issue with resolution on 360. I also don’t have a Band Hero / GHWT style drum set to accommodate, I’m playing through my TD9 these days
So it seems these issues are hardware-specific.
I was reading the 360 reviews anyway and even there they marked it down, for not bringing much new to the table or not having the ‘vision’ of TB:RB. The tone of almost all the reviews was fairly dismissive. My experience with it, and that of my wife and a friend, is that it’s enormous fun and the little extras like the Rock Challenges and the unlockable Lego stuff are great – and we’re all adults (well, mostly)
In my opinion, TB:RB has just as many little niggling issues as L:RB does (for the average player), yet that received much better reviews. I do think there’s a lot of reviewers looking down their nose at LRB because it’s a Lego game and totally missing how much fun you can have with it.
February 2nd, 2010 at 1:58 pm
Heck, I never thought L:RB v TB:RB would cause such a stir….it’s as emotive as Spectrum v C64
I purchased TB:RB in November (as a Beatles fan it seemed the thing to do). I purchased it with the full knowledge that I wouldn’t be able to export the tracks to RB2 but I didn’t think it would matter as I also own GH/BH (which involves disc swapping for diff songs!)…the thing is…..dare I say it….there’s only so much Beatles I can stand in 1 session…so I’m obviously not a hardcore (!) enough fan! The presentation is great but IMO the fun factor is missing (perhaps it’s more of an ‘experience’ than being fun?)
L:RB on the other hand is great fun!
(Again, IMO!) I got it for Christmas and it’s the only game I’ve played since then (well, I’ve been busy on other projects!). It’s been so much fun that I’ve not even got around to exporting the songs to RB2 yet! RB2 is great but the choice of songs, for me, is a bit hit and miss….which makes the DLC so welcome of course 
The L:RB tracks are just great fun and all the little sequences are so funny! (The lego dinosaur with “The Automatic – Monster” playing is just brilliant!) Anyway, I haven’t got a clue what point I’m trying to make anymore (sorry, writing this eating a tuna sandwich……..too much information?) just thought I’d say that, on this occasion, I agree with Steve! However, I disagree with Lee/Steve utterly on liking “Town Called Malice” so just goes to show….takes all sorts of people! 
…..What’s that coming over the hill, is it a monster….is it a MONSTER….!
February 2nd, 2010 at 2:39 pm
The Jam rules. Srsly.
February 2nd, 2010 at 7:05 pm
Srsly….not!
February 3rd, 2010 at 12:34 pm
Srsly… yes… Jam rules!
February 3rd, 2010 at 1:37 pm
There you go, you’ve both agreed on something!
February 7th, 2010 at 6:08 pm
[...] SteveStreeting.com » Blog Archive » Game reviewers are snobs (concerning LEGO Rock Band) [...]