I was a huge fan of The Beatles Rock Band, so I was stoked when Green Day Rock Band was announced. Sadly this band specific version of Rock Band was a bit of a letdown.

Rating: T for Teen
Genre: Rhythm Game
Number of Players: Multiplayer
Publisher: MTV Games/Harmonix
Release Date: June 8, 2010

RENT

I’ve been a Green Day fan since the ’90s. They were a staple of what I liked to listen to back then, and even now. “Dookie” and “Nimrod” are still two of my favorite albums, so for half the game I was stoked. If you’ve played Rock Band, there isn’t much different to learn with regards to the controls and how the play style goes. The graphics are done nice, and the opening video was well done. The overall game style is on the cartoonish side and Harmonix did a great job rendering the band into the game environment. A lot of the facial expressions for each of the band members were there, and it lends a lot to the feel of the game.

There are three concert venues in the game: The Warehouse, the National Bowl in Milton Keynes and the Fox Theater in Oakland. This was a bit disappointing as I would have liked more venues, but it was offset by there being three to four setlists of songs for each venue. “Dookie” is played in The Warehouse, Milton Keynes is used for “American Idiot” (and “Warning” and “Nimrod” albums) and Fox Theater for “21st Century Breakdown.” The one thing I like is during the songs the way the band’s avatars act is very reminiscent of how they play live shows. One I can remember is during a slow part with a guitar while Billie Joe is singing, Tré comes up behind Billie Joe and dances before running back behind the drums to make his cue in the song. There are also instances where a crowd member will jump on stage and stage dive which I don’t recall from other Rock Band games.

As per other Rock Band games, it’s also good fun to play in a band with friends and get through the songs. There are also some achievements that you can earn with the full band which are always nice for your gamerscore. You also have the ability to import the songs off of Green Day Rock Band into Rock Band 2 so you can expand on that library. But that will cost you an extra $10.

Honestly, I did enjoy playing the game through the old stuff. Not to turn this into a music review, but I’m not a fan of most of “American Idiot” and I personally wish “21st Century Breakdown” wasn’t released. This did effect what I thought of the game, and it made playing some of the setlists for Milton Keynes and all of the Fox Theater a chore. I will at least give it to Harmonix that having three full albums in the game is a cool thing to have, and I think this would be a good feature for future band specific games. But I just wasn’t enthused or excited after going about halfway through the game.

The other downside is that this game came out after Beatles Rock Band, which in my opinion was amazing. It had great graphics, really chronicled the band’s career and seriously had some of the best cut scenes in a music game I’ve seen lately. To go from Beatles Rock Band which had several different venues to Green Day which only gives you three; from nostalgic cut scenes with vivid colors to just unlocking videos and images, Green Day Rock Band just can’t compare.

Now I know that there are people who do enjoy newer Green Day music, and would probably find this game really fun. But for your average Joe or for fans from back in the day, just rent the game. And don’t go in with too high expectations as you may just come out highly disappointed as I did.

Review copy was provided by Harmonix and does not affect the outcome of this review.