Green Day: Rock Band Review

Title: Green Day: Rock Band
Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Music/Rhythm
Rating: T for Teen
Release Date: June 8, 2010
Publisher: MTV Games
Developer: Harmonix
Website

Rock Band has recently become the standard for music games because of the vast number of songs on the Rock Band Network and the lack of oversaturation like the Guitar Hero games. There have only been a total of 5 Rock Band games, and I think there were at least 5 Guitar Hero games just last year.

Green Day: Rock Band focuses on the career of the genre defining punk rock band, Green Day, who is now in their third decade of rocking. The game centers around three of the group's best selling albums: Dookie, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown, with a small mixture of songs from their three most popular albums mixed in. I was upset to see there were no songs from Green Day's first two albums and no plan to release these songs or any of the absent ones from other albums in the form of downloadable content. It's unfortunate that some more popular songs were not included, but instead entire albums which include songs most people have never heard, were still available.

I can't help but compare Rock Band's Green Day edition to last year's Beatles edition. And when comparing them, there is no contest. The Beatles version had a lot more polish when it comes to background animations. In GD:RB all you get to see is three different venues with three different versions of the band members, whereas in TB:RB there were shots of in-studio rehearsals, music videos as well as popular venues such as TV shows and concerts. Graphically, GD:RB looks like it is a straight port of RB2 with the members of Green Day pasted into it.

Green Day: Rock Band is available for Xbox 360, PS3 and Nintendo Wii. The Rock Band series has a stranglehold on the music genre and doesn't seem to be letting up. By locking down on bands like Green Day and The Beatles, Harmonix has proven they mean business. Green Day: Rock Band may have been a step backwards, but it's still a solid music game. From a person who grew up in the 90s, has always been a huge fan of Green Day and loves music games, I'm a little disappointed by the lack of visuals, but I still find myself playing this game occasionally on the weekends.

Overall Rating: 3.5/5

March 13, 2010