The Beatles: Rock Band

The Beatles: Rock Band from 2009 was an exceptional project — a musical rhythm game that, instead of a generic playlist, offered a complete musical biography of The Beatles, complemented by archival photographs, period recordings, and stylized 'dream' visual scenes inspired by the band's individual eras. Players on drums, guitar, bass, and vocals moved chronologically through the discography, from the early years at the Cavern Club to the later studio albums, so the game functioned simultaneously as an interactive documentary and as an entertaining multiplayer party game. For singers, it also offered a system of up to three-part harmonies that could reward the accuracy of individual vocal lines, not just the main melody.

The PlayStation 3 version launched on the same day as the Xbox 360 and Wii editions and offered the same content and the same songs. Compared to the Wii version, however, it had a full-fledged online multiplayer mode — the Wii of the time didn't allow online play for Rock Band titles to the same extent as the HD consoles, so PS3 players could compete and cooperate with remote teammates, which wasn't possible on Wii. The graphical presentation of the 'dream' interlude scenes was also more detailed on PS3 thanks to the more powerful hardware, with sharper textures for the archival photographs and smoother animation.

Instrumental peripherals (guitar, drums, microphone) were only partly compatible between platforms due to the different connectors on each console, which was a common complication throughout the Rock Band series for owners of multiple systems — players often had to buy a separate set of instruments for each console. Even so, the content and musical experience on PS3 remained identical to the other HD versions of the game, and after completing the career mode, players could freely replay any unlocked song in any order, whether solo or with a full four-member band.

Why play it: Beatles fans will appreciate that the musical content and experience on PS3 are identical to the other HD versions of the game, even though instruments from other consoles won't carry over due to different connectors.