LEGO Rock Band (XBOX 360, Wii & PS3) Preview

Posted by Sean Garmer on 07.13.2009

LEGO and Rock Band together? That may sound weird to some, but I think this is going to be a good partnership for music game fans.

MTV/Harmonix have hit it big with the Rock Band franchise and with Beatles: Rock Band coming out in a couple of months they stand to make even more dough. Their vision of being the "ultimate" band game continues every week with the different kinds of DLC released. MTV/Harmonix as the first full band game has helped bring the music game genre into the family game realm. However, the music in the game is still of the teenage/adult variety and isn't always kid friendly. So MTV/Harmonix along with Travelers Tales Games decided to introduce a game that would be ok for the kids and the family to play together without having to worry about certain themes or words in songs. Thus comes LEGO Rock Band, LEGO has made some movie themed games, but never a music title. So it is going to be interesting what the reception will be for this game when it hits stores in December. Until then, 411 has this preview to keep you interested.




411mania was at E3 this year and I took some time to test out LEGO Rock Band multiple times. They didn't have any special instruments for this, at least at E3, if they make some later then that's cool. As far as the gameplay goes, this is still Rock Band at its core, putting aside the LEGO packaging. Instead of having humans rocking out they are replaced by the LEGO mini figures. The player gets to create their own mini-figure and use it in the various modes.

The game itself plays the same as its other Rock Band brothers, however everything has a LEGO look to it. The rock meter has a LEGO block around it as does the score and star board. Instead of collecting points you collect LEGO studs, which can then be used to purchase unlockables and build vehicles.




The two modes available were quickplay and a challenge mode. I played two songs in quickplay with some other folks and one song with some familiar ones. As I said those familiar with Rock Band have nothing to fear because it still uses the same tried and true gameplay, except it has a very easy mode for those that have never played the game that is similar to the one in Guitar Hero World Tour.



I asked about the challenge mode and the PR rep told me this is not going to be like regular World Tour. Along with playing the available songs the way to unlock things is by gaining studs and by completing the cutscene filled narrative. Cutscenes will show up on screen that give your band a challenge.

He mentioned that playing the song "Breakout" by Foo Fighters for instance, the band has to do their best to play as well as possible so they can take down a skyscraper. The highway will create solo parts (like at the beginning of the song the vocal track is the only highway that appears) possibly so that if you hit them, when the full band appears it will create a bigger score. Then when other tracks aren't playing they go away, to let the idle players to see how well there challenge is going on in the background.

The last time I played LEGO Rock Band it was with two of my fellow writers, John De Large and our editor Ramon Aranda. Here's a picture with me singing in the middle and John to my right on bass, with Ramon to my left on guitar. We played Europe's hit "Final Countdown."



411 will try to keep you posted if any more information comes out about this game before its November 30th release date. Before I go, Here's the setlist for the game announced so far, and then the trailer for LEGO Rock Band.


"Breakout" by Foo Fighters
"So What" by Pink
"I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5
"Song 2" by Blur
"A-Punk" by Vampire Weekend
"Everybody's Kung-Fu Fighting" by Carl Douglas
"Boys And Girls" by Good Charlotte
"Final Countdown" by Europe

The Trailer:

Video Games | LEGO Rock Band | E3 09: Debut Trailer

XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii

Screenshots
All 3 LEGO Rock Band Screenshots