LEGO Rock Band – PS3 – Review

Rock the block! … LEGO blocks, that is.

LEGO Rock Band is one of those musical-rhythm titles that scores well (pun
intended) when it comes to the music, but the rest of the game falls a little
flat.

For those who are not familiar with the Rock Band concept, you have a selection
of instruments and, depending on the ones you plug in for a given song, you get
a note highway of descending colored icons that represent notes. You time your
input on the drum or guitar controller (or hit the appropriate notes on the
scrolling tone/lyric bar) to score points.

The difference between this version and Rock Band 2 is that with the LEGO
version, things are not as hard as they might seem compared to the regular Rock
Band. The LEGO franchise is more for families and as such, is a bit easier. You
can almost snooze through the easiest difficulty setting (which is super easy,
and then it progresses to easy) and still score decently, and medium is merely
Ok. The margin of difficulty, though, jumps up a bit more than expected from the
medium setting to hard.

At the core of the game, though, is the music

The set list for the game goes as follows:

• 
  All American Rejects–"Swing, Swing"

• 
  The Automatic–"Monster"

• 
  Blink-182–"Aliens Exist"

• 
  Blur–"Song 2"

• 
  Bon Jovi–"You Give Love a Bad Name"

• 
  Boys like Girls–"Thunder"

• 
  Bryan Adams–"Summer of 69"

• 
  Carl Douglas–"Kung Fu Fighting"

• 
  The Coral–"Dreaming of You"

• 
  Counting Crows–"Accidentally in Love"

• 
  David Bowie–"Let’s Dance"

• 
  Elton John–"Crocodile Rock"

• 
  Europe–"The Final Countdown"

• 
  Everlife–"Real Wild Child"

• 
  Foo Fighters–"Breakout"

• 
  Good Charlotte–"Girls & Boys"

• 
  The Hives–"Tick Tick Boom!"

• 
  Iggy Pop–"The Passenger"

• 
  Incubus–"Dig"

• 
  Jackson 5–"I Want You Back"

• 
  Jimi Hendrix–"Fire"

• 
  Kaiser Chiefs–"Ruby"

• 
  Katrina & The Waves–"Walking on Sunshine"

• 
  The Kooks–"Naïve"

• 
  Korn–"Word Up!"

• 
  KT Tunstall–"Suddenly I See"

• 
  Lostprophets–"Rooftops"

• 
  Pink–"So What"

• 
  The Police–"Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic"

• 
  The Primitives–"Crash"

• 
  Queen–"We Are the Champions"

• 
  Queen–"We Will Rock You"

• 
  Rascal Flatts–"Life Is a Highway"

• 
  Ray Parker Jr.–"Ghostbusters"

• 
  Razorlight–"Stumble and Fall"

• 
  Spin Doctors–"Two Princes"

• 
  Spinal Tap–"Short & Sweet"

• 
  Steve Harly–"Make Me Smile"

• 
  Sum 41–"In Too Deep"

• 
  Supergrass–"Grace"

• 
  Tom Petty–"Free Fallin’"

• 
  T-Rex–"Ride a White Swan"

• 
  Vampire Weekend–"A-Punk"

• 
  We the Kings–"Check Yes Juliet"

• 
  The Zutons–"Valerie"

It is a good set list, covering a variety of music tastes and the songs have
been nicely transcribed to the note highways. The game features the story mode
(in which players move through the game and can earn new costumes for your band,
which will also appear in cut scenes), and the free play mode. The set list is
unlocked at the start and you can move through the songs and try to score high
marks for each attempt.

The game has some nice little caveats thrown into the mix. There are mini-games
along the way in the story mode. Once you get to the second venue, you unlock
the game where you demolish a building through the power of your music. Hit the
notes right and the building starts to come apart. Oh, don’t worry – this is a
game oriented for families and so the destruction is intentional. Playing well
and scoring well in gigs will unlock items like guitars and even parrots.

The cut scenes are often amusing and downright cute. You can even go into the
Rock Den and re-design the LEGO band members you have created.

The overall graphics are nice enough, but there are distractions along the way,
like the train that moves throughout the first level and runs across the bottom
of the screen, almost detracting from following the notes on the highway.

The game is built for bands and up to three can play.

LEGO Rock Band is perhaps toned down a little to make it accessible to families,
especially younger members who have not played a game like this before. The
whole mood and theme is built with that audience in mind, and in that regard it
succeeds. For RB fans, the set list is nicely diverse and all the songs are
decently scored.

Review Scoring Details for LEGO Rock Band

Gameplay: 7.5


An easy-to-navigate user interface coupled with solid controls, this is a game
that has taken the core foundations of Rock Band, added a new look and song list
and called it good.

Graphics: 7.0


Charming and cute but it’s still LEGO blocks. There is absolutely nothing wrong
with LEGOs, but the whole look of the game is a bit limited.

Sound: 8.0


A good mix of songs, some unexpected in a guitar-driven venue (like Crocodile
Rock), and the quality is very good on these master tracks.

Difficulty: Easy/Hard

Concept: 7.0


The same ideas rehashed here, nothing new has really been added.

Multiplayer: 8.0


Always more fun to play with others in a band setting, the game has a nice feel.

Overall: 7.5


The game has a decent amount of charm, and the mini-games are nice background
distractions. The song list is diverse enough to attract a wide range of players
and the game holds on to a light-hearted theme with the animations, background
graphics and overall mood.