The most famous band of all time gets the music game treatment.  How does The Beatles Rock Band hold up compared to its predecessors?  What about the three part harmonies?  Is the song list too short?  Find out in our "Fab" review!

After an exciting performance of "I want to Hold your Hand" out of Billy and the Co-Opticrew at PAX 2009, it was time for the band to break up and head their respective ways.  Sadly when I arrived home from the show there was no Beatles to be found in my house.  This simply did not sit well with my wife, and after several not so subtle hints - including her telling our 6 month old to ask me for game - it was time to trade in some games and pick up the Fab 4's videogame debut.

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Two releases hit the shelves this week.  The first is a little game featuring some indie band called The Beatles, coming in various packages, with premium instruments, standard instruments, and even without instruments at all.  Of course, individual guitars are available too.  The second release is the Game of the Year edition of popular co-op title LittleBigPlanet.  This edition has lots of previous DLC content included, and also a dozen custom levels made by fans.  Plenty of good co-op action out there this week!

MTV and Harmonix have revealed all but one of the 45 available songs for The Beatles: Rock Band, the latest batch reveals 19 new songs.  The songs are listed with their featured venues, from the Ed Sullivan stage to the Abbey Road Dreamscape.

Also unveiled is the Rock Band Beatles Store, which opens for business on 9/9/09 with All You Need is Love for $1.99.  They've also announced three  full albums are going to be available to download; Abbey Road, Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band, and Rubber Soul.  The Abbey Road album contains the 16 minute B-Side, which is also playable!  

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It won't be long till we are all living in a Yellow Submarine, prancing through Strawberry Fields, Twisting and Shouting that we love The Beatles: Rock Band.  Today MTV Games and Harmonix have unveiled 15 more tracks that will be featured in the game, some of which are their most popular.

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Earlier this week Microsoft held an event to showcase some upcoming holiday products including Windows 7, Zune HD, and numerous Xbox 360 titles.  We've already written up some extensive coverage of Halo 3: ODST, which if you haven't already, you should go check out.  Despite ODST being a highlight of sorts, there were other interesting things worth mentioning

By all reports the four player co-op Beatles Rock Band is shaping up to be another solid co-op music game.  There's not much different here in terms of gameplay from other Rock Band titles, save for the harmonizing vocals.  But what we do have is something fresh in the design of the campaign mode.

Details are scarce, but we do know it will follow the Beatles from beginning to end playing all of their famous venues and videos.  All the Beatles are there accurately recreated in Rock Band character form.  There are 45 unlocked tracks from the get go, with more promised as bonuses and DLC - including full albums like the announced Abbey Road.   If you want the complete skinny on The Beatles Rock Band, we suggest you check out the 1UP Preview.

And now the bad news.  No doubt due to licensing issues the DLC for Beatles Rock Band and the normal Rock Band Titles will not be compatible.  There's no way to import tunes into either game from the other, and there's no way to have your Beatles play Green Grass and High Tides.  For shame.

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Remember when the pricing was revealed for the bundled version of The Beatles Rock Band?  Many people were surprised at the price, $250, quite a bit more than other music game bundles.  Well, we now know the reason for the increase: there's quite a bit more in the box.

Officially dubbed The Beatles Rock Band Limited Edition Premium Bundle, the pack will include:

• The Beatles: Rock Band software
• Höfner Bass controller: Large scale replica of Paul's Bass
• Beatles-inspired and Ludwig-branded Rock Band 2 drums with classic pearl finish and vintage replica Beatles kick drum head
• Microphone
• Microphone Stand
  

And of course, "additional special content".  So, for the extra dough, you get a bigger, more realistic guitar, different colored drums, with a neat-o keen drum head, and a microphone stand.  Whether that justifies the premium cost or not is debatable.  Personally, I'll be content with the software, but I can definitely appreciate the cool factor of the bundle!

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Image Courtesy IGN
 

You have to tip your hat to Harmonix and MTV Games.  First, they scored some serious points by snagging the rights to Beatles music.  They continue to add to the awesomeness by including unreleased Beatles material in the game.  Dhani Harrison, son of Beatles guitarist George, revealed this information in an interview with Billboard.

Harrison is also looking forward to another release this year -- "The Beatles: Rock Band" interactive game that's due out Sept. 9 and marks the Fab Four's first entry into the digital music distribution realm. He's been intimately involved in the project and promises it will feature "stuff that has never been heard, never been released," though he's not at liberty to reveal specifics.

To the average video gamer, this may seem like standard news.  However, the inclusion of unreleased material of any sort, interviews, concert footage, or whatever, is a marketing milestone.  There are legions of fans who will pay a premium for such exclusive content.  This move, similar to the release of an alternate version of Rush's "Working Man" as Rock Band DLC, indicates that the Rock Band franchise is becoming a serious player in the music industry.

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Guitar Hero may have Aerosmith and Metallica, but Harmonix went straight to the top for their first band-branded title.  The game's title is simple, effective, and now official: The Beatles: Rock Band.  According to the game's website, we can look forward to playing Beatles tunes at home on 09/09/09.  The standalone version of the game will retail for the standard $60, guitars will set you back $100, and the bundle will be available for $250.  If those prices seem high, consider this quote.

"The Beatles: Rock Band will offer a limited number of new hardware offerings modeled after instruments used by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr throughout their career."

I'm guessing the instruments will be pretty sweet.  I'm also guessing that this game will sell like hotcakes, and will become the rhythm game equivalent of Wii Sports, where non-gamers buy a system just to play it.

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