The Beatles: Rock Band takes you on a short trip

I thought that I would put in my copy of The Beatles: Rock Band into my Xbox, play a few songs, and check a bit of the story out. Well, a few songs turned into a few hours and soon turned into me finishing the game. The majority of the songs are short and the set lists per era are fairly small. A person can finish the game in about five to six hours. This is good if you are an achievement hound, because there is one for finishing the game within 24 hours.

The game takes you on a journey through the Beatles’ career, from their first show at the Cavern Club to playing their last live performance on the rooftop of the Apple building. The songs are good—that’s a given—but the visuals are also quite something. The first half of the game has you playing live performances and focuses on the crowds and the band on stage, and the second half of the game has the band in the recording studio.

You start playing in the studio and you are just sitting on stools until the song gets going, then you are taken on a Magical Mystery Tour of wonderful animations and stunning visuals. There were a few songs that made me stop focusing on the incoming notes to play and zero in on the visual in the background.

When you do finish the game, be sure to watch all the way through the credits (which take a while to finish) as there is a bonus at the end. Take that time to go to the washroom, make a sandwich and stretch out your fingers.

Although it’s short, there are lots of challenging achievements to get. I played half of it with a friend and half by myself. But, now I want to get the whole set of guitars and drums because it would be great to go through the game with a group of friends.

There will be lots of downloadable content in the future, and it’s a fun game to pick up and play a bit because the songs are so good.