An idea for a new Beatles: Rock Band

NeoGaf

There isn't any game quite like The Beatles: Rock Band.

Yes, there were the main entries in the Rock Band franchise, another band-focused game on Green Day, and perhaps too many entries in the Guitar Hero franchise. But those titles  never really seemed to match the love and care that went into this one.

It's been more than five years since The Beatles: Rock Band launched, and the Rock Band franchise itself went dormant a couple years later.

However, franchise developer Harmonix released a survey in January to gauge what fans would be looking for in a "new Rock Band experience."

That got me thinking.

The Beatles: Rock Band is a tremendous game, and one of my favorites of all-time. Rock Band's core gameplay worked just as well as ever, and getting four people in a room to fill out the entire band  never failed to make for a good time. The game also hasn't aged graphically, looking just as visually striking now as it did when it released back in September 2009.

And not only seeing, but playing through the group's evolution during its career is just something else.

I have no shortage of praise for this game, but as much as I love it, there are still things I wish Harmonix could've done to make it even better. The recent survey only fueled more ideas.

Before I go any further, I should probably leave a quick disclaimer. I don't know what Harmonix is planning to do next with Rock Band, and as I much as I want what I'm about to write to be a real thing, it probably won't be. But hey, I can dream, right?

So, without further ado, here is what I had in mind for another go at The Beatles: Rock Band, this time on the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U. Let's just call it The Beatles: Rock Band 2.

Yes, I did make a logo for it.

I'll start with the core of every music game...

THE MUSIC

The Beatles: Rock Band launched with 45 songs on-disc. Then the remainder of the Abbey Road, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Rubber Soul albums, along with "All You Need is Love" as a single for Magical Mystery Tour, were released as downloadable content in preceding months.

Although the setlist on launch day was strong overall, it seemed like some albums got more love than others, and it was a pretty safe bet that one or two of your favorite tracks were missing ("Help!" and "Let it Be" didn't make the cut. Seriously?). Plus, the game's setlist wasn't as big as Rock Band 2's, which came out one year before with 84 songs to start with, and, unfortunately, Harmonix's plans to eventually complete The Beatles' entire back catalogue of music fell through. 

For The Beatles: Rock Band 2 the first game's original setlist, along with all the DLC, would be on the disc from the start. That puts the setlist at over 70 tracks. But any album that hadn't received DLC the first time around should have four or five songs in the game as well, making the total number of on-disc songs equal to, if not greater than, what a main entry Rock Band game would have.

And in an ideal world, the rest of The Beatles' back catalogue will make its way to the game.

THE GAMEPLAY

VideoGamer

There wouldn't be any significant changes to the formula here. The notes come down the tracks and you hit them at the right time on the guitar or drum controller to play in sync with the song. 

As far as singing goes, the return of the three-part harmonies are a definite.

The real change is to Rock Band's setup. It didn't evolve much from the standard guitar, bass, drums and vocals format in the franchise's first few years. That is understandable, you can only go so far with that. The biggest change is when Rock Band 3 added a keyboard when it came out in 2010.

One of the things that bothered me the most about The Beatles: Rock Band was that it stuck to that simple four-instrument setup when you knew there was much more going on in the song.

You didn't just hear it. You saw it. In the live performances from the first half of the Beatles' career you saw John and George each had guitars, and when you got into the latter half where they became a studio band, you saw Paul hop from bass to piano for multiple songs.

I always felt there should've been one more slot for a rhythm guitar, and when the keyboard got introduced to Rock Band, it almost made me wish that the game was made a couple years later.

This time around would have five instrument slots, one for drums, bass, vocals, lead guitar and rhythm guitar/keys. Whether the rhythm guitar or the keyboard can be used will depend on the song. But adding that fifth instrument can do two things. It will up the maximum player count for a band to seven (the more people that can play the better, right?) or, you can play in the most authentic way possible, with four people each on an instrument and handling vocals at the same time.

You know, like this, except in your house with plastic instruments (TodayInHistory.Tumblr.com)

Just think about how awesome getting to play Hey Jude with the keyboard would be.

PRESENTATION

I'll start with the graphics. The Beatles: Rock Band was an absolutely beautiful game when it came out in 2009, and it's still an absolutely beautiful game today. I mean look at this:

But how good the game looks is only elevated by the incredible attention to detail Harmonix put into the game. You can tell that this game was made by people who love The Beatles the second you start playing it.

The game includes stunning re-creations of the Ed Sullivan Show set, Shea Stadium, the Budokan and the famous rooftop concert, and when John, Paul, George and Ringo were recording at Abbey Road Studios you were transported into dreamscapes that fit the music perfectly.

Honestly, not much really has to be done in the visual department for a new game. It still looks just as good as it ever did. The only suggestion I can really give here is that the extra horsepower the current run of consoles offer over the last ones can allow for more detail to be put into the live events and for more diversity in the dreamscapes, because some did start to get a bit repetitive by the time the Rubber Soul DLC pack was out.

The story mode could use some tweaking, though. It was fun to play through, and I can watch the cutscenes that transitioned you from one point in the band's history to the next over and over again. But some things were out of place chronologically, like how "I'm Looking Through You" and "If I Needed Someone" were performed at the Shea Stadium concert in 1965 in the game, when in real life at the time, those songs hadn't been released yet.

The same goes for the rooftop concert. It's the final stage you play in the game's story mode, even though Äbbey Road was recorded after that happened.

But those slight chronology errors are easy fixes in a new game thanks to the expanded setlist mentioned earlier. The Rubber Soul songs that were put in Shea Stadium can be swapped out for one more song from the Help! or Beatles for Sale albums, then either given their own dreamscapes or placed into the Budakon show.

The rooftop concert can be left untouched, it just won't be the last stage of the game anymore. Instead, the game's story mode will end with the Abbey Road Medley.

THE INSTRUMENTS

Kotaku

Here is a serious problem Harmonix is going to face if they do end up bringing Rock Band back: what are they going to do about the instruments?

Unless you already had the music peripherals, the entry fee for Rock Band was pretty high. The bundles for Rock Band 1 and 2 were about $180 when they came out in 2007 and 2008, respectively, and because The Beatles: Rock Band had controllers designed after the instruments each member actually used, its bundle cost $250.

I still have those plastic instruments sitting in my basement, and although I'd probably bite on the prospect of another Beatles: Rock Band or just a new Rock Band in general, I'd rather not have to fork over hundreds of dollars for new controllers to play a new game if I don't have to. 

Harmonix designed those instruments to connect to the old consoles via USB, and the PS4, Xbox One and Wii U all have USB ports. Maybe there is some way you can patch in compatibility to the new consoles, that way returning players don't have break the bank again, while still offering the bundle to new ones.

"MAKING ALL HIS NOWHERE PLANS"

So that is The Beatles: Rock Band 2. Like I said, this is probably never going to be a real thing. If Harmonix were to go anywhere with the Rock Band franchise it would probably be toward a Rock Band 4, which is probably what that survey is about.

But if I were in charge of making a Rock Band game, The Beatles: Rock Band 2 is the one that I would want to make; one that took everything the first game did so well and built upon it, made it even better, just like any good sequel.

I have no real experience in game design, though, so some of this stuff may not even be feasible. Oh well, hasn't stopped my mind from wandering.