Leveling Down

Hmm…this looks pretty familiar…

If you’re short on time, here’s the gist of this review: if you like Green Day, then you’ll like Green Day: Rock Band. Despite the music genre getting a little over-saturated these days, Green Day: Rock Band is still a solid entry in Harmonix’s lineup that is sure to please fans of the band. The music game does show signs of old age though, and it’s just not as compelling as The Beatles were last year. Hit the jump to find out why.

Soundtrack – Having a Blast
There are very few albums that I consider worth listening to from start to finish without skipping any tracks (Weezer’s blue album, Smashing Pumpkins’ Siamese Dream, and Red Hot Chili Peppers’ Blood Sugar Sex Magick come to mind). Green Day Rock Band features two such albums: Dookie and American Idiot, which are what I consider to be Green Day’s best two albums and the strongest aspect of Green Day Rock Band. In addition you get a smattering of tracks from Green Day’s other albums, including the majority of 21st Century Breakdown (the other songs were featured as DLC in Rock Band 2 and are compatible with GD: RB).

American Idiot and Dookie warrant a purchase on their own. Dookie is a throwback to the time when punk went mainstream in America, and its fast strums and lyrics about um…creative time wasting recall a time when MTV still showed music videos. I’ll never forget the video for Longview – a classic. American Idiot, released 10 years later, shows a real evolution in Green Day’s music: it’s a rock ballad, one that you can now see on Broadway if I’m not mistaken. Crazily enough, if you listen to American Idiot in sequence, it tells the story of “Jesus of Suburbia”, the album’s protagonist and the name of my favorite song on the album. It is an amazing musical piece of work. These two albums plus the other tracks, which are all the ones you’d really want anyway, make up a solid library, provided you like Green Day of course. You can also export the songs to Rock Band 2 or 3.

Gameplay – The Static Age
There aren’t really any gameplay innovations in Green Day Rock Band. There are only three venues, which is a bit of a bummer, and the 40+ tracks are split into these three venues. They are broken up by sets, which you can play through in any order you like. One thing that really bugged me is that I couldn’t make a setlist – I had to play one song at a time. With load times and with added animations before the song starts, I felt it was a bit of a drag – I just wanted to get to the songs.

Difficulty wise, it’s definitely more challenging than the Beatles: it’s a lot of fast strumming. There are also some tricky chord progressions that are a lot of fun to play. That being said, I haven’t even been in the red at all on Expert difficulty for guitar, so it’s definitely doable. The bass lines are definitely a highlight in this game, as are the drum sections. Green Day features three extremely talented musicians, and the style of music changes throughout the game. The vocal parts are a lot of fun to sing along to and the game includes harmonies as well. Harmonix seems to have basically adopted an “ain’t broke don’t fix it” mentality, and it serves them well.

Nitpicks – Give Me Novocaine
I don’t know, I love Green Day, but I think the music game genre is getting old. For this game, I found myself just trying to get through the songs, and so the aforementioned load times/animation sequences didn’t help that. Another thing that bugged me about the game was that my calibration was all off and I had to recalibrate my rig. I’m not sure if it’s because I got a new Jasper unit or what, but it’s frustrating, plus my guitar and drums don’t calibrate with exactly the same numbers.

I also think the setlist/venue thing is outdated in general. I don’t know if Guitar Hero’s “warrior of rock quest-line” business is going to help change things up, but the genre is screaming for something new. Another nitpick I have is the fact that this game came AFTER The Beatles Rock Band. It doesn’t make sense. I love Green Day, but they aren’t The Beatles, and although their music lends itself well to this type of game, I don’t think they are quite deserving of their own title.

Final Thoughts – Welcome to Paradise or Boulevard of Broken Dreams?
As I said in the intro, it comes down to this question: How much do you like Green Day? That will determine how much you like the game. It’s a solid music title, and there were definitely multiple tracks that I really rocked out to. The drums in particular are tons of fun. I’d say wait and pick it up when the game is cheaper (I got it for $45), or borrow a friend’s copy. Still, I could play Jesus of Suburbia all day and be happy – that song is awesome.

Final Score: B

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