Green Day fans will enjoy rockin’ out with new ‘Band’
Every time Harmonix has released a standalone game in the Rock Band series, the Massachusetts-based company has delivered a great product.
Harmonix recently released the fourth game in the series, “Green Day: Rock Band.” The game marks its second band-specific title, following “The Beatles: Rock Band.”
Green Day’s game doesn’t hold up well against the Beatles game, although that doesn’t mean it’s a bad game.
Like all band-specific games, you’ll love or hate this one based on your feelings about Green Day.
All of the band’s biggest hits are included, and the set list focuses on the band beginning with its hit album “Dookie” and the music released since then. Super fans will likely be disappointed that nothing from the band’s early career is included.
Not many people would argue that Green Day has a better catalog than the Beatles, which allowed the developers of “The Beatles: Rock Band” to pull from a diverse sampling of music.
There was more at stake with the Beatles game as well. The Beatles don’t really license their music for many products, so Harmonix had to produce a game that the band approved. They also didn’t want to disappoint the massive Beatles fan base. So the art direction for the Beatles game was superb, and the extras were also top-notch.
The Green Day game has unique venues — albeit only three different stages — and has models of the bandmates during different periods in their career.
The biggest gripe I have is that there is no semblance of a complete story mode. You just pop in the game and start playing music. If that was going to be the case, then Harmonix should have just released the music as downloadable content.
The Green Day game does have one advantage over “The Beatles: Rock Band”: Its entire set list is exportable to your hard drive (for a $10 fee) for use on “Rock Band 2” and the upcoming “Rock Band 3.”
The game isn’t bad, particularly if you like Green Day. But it’s the weakest of the four games in the Rock Band series.