LEGO Rock Band

When I was young, I loved playing with LEGOs. I loved building things out of those multi-colored blocks and almost always not what they were supposed to be. When i got older, I wanted to learn how to play the guitar... mainly for the chicks. A few years later, I ended up joining a band, albeit a marching band... which, is like, certified chick repellent. Years later, Rock Band was released and I could play out my rock star fantasies in the comfort of my own living room, sans groupies. Coming full circle, in an odd sort of way, is LEGO Rock Band.

LEGO Rock Band is a simple concept, it's the rhythm game you know and love with LEGO avatars instead of the usual rock avatars. You still collect stars and fans much like in Rock Band and Rock Band 2, but instead of cash, you collect LEGO studs as your currency to build new tour vehicles, hire your entourage and purchase new costumes, instruments and decorations for your Rock Den.

But that's not all that's different in this LEGO version. On the whole, the game has been made more "kid friendly". A "super easy" mode has been added to help the people out there who have a little trouble with coordinating the actions of two hands at the same time. Instead of failing out completely when you play poorly, you're given a chance to recover by correctly hitting a series of notes and collecting LEGO studs. So now it's possible to pass a song and gain no stars (although in the story mode, you won't progress any further). The game also adds a series of Rock Challenges, like demolishing a building, escaping from a LEGO dinosaur and powering a UFO (all with the power of ROCK!).

Where the Rock Band games have shined in the past is the song selection, however, in gearing this game towards a younger and more family friendly audience the setlist has become a little eclectic. You've got such recent hits like Vampire Weekend's A-Punk mixed with classic songs like Elton John's Crocodile Rock. Maybe it's just my musical tastes, but while there are a lot of songs that I like in the game (who wouldn't want to sing the theme to Ghostbusters?) there are songs that I could do without (really? So What from Pink? REALLY?).

Probably the oddest thing in the game is the inclusion of LEGO versions of popular bands and musicians. If you ever wanted to control a LEGO version of David Bowie or Freddie Mercury, this game was totally made for you. But the inclusion of LEGO rock icons seems to fly in the face of the younger audience the rest of the game is tailored towards. And out of curiosity, I checked the game's tutorial section to see who would be providing the voice over... it's friggin' Iggy Pop! Which is totally surreal but is somehow appropriate for the game.

In a way, it's good that LEGO Rock Band is geared towards younger audiences. It allows kids to nurture their rock fantasies, hopefully avoiding the later disappointment that many of us discover when we figure out that we'll never have groupies...

Rating

Even though I'd love to play some of the songs over and over again, I'd much rather play them in one of the other Rock Band games as downloadable tracks. But not enough to buy the game to export them over. So I'd say "rent" this one to play the songs you want... it's cheaper than buying the game and exporting the songs into Rock Band or Rock Band 2.

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