Review: Green Day Rock Band

I hope you like Dookie.

Developer: Harmonix, Demiurge Studios
Release Date: June 8, 2010
ESRB: T for Teen

I admit that when Green Day Rock Band was first announced, my initial thought was “They’re going from the Beatles to Green Day?” It’s a jarring shift, and a surprising one, considering how poorly received Guitar Hero’s band-specific games have been. But nonetheless, here it is. So is it a triumph? Or a failure?

In a word, neither. Much like the band itself, this game has a serious identity crisis. Green Day is a band with a huge following – everyone from American Idiot-loving preteens to hardcore, Kerplunk-era adults. In recent years, the band has catered mostly to the former bunch, since they now outnumber the latter. Rock Band, however, seems to want to cater to both. Unfortunately, this is impossible. The art design mixes an anarchistic tone with images of guns and splatter-filled cutscenes of  young rebels on motorcycles, while the songs are edited to remove any curses (though apparently talking about masturbation is a-ok). This is actually MORE offensive to me, since many of the songs completely lose their power and/or meaning when they’re censored.

Also, nearly half the songs on the entire disc are from the band’s latest two albums, American idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. Old-school Green Day fans will be disappointed when they find out the game has NO songs from before Dookie, and only a handful from Nimrod and Warning.

On the other hand, the songs are a bit more entertaining to play than I initially thought they would be. Green Day is known for reusing the same chords over and over throughout their entire discography, and many of the songs suffer as a result. Many of the songs on Dookie, for example, are practically indistinguishable from each other when you compare their guitar note charts. However, when you add in the other instruments, you actually get a much better variety. Bass is especially fun to play.

Although there are very few venues, there are plenty of different challenges to try, and numerous incentives to play well. Pictures and videos of the band can be unlocked. It may not be a huge boost to the replay value, but it’s better than nothing considering Harmonix has stated the game won’t have any DLC, other than the Green Day songs already released on the Rock Band Network.

Basically, Green Day Rock Band isn’t as captivating as The Beatles Rock Band. It isn’t as versatile as Rock Band 2. And with the recent announcement of Rock Band 3, it’s practically already obsolete. However, it is still a better game than I thought it would be, and should please Green Day and Rock Band fans alike. Buy it if you love the band, rent it if you don’t.