When Harmonix released the first Guitar Hero game I was rooting for them. The company had been co-founded by an old MIT friend, and the game looked like a lot of fun. I was rooting for them again when they were purchased by Viacom, which resulted in their “reboot” of the guitar game as Rock Band.
When they announced that they would be producing a Beatles version of the game, I was rooting for them again, but I also found myself thinking “Please don’t screw this up, no one will ever forgive you.”
At this week’s E3 conference in Los Angeles, Harmonic gave us two sneak peeks of The Beatles: Rock Band. Here’s the opening sequence for the game:
And here’s a sample of the on-screen gameplay:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGBF6AHaaS0I recognized the Cavern Club, the Ed Sullivan Show, Shea Stadium, Abbey Road Studios, and the Roof of the Apple Corps building. You can also see that three-part harmony vocals will be a part of the game.
It looks like the game won’t suck after all. I won’t be buying the replica Hofner bass (Paul), Gretsch Duo Jet (George), or Rickenbacker 325 (John) guitars — or the Ludwig drums replica (Ringo) — but I have pre-ordered the game for September.
And if anyone knows what the artist who designed the “I Am the Walrus” marching elephants sequence was drinking, send me a few bottles.
Can you tell your friend that some of us are waiting for Jazz Band? Play along to weirdly animated versions of Parker, Davis, Armstrong, Goodman, Coltrane, etc.
Yeah, that opening sequence is pretty cool. In fact, I just kind of want to watch it over an over–it doesn’t actually make me want to play the game though.
A Jazz Band game would require solving the wind instrument and keyboard controller problems.
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