When I first read rumors of a Lego Rock Band game, I thought they were ridiculous. The franchises are managed by unaffiliated media heavyweights, and the brands target different demographics. Once the rumors were confirmed, though, it seemed logical – the Lego games brand would expand beyond platforming into other gameplay types, and Rock Band would have a family-friendly title with which to take its casual multiplayer innovations to the masses. There are a few ways that the franchises are similar: both use unlockables and customization to promote continual play, and Rock Band’s highly stylized world is related to the Lego games’ abstracted environments. Lego Rock Band effectively bridges these distinct franchises while providing a gameplay experience that is both familiar and fresh.
Lego Rock Band is more a Rock Band game than a Lego game, especially when it is compared with the other Traveller’s Tales titles. Nearly every component of Rock Band’s gameplay has been left intact. All of the main menu options appear: Story Mode/Tour, Free Play, Practice Stage, Rock Shop, and Music Shop. A glaring omission is online multiplayer – Lego Rock Band multiplayer is local only. While The Beatles: Rock Band’s note charts generally seem easier and more accessible, Lego Rock Band songs play just like the songs in the core Rock Band games. In fact, since these songs can be exported to Rock Band 1 or 2 for $10, there is no real gameplay difference.
To encourage children and first-time rockers, Lego Rock Band adds a Super Easy mode that relies solely on basic rhythm. Players only keep time with the beat; guitarists and bassists use the strum bar only, drummers may strike any pad, and vocalists may sing at any pitch. Even on other difficulties, Lego Rock Band in practice is a perpetual no-fail setting. When other Rock Band games would end the song, Lego Rock Band instead subtracts from the score and triggers a gameplay segment called Stud Recovery. Here, a player can earn back that subtracted amount by hitting the correct notes while continuing to play through the song. This has limited utility in single-player, as bad performances will fail to collect the stars needed to continue progression through the game’s Story Mode; however, it does limit the frustration of outright failure, and serious players will consider one-star results punishment enough.
Lego Rock Band’s setlist is probably its biggest flaw when compared with other Rock Band titles. Like Band Hero, this game emphasizes family-friendly music. There’s an emphasis on pop generally and on music that appeals to children more specifically. It is important to remember that kids, like other music fans, have a range of tastes. Lego Rock Band is quite inclusive, although in some cases that just means there are a lot of different kinds of bad.
The "tween" pop is, frankly, awful, but there are also songs popularized by animated films that appeal to even younger children. Pop and lighter rock is better represented here than in other titles, and these songs span the decades from The Jackson 5 to KT Tunstall. Though the selection is uneven, the best songs in Lego Rock Band are among the best of any Rock Band game, including Jimi Hendrix Experience’s “Fire,” Blur’s “Song 2,” and Iggy Pop’s haunting “The Passenger.” It is all the more unfortunate that those songs are not available in Story Mode until late in the game, but that complaint is as old as Rock Band itself. There is always Free Play for players who want instant gratification.
Another major musical limitation to Lego Rock Band is its limited compatibility with the existing Rock Band library. Only family-friendly songs can be played in Lego Rock Band, so don’t expect to see minifigures singing about sex or violence. There are about 600 songs I can play in Rock Band 2, but my Lego Rock Band setlist is only 200 or so. There are advantages to this approach; “Our Lips are Sealed” and “Walk Like an Egyptian” do not feel as out of place in a Lego Rock Band setlist as they would in another game.
While Lego Rock Band will import individual, acceptable songs from albums or song packs, the Lego Rock Band Music Store only supports individual songs and does not recognize which songs have already been purchased as part of a Rock Band song pack. Though Lego Rock Band recommends making purchases from this store to guarantee compatibility, it is safer to purchase songs from Rock Band 1 or 2 if you also have those games. The Rock Band website will confirm if a song can also be played in Lego Rock Band. (Note: the Lego Rock Band Music Store lists Album and Song Packs as “Coming Soon,” so this support will probably be patched in at a later date.) These content limitations firmly establish Lego Rock Band as a support game; it will not be replacing Rock Band 2 long-term.
Unlockables have long been a key part of Lego games, and Lego Rock Band integrates unlockables with the Rock Band franchise’s progression. As in the platform games, Lego Rock Band’s score is measured in Lego studs, which also function as the game’s currency. The Rock Band games generally use stars to open up new sections, but Lego Rock Band uses both. The player uses studs to purchase vehicles that open up two additional venues, but the player cannot proceed to the second until enough stars are earned. Though these vehicles are rendered in Lego, they do not seem to be based on specific Lego sets, and they cannot be customized. The vehicles are also purchased fully assembled, which differs from the way that other Lego games put them together by combining minikits or having the in-game characters manually build them. Though this is a minor criticism, it is symptomatic of the ways actual Lego bricks are underutilized.
Another staple of other Traveller’s Tales Lego titles that helps present the idea of Lego world is the hub level. Lego Star Wars had the Mos Eisley Cantina, Lego Indiana Jones had Indy’s university, and Lego Batman featured Wayne Manor and Arkham Asylum. Lego Rock Band’s central location is called the Rock Den, and it is a welcome addition to navigating the various Rock Band gameplay modes. Instead of exiting to the main menu to switch to Free Play or Practice Mode, the player can leave the tour of Story Mode, return to the Rock Den, and quickly switch among those options and other sections including a video library and the Rock Shop. Each of these options is represented as a room off the hub, and these spaces can be customized with Lego furniture and signs purchased from the Rock Shop. This is not as much fun as building an avatar, but it does help personalize this useful menu visualization.
Rock Band’s narrative is limited, but its consistent visual style is a good match for being rendered in Lego. The band loading animations show minifigures wailing away on their blocky instruments and minifigure skulls substitute for Rock Band’s stylized skulls. Other elements like the loading screen curtain and the tiger on the main menu appear to be built from Lego bricks. Lego product lines are well-integrated into the game. There are levels based on Lego’s popular Town, Castle, Pirate, and Space sets, and even newer products like Power Miners are represented. The entire gameplay arena features the toys and characters, including the stage, scenery, and crowds
Another staple of the Traveller’s Tales Lego games is the funny dialogue-free cutscene. In the licensed games, the action is easily understood because it is presented through parodies of well-known stories. The Lego universe adds fantastic story elements, as pirates fight sea monsters and knights fight trolls. The basic tour narrative also helps provide context for progression through the game; as in other Rock Band titles, you amass fans and play bigger shows to reflect your increasing ability and fame. Lego Rock Band pokes some fun at that idea, as your fan club and record contracts become intergalactic. Rock Band’s story never took itself very seriously, so the Lego silliness helps keep the game moving.
Each venue also has a Rock Power Challenge. There is no Overdrive during this gameplay mode and players do not have individual crowd meters, so they are a bit more difficult than standard performances. In each event, the “power of rock” accomplishes some task related to the level’s theme. The challenges are usually inspired by the song’s title or lyrics and complement’s the venue’s environment. For example, in a particularly clever Haunted House level, the player performs “Ghostbusters” to chase ghosts away. While playing with the song, the in-game world changes, and tongue-in-cheek messages pop up to provide encouragement: “Impeccable Ghost Herding!” Though it is essentially just a video playing behind the note charts, these moments create a sense of urgency and a dramatic payoff that is also absent from standard playthroughs.
Dramatically interacting with the setting during the Rock Power Challenges helps give meaning and purpose to the levels, which normally are so much window dressing. They also advance the game’s relatively spare plot, with climactic conflicts that lead into opening additional story areas. In some ways, the Rock Power Challenges are successors to the visual dynamism of The Beatles: Rock Band, and a welcome flight of the imagination. The Rock Band 2 stages become stifling by comparison. In fact, I found these moments so fulfilling that they began to inform regular gameplay with downloaded songs. Playing “Pick up the Pieces” while surrounded by Lego bricks and singing along to “As She Was” while the sun rose over my band’s stage on the moon are two of my favorite Rock Band experiences among all of the games.
Recreating actual musicians as Lego minifigures is an inspired use of the game’s Lego aspect. With the exceptiona of The Beatles: Rock Band and the newly announced Green Day: Rock Band spin-off, the Rock Band games do not use celebrity likenesses. At set periods within Story Mode, the player’s character will swap out for Lego versions of real bands. The first of these segments is Queen’s “We Will Rock You” when the band takes to the Lego stage for a “flashback” performance. This is repeated each time an included artist’s song debuts within Story Mode. This also extends to Free Play; if a player on the microphone chooses David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance,” their avatar will be replaced with the Lego version of rock icon
This is the only way to play as these musicians, as they are locked to their own songs. Moreover, those songs are locked to the performers, at least initially. Before using your own avatar to participate in a song’s performance or adding one of these songs to a setlist, it must first be unlocked through a Story Mode or Free Play session. This even applies to purchased music; in my case, I had to play the Queen song pack titles individually before I could create a setlist that included them. It is an odd restriction—probably a result of the types of artist negotiations that Activision has been flaunting—and it is not communicated in any of the game materials. Nevertheless, it is a minor issue, especially since the affected songs are from just a few artists. The trade-off for Lego Iggy Pop’s swagger is worth it.
Players customize their Lego avatars using the Lego Rock Band Rock Shop, which essentially duplicates the same from Rock Band. New hair, clothes, and instruments are purchased using the game’s Lego studs. Many of the customization options mirror Rock Band’s; leather jackets and ripped jeans abound. Continuing Rock Band’s cross-marketing, a player can purchase minifigure-scale Fender, Gretsch, and Jackson guitars. The main expansion to the avatar customization process uses an expanding roster of Lego minifigures. Additionally, just as Rock Band 2 gave players the ability to alter their bandmates’ appearances, Lego Rock Band elaborates with customization of roadies, your manager, and an entire entourage.
New minifigures become available for purchase at the Rock Shop after each completed performance in Story Mode. Once purchased, the minifigure can be used in whole or in part to edit existing avatars. Each of the minifigure’s component Lego pieces—hair or hat, head, torso, and legs—can become part of the player’s avatar. The minifigure selection is exciting for Lego fans and includes each of the previously mentioned product lines. These characters are all in the default Lego yellow. There are more unusual figures as well, with Lego versions of monsters like Dracula, the Frankenstein monster, and the Wolfman.
Additionally, many of the default Rock Band characters such as Heather Moonbeam are reinterpreted as Lego people. As with licensed minifigures from Indiana Jones and Star Wars, these Rock Band characters feature more realistic skin tones. Though Rock Band’s collection of characters is quite diverse, the minifigure components from these characters do not provide the same level of versatility as in the character editor of the main Rock Band titles. Not surprisingly, persons of color are not well represented with minifigure customization. This means that one of the most appealing aspects of creating Lego characters and of Rock Band in general—the ability to put yourself in the game—is not available to a wide range of players. And it is not just the minifigure heads that are affected; many minifigure torsos either show skin in the body or feature hands that match that character’s color. As a result of these factors, and because of the way the minifigure unlock system works, there are more personalization options available with Lego yellow.
The concern is clearer with an example using my own avatar and game data. I have a dark brown beard and glasses, and I wanted to recreate that with my player character. The head of the Lego City Foreman minifigure is a very good likeness. If I wanted a white beard, I could select the Train Conductor, and if I wanted to take off my glasses or shave my beard, I could use the Firefighter or Commuter respectively. There are also more outfits available across the general Lego brands than from the specific Rock Band characters. This range of options is not available beyond Lego yellow. While my own skin tone differs from this virtual recreation, it more closely resembles me than it would members of other races. Though it is a frustrating design choice, it is not a complex one.
Each of the outfits in the Rock Shop has multiple color choices, and by adding a secondary choice for skin players would potentially be able to represent themselves more realistically if desired. Unfortunately, this is not so much an oversight as a conscious choice, as the Lego brand has consistently been managed to make racial representation exclusively the domain of their licensed products. To a certain degree these concerns are beyond the range of just this game; after all, the other Lego games did not have enough variety to allow a player to place him- or herself in the game. This is an expected and established part of Rock Band gameplay, however, and worthy of comment.
Lego Rock Band is a great example of leveraging the strengths of different types of games to support each other. The best elements of both franchises are present in this game. Rock Band players may be hesitant to water down their library with the songs here, but it is more than a glorified expansion pack, and is an entertaining game with its own style. The age and content restrictions do limit its long-term playability, but it is a fun temporary substitute for the main Rock Band games. While not an essential title for fans of the other Traveller’s Tales games, Lego Rock Band does present a new direction in the franchise, and it promises that the Lego games brand is more than a fancy skin on old-fashioned platforming. While it is the best music game to date for playing with or near children, it works on its own merits. There might not be any earth-shattering advances, but Lego Rock Band does not weaken the legacy of either series. Ultimately, Lego Rock Band is a solid but supplementary Rock Band game that is greater than the sum of its parts, even if it occasionally comes up short.
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Good: A new and unique way to play Rock Band Songs. The Rock Power Challenges, though gimmicky, are refreshing. Lego Iggy Pop!
Bad: The weak setlist and limited compatibility with downloaded songs gets old and will make you miss the range and quality of Rock Band 2.
Ugly: Broken music store, and a blown opportunity with character creation.
Playthrough: Completed Story Mode, playing songs on disc as well as several dozen downloaded titles (on bass, incidentally. It counts!)
Disclosure: Retail copy of the game purchased by the reviewer.
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