I am so skeptical of this, I can’t even begin to describe it to you. And that’s why it has taken so long for me to say anything about it. But in the sake of clearing my conscience, here’s the story. At least this way, if I see someone else talking about it, it will no longer be grating at the back of my mind.
That said, Harmonix Senior Designer Dan Teasdale apparently had intentions of discussing such a project during his speech, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Design Lessons Learned From Rock Band,” at the 2009 Game Developers Conference.
According to Teasdale, the developer had planned to reveal the title before the event, but instead opted not to. The following slide, courtesy of Kotaku, had the game slated for a 2009 release, right in between the PSP’s Rock Band Unplugged and The Beatles: Rock Band.
A later slide, on the page following brief details on Rock Band Unplugged, a placeholder image for a “project to be announced before or at 9 AM Friday” is featured, which we’re assuming to be LEGO Rock Band. Teasdale’s notes on that slide read: “There’s a project that I’ll be talking about here, but it hasn’t been announced yet. BUT – I will be showing it at GDC!”
Curious, of course, is the inclusion of Guitar Hero games on the lineup. Perhaps Harmonix keeps tabs on its former franchise? Or perhaps this is simply a courtesy between companies that involves keeping their hardware compatible. It’s hard to say.
Kotaku says that while they attended Teasdale’s talk, there was no actual mention of the game made, and neither MTV nor Harmonix have responded to any inquiries.
The catalyst for me finally making this post, Bob Mackey’s own at 61 Frames per Second, says:
So, what exactly does Lego have to do with Rock Band? To be fair, the interlocking blocks are just as relevant to Star Wars and Indiana Jones. As ridiculous as the pairing of Lego and Rock Band may initially seem, this is a great chance for Harmonix to bring out a kid-branded version of their hit game for the younger set. While the songs available on Rock Band don’t get much saltier than your average afternoon FM broadcast, I’m sure there are lots of parents out there who’d rather have their kids playing along with songs that are a little less suggestive. And for the rest of us, this means Harmonix can dump a whole lot of tween-friendly music onto a disc, thereby freeing us from having something like The Naked Brothers Band take up valuable space in Harmonix’s weekly releases. Everybody wins.
I guess so… though having LEGO almost seems like overkill. Regarding Star Wars and Indiana Jones, LEGO actually has more to do with them than Rock Band, unless I missed the release of Rock Band-branded boxes of LEGOs somewhere recently. Even then, the LEGO theme factors heavily into the gameplay of their respective titles– how would LEGO really factor into something like Rock Band?
And so, I remain skeptical. In truth, I wonder if this isn’t simply an elaborate April Fool’s joke, much like Hideo Kojima’s Metal Gear, that they simply opted not to go through with.
Then again, after last year, I’d sooner expect Kojima to come through with his joke as a reality before I’d expect this announcement.
Slide courtesy of Kotaku, LEGO band member courtesy of 61FPS.
