It is an understatement to say that the licensing of popular rock bands was ultimately instrumental to the success of rhythm games in the late 2000's. Guitar Hero and Rock Band went from cover records to master tracks in the span of three years, and found ways to court major artists like Aerosmith, AC/DC, even Michael Jackson, into their games. There was one band though, that was conspicuously absent from all of this growth, one band that was seen as the elusive unicorn for rock and roll, to the point where their exclusion is notable. That band was The Beatles.
For many, The Beatles are one of the most celebrated and storied rock bands in history, incorporating a mix of experimental sound and music infused with 1960's pop rock. It is unlikely anyone reading this has never heard of The Beatles, who to this day are considered one of the best selling rock bands of all time, who at one point in the 1960s had seven records simultaneously in the top 200 charts. The Beatles ushered in a wave of major British Rock bands like The Who and The Rolling Stones, and are effectively legends in the industry.
The Beatles are also notoriously protective of their music catalogue, often only licensing covers for movies with a heavy fee. Their main company, Apple Corps, also controls any likeness of The Band itself, so re-creating The Beatles would be impossible without their blessing. The members of the band and their families are active in the business as well, with both Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr continuing to tour in their 80's with their respective bands, while the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have major shareholdings within Apple Corps.
To say the least, getting The Beatles into a video game would be difficult, making them one of the few acts that no one thought they would be able to secure. However, MTV president Van Toffler would meet with Dhani Harrison, the son of George Harrison and a musician in his own right, at the tail end of 2006. MTV games had just purchased Harmonix, and Dhani, familiar with the Guitar Hero franchise, was very interested in the plans for the first Rock Band game. From there, an unlikely partnership would be formed between Apple Corps and MTV games, with Dhani serving as the mediator between the two.
It was decided early on that The Beatles would be a standalone game, not connected to any other Rock Band title. Similar to the band-centric Guitar Hero games, The Beatles: Rock Band would be a 'fantasy version' of The Beatles rise to prominence. Both McCartney and Starr would even go through old footage of the band and fact check important moments of their past, while Oliva Harrison and Yoko Ono, the widows of George and John, provided feedback on visual elements, as well as insight on their late husbands' performances and lyric writing. All of them approved of artwork, band representation, even the storyboards for the animation sequences in-game.
It is important to note that Apple Corps saw The Beatles: Rock Band as a way to introduce the band's music to a new audience, so authenticity to the style of the band was important. The music production was also a challenge, with a lot of the band's earliest songs not even recorded as a multitrack format, which made developing working charts for the songs difficult. Harmonix was able to get Giles Martin, the son of George Martin, the producer of nearly every Beatles album, on board to help with this process.
Martin would create a digital backup copy of all the original Beatles tapes, and used audio forensics software to extract individual instruments through isolating the sounds, creating a multitrack version of the song. Apple Corps was also concerned with high-fidelity remaster tracks, but Harmonix was able to convince them towards the end of development to include them. Martin would also remix songs with live recordings. One notable example was "Paperback Writer", which saw Martin take parts of the live performance over the studio version, to give it a 'live concert' feel while retaining a clearer version of the song for play.
To say the least, a lot of thought and care was put into the music in The Beatles: Rock Band. More so than any other rhythm game at this time, the remastering of the music and the audio recordings included were meticulously cared for. Dhani Harrison noted that some material never released by Apple Corps was also included in the game, from band chatter, to incidental sounds, to even instrumental tune ups. Finally, the game was the first in the Rock Band series to include vocal harmonies, a new feature that would be carried over to other games.
Visually, the game has two phases, the first is the tour phase of The Beatles, attempting to re-create a sense of their early days touring. Apple Corps gave Harmonix access to their archive of photos and videos of the Band through the years. Accurate re-creations of The Ed Sullivan Show, Shea Stadium, and other locals gave the art direction visual authenticity. Dhani Harrison also helped with motion capture, making sure little bits of the band talking or improvising were included in camera incidentals. Harmonix even recruited The Fab Four, a famous Beatles Tribute band, for the motion capture.
The second visual design would be the psychedelic dreamscape phase for their album creation in the late 1960s. Twenty songs feature artwork and camera direction that matches the song's lyrical content in ways that are both obvious and clever. Apple Corps, while very restrictive on the art direction of the game, allowed Harmonix more creative freedom for the dreamscape sequences. These sequences are sublime; ranging from vibrant and colorful to moody and atmospheric, to just simply fun and off-kilter in ways that The Beatles would be proud of.
That is the thing about The Beatles: Rock Band. It is clearly a labor of love and intense care by all creators involved. Apple Corps and Giles Martin worked hard to ensure a sense of authenticity and design that would be worthy of The Beatles, while Harmonix was able to create a visual style that would be wholly unique from other Rock Band titles. It is probably telling that I have not even talked about gameplay at all yet, because under the hood it's Rock Band, with all of its mechanics unchanged from Rock Band 2.
It is also a Rock Band game that is wholly isolated from the rest of the franchise. The Beatles: Rock Band is one of two Rock Band games to not be connected to the massive DLC library, and to include only songs from one artist. In total, 45 songs from twelve different albums would be included. The track listing is frankly fantastic, with staples like "A Hard Day's Night", "Come Together", "Something" and "While my Guitar Gently Weeps" being joined by more obscure choices like "Hey Bulldog", "Dig a Pony", "Taxman" and "Helter Skelter". Three albums would also be released in full as DLC; Abbey Road, Rubber Soul, and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, along with the song "All You Need Is Love", which would donate a portion of the download price to charity. In total, 74 songs were available forThe Beatles: Rock Band, one of the lowest counts if you include DLC, all by the same band, all of which can only be played in this game.
You can say this is criticism of the game, and honestly it is. The only real addition being an optional gameplay mode for one instrument, and the relative segregation of the game from the rest of the Rock Band series do make it harder to justify than most. It is also an easier game than Rock Band 2, with only a few songs being any form of challenge for all four instruments.
Still, this is kind of missing the forest from the trees here. The fact that The Beatles: Rock Band even exists at all is a minor miracle in its own right. It is a game that is so well crafted, so polished and frankly, so celebratory of an iconic band that it is hard to really measure the value of the gameplay experience over its importance for the genre. The Beatles: Rock Band is a game that is more important for its subject matter than for being a game, and Harmonix still delivered one of the best gameplay experiences it could with it despite that limitation.
When facing facts, The Beatles: Rock Band is a good game that doesn't rock the boat much gameplay wise. Like all of the band-centric titles, things matter most depending on your enjoyment of the band itself. Still, if there was ever an excuse for a single band being represented in a game, this is it. A game like The Beatles: Rock Band, one wholly co-developed by the band itself in a way that pays tribute and provides fun, is always going to be a tough sell especially when it's isolated from the rest of the Rock Band franchise. For me, it is the best stand-alone band game made in this period, and with the meticulous care put into its creation, it's not hard to see why. The Beatles are the one band that can arguably justify a standalone game for themselves, and it is great that it exists as a piece of music history that we can play.