THE success of Rock Band, Guitar Hero, Singstar and DJ Hero means there are now plenty of ways to pretend you’re rock star without ever having to go through the inconvenience of learning to play a musical instrument.
In fact all the aforementioned are pretty much just a 21st century version of thrashing a tennis racket to some Status Quo or singing your heart out into a hairbrush – kind of fun but fundamentally laughable to look at.
Green Day Rock Band is the latest version of the developer, Harmonix’s, pretty entertaining musical-multiplayer game, following on from Rock Band One and Two and Rock Band The Beatles.
The idea is simple, a bunch of friends take hold of pretend guitars and drums, another a microphone, and then you press the buttons at the time highlighted on the screen and you will successfully produce the music of Green Day. Excited? No me neither…
The problem is that by dedicating a game to just one band, you are drastically limiting its appeal.
The Beatles made sense because of their ridiculous and long-lasting popularity. Guitar Hero Metallica was another that made sense, given the amount of albums sold and the sheer volume of songs they had stored away.
For me Green Day are another matter entirely and don’t really belong in any conversation involving either of the previously mentioned artists.
Back when I was about 13, Green Day struck it big with their album Dookie. Then I’m not really sure what happened. That seemed enough really and they meandered along without reaching the same heights but somehow they fought back and became an even bigger band through their 2004 album American Idiot.
That’s all well and good but my concern with this game is where would you actually find four people who like Green Day, and each other, well enough to sit down and play this for more than 10 minutes?
I’m not saying this is a bad game it’s just one that only makes sense if you’re a big Green Day fan, and I’m not sure how many people reading this are…
However, even with all that, the one thing about Green Day’s songs is that they do translate well to the platform. They chug and riff along, which is reasonably entertaining when thrashing your guitar or pounding away on the drums.
You do also get both the full Dookie album and the full American Idiot album along with 12 out of the 18 tracks from their latest work, 21st Century Breakdown, which help make up the 47 songs available to unlock and play.
As with all the Rock Band and Guitar Hero titles, it’s fun and well presented and one that really will work for fans of the band.
RATING: 2/5 (unless you're a Green Day fan - 5/5)