Guitar Hero: The Beatles sends us into a terrifying alternate universe

by JC Fletcher on Sep 7th 2009 11:00AM

Have you ever wondered why single-band Guitar Hero games meet with a chorus of groans, but when Rock Band does it, it's assumed to be the best thing ever? This video depicting a fictional Guitar Hero: The Beatles captures it perfectly. We don't even want to explain the joke(s) -- experience the train wreck in real time after the break.

The Guitar Hero: Whoever series reached its ridiculous extreme with the recent announcement that the Van Halen game would be given away as a freebie with Guitar Hero 5. While we appreciate it as a deal, it shows just how much even Activision thinks of it.

[Thanks, Jeff]

Tags: guitar-hero, guitar-hero-the-beatles, Microsoft, Nintendo, parody, rock-band, the-beatles-rock-band, Wii, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (125)

Hasn't this been up for a while? I mean, we've been making jokes about Guitar Hero Beatles the entire week.

Yeah, I also Tipped it to Joystiq a few days ago. I think they were in a come or something.

Everybody knows the Beatles are bigger than Jesus.

Wow. Comedy nirvana.

I also believe Joystiq are in a comb.

Someone posted this in the comments on some other Beatles story.

KFelon:
Everybody knows the Beatles are bigger than Jesus.

who are you? a 70 year old atheist?

The Artist:
I'm so glad your account exists.

@KiKiN
Hate to tell you, but John Lennon actually said that, not me. Perhaps you need a history lesson.

The Beatles aren't my type of music, but I do know they are one of the most influential bands of all time. If you were going to chose a band to focus an entire music game around, you couldn't pick a bigger band from any Rock genre. The closest one would be The Rolling Stones maybe?

joystiq has a combover?

Not funny.

I think someones feelings are hurt.

Guitar Hero updates on this site are the equivalent of Twitter updates. Just not interesting :(

I'm not saying Twitter is interesting btw. Just so damn many guitar hero updates that always say the same stuff.

its because a new one comes out every 12 minutes, and it is a game, and this is a game blog

the reason that the same complaints aren't being made rb:b is because it actually is different than other rock band games, as joystiq best put it, its a video game documentary of the beatles, where harmonix has actually worked to make this band come to life in the game. though it may be for the beatles fans more than for the normal audience, rock band has actually made the game based around beatles, rather than make another rb and throw a few beatles songs in there for good measure.

I laughed at some of it cause it had some factual ties to it, but some of it was just wrong. Like in GH Metallica, there weren't any covers to any of the Metallica songs, and each of the different bands in there were actually inspirations to them or good friends with them.

Like I said before, if there really was a GH Beatles it would be met with the same backlash as all the others even if it was made well like Metallica's was. Harmonix really can do no wrong at this point.

I'll bet $50 Monopoly bucks that they come out with Guitar Hero: The 80's sometime in the next year. Why else give out Van Halen for free? TO PREPARE US... :(

They already did

http://www.gamestop.com/Catalog/ProductDetails.aspx?product_id=65809

I believe it was Harmonix's last Guitar Hero game with Activision.

They already made Guitar Hero: The 80's (might be not be the exact title) smart guy. It was released between GH2 and GH3. I'd look into what has already happened before you attempt to make a joke.

i just like RB better because of the better note charts and the cleaner interface. that, and my library of songs is a lot bigger because of RB1 import and some DLC. harmonix does deserve the love because they actually do work to be perfect. have you seen the smells like teen spirit note charts in GH5? nuff said.

about that...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_Hero_Encore:_Rocks_the_80s

I like Rock Band more too, hell I have over 300 songs at least and haven't bought a core Guitar Hero game since 3. But GH Metallica was really good and made really well, thanks to the mo cap they did it really looked like a Metallica concert. But thanks to the gaming media, they made it look like a cheap cash in that was throw together in 2 months.

@enosoma. Go back in time to July 2007. Guitar Hero rocks the 80s came out.

So they are giving out van halen in preperation for a game that came out 2 years ago?

Oh crap, didn't realize. Shows how much I care about this sort of thing.

@ Slyphon Filter

You're kidding me right? You're gonna knock off a game because the note chart is bad? The games are supposed to be fun and people can play the songs they like. If you're gonna complain the note chart isn't close enough to the real song or something stupid like that, why aren't you complaining about how you're using a plastic guitar instead of a real one?

Here's a perfect example.

http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/xbox360/guitarherometallica?q=guitar%20hero%20metallica

Look at the summaries of the lower scores. What's their complaints: That it's a game strictly for fans of Metallica and that it isn't very different than the other guitar hero games.

Sound familiar? It should, cause that's exactly what RB Beatles is but those same complaints are either not being said at all or they're knocked down to extremely minor complaints that don't affect the score at all. I rest my case.

Well Mr. Manly ESC Mcbeefington Ferguson The Second... Why the hell would you buy the game in the first place? And then proceed to bitch about it? Most people would take a look at the setlist first and then decide if there are enough songs they like to buy the game.

The older versions of guitar hero had a lot of cover versions of the songs.

"Harmonix really can do no wrong at this point."

...Because they've earned that reputation by making this genre as we know it today, taking it to new levels by adding the drums and vocals, and living up to their promise of quality weekly DLC like they said they would.

While Guitar Hero, who has spammed their franchise, has not lived up to the DLC potential they should have, and has arrived late with the multi-instruments, I have no trouble assuming that whatever Harmonix is putting out is going to be good at this point.

@Matt

Yes, a note chart can be important. As for me, it either makes or breaks my immersion and/or fun (haven't decided which exactly it is, or if it's both) in "playing the song". And I don't necessarily mean because it's just like playing a real guitar, because of course it's never going to be the same. But so far a very small percentage of GH games post-Neversoft have *clicked* for me when playing. At one point I actually thought I had just gone off rhythm games, until I finally decided to pick up RB a year late after its release, and everything felt right again.

Case in point (and this addresses your other post, too), GH:WT had some awesome songs on it, which in turn should have been awesome for me to play; but they were underwhelming. RB has some songs that I find audibly awful, but I actually enjoy playing. I thought Matthew Sweet's "Girlfriend" in GH2 was a horrible song, but it turned out to be pretty fun, game-wise.

For the record, I'm not a power-gamer, and in turn don't believe that more difficulty always = more fun.

i do agree tmac, GH:metallica was ripped on way too much. the beatles may have a bigger audience, but it's the same principal. and matt, the note charts help you feel like you're actually playing, at least a bit. if the note charts aren't anywhere close to what the song plays like, can you feel like a rock star? and isn't that what these games are about? to play these songs just like a rock star? to do that on a real guitar would take years of practice. these games take minutes. see what i'm getting at, or should i carefully explain each and every bit?

'Sound familiar? It should, cause that's exactly what RB Beatles is but those same complaints are either not being said at all or they're knocked down to extremely minor complaints that don't affect the score at all.'

First, there's a HUGE difference in the appeal of the Beatles versus Metallica (whom I respect but don't care for that much).

Second, RB:Beatles introduces new Beatles material.

Third, the art for some of the Beatles tracks (notably the dreamscapes) are different from what we've seen before.

I'm also pretty sure that the ability to have 3 vocalists is different.

Is there still hypocrisy in how GH and RB games are treated? Probably, but RB:Beatles isn't an example.

That video could have been hilarious, but alas.

"Have you ever wondered why single-band Guitar Hero games meet with a chorus of groans, but when Rock Band does it, it's assumed to be the best thing ever?"

Because Joystiq has the highest concentration of RB fanboys on the entire internet.

Sure, Van Halen was a bad idea, but Guitar Hero Metallica is still the all-around most solid rhythm game on the market.

"Because Joystiq has the highest concentration of RB fanboys on the entire internet"

That may be true, but the whole gaming media has done a good job twisting everything Harmonix does into a great thing. The sad thing is, I come off supporting Guitar Hero when really I don't approve of multiple games per year or band games (except Metallica, it was really good).

I just want the hypocrisy to stop. If you're gonna call one out, call the other out when it does the same thing.

Nope, that honor belongs to Amplitude...

"but Guitar Hero Metallica is still the all-around most solid rhythm game on the market."

if you don't mind me asking, what's your reasoning?

VH will probably be really good. I mean, it's Eddie VanHalen. Isn't he still one of the greatest guitarists ever? Seems like a perfect fit to me.

And I voted you up.

"Because Joystiq has the highest concentration of RB fanboys on the entire internet"

you're all wrong

http://www.rockband.com/forums/

Thanks for proving my point for downvoting me.

@Slyphon Filter: I think it's the best rhythm game because it has the best ratio of fun to play songs to good songs. Plus, Neversoft really stepped up their game in terms of presentation.

@Matthew Perry

"Thanks for proving my point for downvoting me."

Thank you for saying the stupid thing every idiot says.

We down voted you because you're stupid, not because we're fans of RB. We down voted you because only an ignorant Activision fanboy would refuse to admit that all Activision games, including GH, are whored out as often and as long as they can.

Stop trying to make yourself sound like a martyr, it only makes you sound stupid.

Maybe people treat it in higher regard because The Beatles are a much bigger deal than Metallica? Maybe?

@Veko

You're mad at Activision because they have a business model that works? I'll admit that they're putting out a bit too many GH games per year, but it works better than Harmonix's business model. You want to know why it works? Because game releases get advertising and weekly DLC doesn't. That's probably why they're releasing Rock Band Unplugged, The Beatles: Rock Band, and Lego Rock Band all within a 6 month time frame. I'm just hoping that they're going to release a RB3 sometime next year that has more time put into it than RB2 did (ask European and Australian gamers what they think of RB2....i think they still don't have it). And for fuck sake steal some stuff from GH....open strums bass notes, broken chords, a jukebox mode, something of a story mode and some better character customization.

fair enough, can't call anyone out on their music taste unless it includes disturbed, the jonas brothers AND nickelback.

not to say that metallica is bad, since i love them very much.

loved it, i mean i would prefer rock band to guitar hero but rock band is always released a year later on the ps3 for us in the UK which SUCKS

That's why I imported. And payed less then I would buying it in the UK.

Does the imported version work alright? As in, can you download songs from the store or import the Rock Band 1 songs? And if the instruments break, will EA repair them even thought they're from Rock Band 2?

I only ask because I've been wanting to get into Rock Band for a while, but the dodgy instruments of the original have put me off getting it...

(Sorry for the possible double post. I wasn't getting an email for my first reply).

No. I imported RB1 and the US version of the disc was incompatible with some DLC I bought from the EU PSN store. So I trotted down to Woolworths and paid £45 (!) for another copy of the game I already owned, and guess what? There was a release day bug that rendered some of the DLC unplayable anyway. But at least it appeared in the setlist and they fixed it a few days later.

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Guitar Hero: The Beatles sends us into a terrifying alternate universe

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Posted: Sep 7th 2009 11:04AM Special Agent Steve said

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