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LEGO Rock Band Confirmed
SailorSpork writes to tell us that the rumored LEGO Rock Band has been confirmed, and it's set to be released later this year. The game is being developed for the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and DS. The press release lists the first five songs selected for the game, and says players will "work their way through local venues, stadiums and fantasy locations on Earth and beyond, that mimic the imaginative settings that the LEGO world offers. Also continuing the LEGO 'build-and-play' gaming experience, players will be able to create their own LEGO Rock Band style as they customize their minifigure avatars, band and entourage, including roadies, managers and crew." A new page on the Xbox website provides more (slightly odd) details: "Play killer riffs to destroy a giant robot, summon a storm, and demolish a skyscraper using the power of rock!"
Rock Band and Guitar Hero always struck me as rather strange games (even though they're really fun), but the idea of Lego Rock Band just made me check if it's april fool's again...
You don't have 7 year old children, do you?
Neither Rock Band or Guitar Hero are very age appropriate for kids. Not only are the lyrics and imagery questionable, even the "Easy" (for GH) level is pretty darned hard for them, and the "Beginner" (or whatever they call it) level is so dumbed down that even they think its just a joke.
On the other hand, it would be a great family game if they could keep up.
If they present present less sex and drugs oriented visuals, and a younger bias to the difficulty level, it opens the game up to a whole new audience.
If you prefer as an on-screen avatar a half-dressed, skanky chick with needle tracks up her arm, feel free to not buy this game.
And the worms ate into his brain.
Not well known outside of Denmark but Lego has put on rock shows in the past. In my one experience it was pretty cool. About 20,000 people total with the area in front of the stage gated off for kids only.
Best part was the main act complaining about needing their rest and their snapps (Aquavit).
Gotta Love the Danes
The age rating
Rock Band, Guitar Hero, etc are all modeled off of stereotypical rocker behavior - sex, drugs, and rock & roll - in both game design and music choice. That's fine for those games, MTV and Blactivision are shooting for a semi-authentic experience and they get the age rating they're planning on: T(een). But you can't really peddle T games as family games, because they're not. People (at least in the conservative segment) don't particularly want their kids playing T games, or want to be playing T games with them. Rock Band/Guitar Hero don't quite fit in the casual gamer/family mold that the Wii has managed build so well.
So they want to push Rock Band as a truly family friendly game, and that means paring down the objectionable material to get the rating down to an E(veryone). If they just release Rock Band 3 like this, they're going to drive off the core gamers that they're shooting for in their other titles. They don't want to end up with a Core Gamer XOR Families situation, they want both.
So you get an offshoot, something that's similar in gameplay but different enough in style that it's clearly not going to encroach on the mainline Rock Band audience while still being a Rock Band game. LEGO games have proven to be extremely popular with the family friendly segment (there's nothing objectionable about about LEGO), so they have great band name recognition. Parents will immediately recognize a LEGO title as being family friendly, and at this point Rock Band is popular enough that most people recognize it too.
So why LEGO Rock Band? Because it's going to be the Rock Band title they can slap an E on, sell to families, and sell extremely well due to the branding.