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The Beatles: Rock Band is the first band-centered entry in the Rock Band franchise. It was developed by Harmonix Music Systems and released on September 9th, 2009 for the PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. It features music exclusively by The Beatles.

Gameplay[]

New to Rock Band[]

New in The Beatles: Rock Band is vocal harmonizing. This can be achieved if players connect multiple microphones to their console and each player sings to a different vocal track.

To protect the integrity of The Beatles' song catalog, some features found in previous Rock Band games have been tweaked. Freestyle drum fills leading up to the activation of Overdrive (Beatlemania) by hitting the green drum pad have been removed completely, only leaving the glowing green note to hit. Using the whammy bar on extended notes does not affect the sound of the note, however it still contributes to increased points. Big Rock Endings are not attached to any songs in the game. The original vocals of the songs cannot be raised incrementally up or down or muted. They can only be kept as they are or lowered slightly.

Unlockable Items[]

Achievements/Trophies, Photos, videos, and instrument icons are unlocked as players progress through The Beatles: Rock Band.

Instrument Peripherals[]

Instrument peripherals designed for The Beatles: Rock Band include Paul McCartney's Höfner 500/1-inspired bass controller and Ringo Starr's Ludwig drum controller that were shipped as bundles with the game. Controllers based on John Lennon's Rickenbacker 325 and George Harrison's Gretsch Duo Jet were also created and sold separately.

These instrument controllers function similarly to the controllers designed for Rock Band 2, with most alterations being purely aesthetic. A "Limited Edition" bundle of the game includes one Höfner bass guitar controller, one Ludwig-branded drum controller, a microphone, a microphone stand, and Beatles-themed postcards. A second, less expensive bundle configuration contains peripherals first introduced with the original Rock Band game; this bundle does not contain a mic stand or postcards. The game was also released as a SingStar bundle with two microphones, and finally as a standalone release. The Rickenbacker and Gretsch guitar peripherals are sold separately.

All currently available Rock Band peripherals are compatible with their respective console version of The Beatles: Rock Band. Similarly, peripherals designed for The Beatles: Rock Band are backward compatible with other Rock Band titles. Some controllers designed for Guitar Hero games also work with The Beatles: Rock Band. (For a complete listing of which controllers work with which games, see Controller compatibility.)

Soundtrack[]

Main Article: The Beatles: Rock Band Setlist

Trivia[]

  • This is one of the only video games that The Beatles are featured in officially due to strict and expensive licensing requirements.
  • The DRM used in this game is Cloakware[1], from Irdeto, and was placed to protect the game's audio files better than other Rock Band titles due to strict licensing deal with Apple Corp.
  • This was the first Rock Band game not to be released on PlayStation 2.
  • The first known version of the game shown off has the Beatles in a venue from Rock Band 2 not animated with the visual style from Rock Band 2.
    • The song played was Day Tripper, meaning that it's one of the first songs to exist in the series as a whole.
  • Despite never being released in Japan, the game's Kiosk demo on Xbox 360 has files for a Japanese language.

Gallery[]

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