It’s a hallmark of a video game genre’s widespread appeal when it spawns family-friendly licensed versions. From fighting games to first-person shooters, many genres have seen attempts at creating all-inclusive editions. While rhythm games have had family-oriented titles before, the arrival of Lego Rock Band felt like a significant, albeit belated, entry – especially considering the peak popularity of both LEGO and Rock Band franchises might have been a year prior to its release.
Essentially, LEGO Rock Band is Rock Band 2 with a LEGO skin. By this point, rhythm games, particularly those allowing you to simulate playing guitar, bass, drums, or singing along to rock anthems, are fairly well-understood. However, if you’re new to the rhythm game scene, LEGO Rock Band might present a slightly unusual entry point. Unlike some standalone titles, it was released as a disc-only game, implying that players were expected to already own Rock Band instruments. Warner Bros. Interactive, MTV, and Harmonix seemed to assume a pre-existing Rock Band fanbase. This raises the question: who is this family-friendly version truly for? Families who already own a Rock Band setup, presumably.
At its core, the gameplay of LEGO Rock Band mirrors Rock Band almost exactly. The interface, the mechanics, the feel – it’s all remarkably similar. You still embark on tours, playing through setlists in various venues, just as you would in standard Rock Band. If you are a devoted Rock Band enthusiast, this familiarity is comforting. Conversely, if you’ve grown tired of the Rock Band formula, LEGO Rock Band likely won’t reignite your passion. The game does seem to offer a slightly more forgiving note detection than Rock Band 2. Players might find themselves successfully hitting notes even with slightly late timing.
What truly distinguishes this iteration is the infusion of LEGO’s signature quirky charm, a personality that has enriched numerous family-oriented LEGO games before it. Interestingly, unlike LEGO Star Wars, Indiana Jones, or Batman, LEGO Rock Band didn’t launch alongside a corresponding set of physical LEGO toys. Instead, it immerses players in environments and characters inspired by classic and generic LEGO themes. Venues are reimagined as LEGO constructions of castles, haunted houses, underground mines, and even UFO landscapes. These stages are visually dynamic and engaging, filled with background dancers and moving set pieces, offering a more captivating visual experience than the often-generic club settings of typical Rock Band games.
It’s Rock Band, but reimagined with LEGO aesthetics. The overall presentation exudes a delightful charm. From the LEGO rendition of the snarling tiger on the main menu to the animated cutscenes depicting the band’s and roadies’ comical escapades, and the appearance of LEGO versions of music icons like David Bowie and Freddie Mercury – the game is undeniably adorable. Players can personalize their LEGO band members and unlock costumes as they progress through the story mode. These customized avatars and entourage members then feature in the animated cutscenes, adding a personalized touch. This charming presentation is likely to resonate strongly with children familiar with other LEGO games, potentially appealing more than the sometimes-grittier band aesthetics of standard Rock Band.
The Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of LEGO Rock Band deliver crisp and vibrant HD visuals, showcasing the game’s artistic style without pushing the hardware to its limits. However, the Wii version suffers significantly in visual quality. While lower resolution is expected on the Wii, LEGO Rock Band on this platform appears notably unrefined. Text becomes difficult to read, character models are jagged, and the overall visual presentation is blurry. Surprisingly, Rock Band 2 on the Wii exhibits considerably better visual fidelity, demonstrating that the Wii hardware is capable of more polished graphics than seen in LEGO Rock Band.
In contrast to its competitor, Band Hero, LEGO Rock Band curated a setlist that largely remains within the realm of rock music, albeit a family-friendly interpretation. It features tracks palatable to younger audiences, such as Rascal Flatts’ rendition of “Life is a Highway” and “Accidentally in Love” by Counting Crows – songs popularized by Disney’s Cars and Dreamworks’ Shrek 2, respectively. The tracklist also incorporates contemporary pop hits from artists like Pink, The All-American Rejects, and Vampire Weekend. Classic rock staples from Elton John, The Jackson 5, and Queen are sprinkled in, alongside novelty songs like “Kung Fu Fighting” and the theme from “Ghostbusters”.
This diverse setlist presents both advantages and disadvantages. Most players are likely to find a few songs they enjoy (like the inclusion of “Ghostbusters!”), but it’s improbable that anyone will appreciate the entire selection (Lostprophets, for example, might feel out of place for some). With a relatively limited library of only 45 songs, repetition is inevitable. The ability to use some Rock Band 2 DLC within LEGO Rock Band on Xbox 360 and PS3 helps mitigate this issue to some extent. However, the base game could benefit from a larger song selection. Rock Band 2, for comparison, boasts 80 songs, and even Band Hero includes 65. Fortunately, players can export the LEGO Rock Band tracklist to play within Rock Band 2, although this incurs an additional $10 cost.
The DLC compatibility and export features are, disappointingly, exclusive to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. Even if you own Rock Band 2 with extensive downloadable content on the Wii, these songs are inaccessible in LEGO Rock Band on the same console. Furthermore, the music store is entirely absent from the Wii version – neither the Rock Band 2 store nor a dedicated LEGO Rock Band store. Wii players receive no additional music options. Even the track export from LEGO Rock Band to Rock Band 2 is unavailable on the Wii. This severely cripples the Wii version. Being confined to the initial 45 songs, despite prior investments in DLC for Rock Band 2, feels restrictive and unfair, especially considering the game’s full retail price on all platforms. For Wii owners, this lack of content expansion transforms LEGO Rock Band into a significantly less appealing and arguably overpriced proposition.
While many songs in the setlist are indeed excellent tracks in their own right, not all translate seamlessly into compelling Rock Band experiences. “We Will Rock You” by Queen, a rock anthem, serves as an example. Its bass line and drum part consist of literally the same three notes repeated, and the guitar part is minimal, only appearing in the final 30 seconds.
LEGO Rock Band introduces a couple of new gameplay features, most notably the “Super Easy” mode. For guitar and bass, this mode eliminates the need to use fret buttons. Colored notes still appear, but players can strum with any, all, or none of the fret buttons pressed, simplifying the core mechanics. Similarly, in drums, players can hit any drum pad in time, regardless of specific pad assignments. The kick drum is also automated in this mode (a feature that can be toggled on in any difficulty level). Vocals in Super Easy mode adopt a stationary bouncing ball lyric display and remove pitch detection entirely. As veterans of Rock Band 2 might recall, the “talky” vocal sections in that game were notoriously flawed in scoring, allowing players to essentially make any noise into the microphone and achieve a perfect score. Combined with the game’s consistently positive feedback on vocal performance (the “messy” rating is relabeled as “okay,” and “weak” becomes “good”), the vocal experience in Super Easy mode can feel overly forgiving and almost patronizing. It resembles the video game equivalent of an overly supportive parent showering undeserved praise on a child’s questionable singing.
However, Super Easy mode isn’t primarily intended for children. Many children can adeptly play guitar on Expert difficulty. Instead, this mode is designed for individuals less familiar with gaming or rhythm games in general. It’s for the tone-deaf parent who dislikes virtual boos, or the friend who struggles with the coordination of fretting and strumming. It caters to non-gamers with no aspiration to master the game’s complexities. In practice, the “no-fail” mode often serves these players adequately, potentially rendering Super Easy mode somewhat redundant.
Another new feature is the “Rock Power Challenge.” At specific points in the tour mode, your band must harness the power of rock music to accomplish outlandish objectives, such as demolishing a building, summoning a thunderstorm, or escaping a T-Rex. During these challenges, a music video-style backdrop replaces the standard stage performance while you play a thematically appropriate song. Reminiscent of the dreamscapes in The Beatles: Rock Band, these sequences are more humorous and less psychedelic. However, the gameplay implementation of the Rock Power Challenge is somewhat peculiar, employing a “take turns” approach to playing the song. The rationale behind forcing players to sit out portions of a song to enhance fun is questionable. Furthermore, the sections players are assigned can feel arbitrary. For example, players might miss out on playing iconic parts like the synth chorus in Europe’s “The Final Countdown,” hindering the full comedic potential of pretending to be Gob Bluth.
Considering his age, Iggy Pop maintains impressive physical fitness. Ultimately, a significant drawback of LEGO Rock Band lies in the removal of several features present in Rock Band 2. Online multiplayer is entirely absent, as are the challenges mode, which offered a valuable alternative for single-player progression and practice. The tour mode remains, offering substantial content, but the exclusion of these features feels significant, particularly for a full-priced game that also delivers a smaller song library and fewer overall features compared to its predecessor. Minor issues, such as frequent and lengthy loading screens, can also detract from the experience, especially during casual group play sessions.
In conclusion, LEGO Rock Band successfully injects the beloved LEGO aesthetic into the rhythm game genre, creating a charming and family-friendly experience. However, it arrives with compromises. The reduced song list, removed features compared to Rock Band 2, and particularly the limitations of the Wii version, diminish its overall value proposition. While the LEGO presentation and Super Easy mode cater to a younger and less experienced audience, dedicated Rock Band fans may find themselves wanting more content and features. LEGO Rock Band is a cute and enjoyable diversion, especially for families already invested in the Rock Band ecosystem and seeking a more accessible and visually playful musical experience. However, those seeking a feature-rich and expansive rhythm game experience might find themselves slightly underwhelmed, especially if they are primarily playing on the Wii.
