I’ve been a Green Day fan, off and on, for about eighteen years now. (Yes, I’m old. Shut up.) My first girlfriend turned me on to them, courtesy of — if memory serves — a pen pal in Berkeley who followed the band since the beginning. I was just getting into more punk-like music at the time, and Kerplunk! was a revelation: Fast, powerful, and catchy as hell.
By the time they signed to a major label and released Dookie, I had already gotten over the idea of bands “selling out” by signing big-label contracts, so I was able to appreciate it for what it was: Sort of Kerplunk! part II, with better production and a slightly more poppy sound, and if it wasn’t quite as consistent as their full-length debut, it made up for it with some fantastically memorable tunes.
But those tunes got played to death on the radio and on MTV, and after awhile I got bored with it. So I didn’t pay attention when they followed up with a series of heavier, somewhat darker and snottier releases. It wasn’t until Robin Wilson of the Gin Blossoms (who, as some of you may know, was writing a column for OPM for awhile) enthused about American Idiot that I bothered to take notice again. I remember he said something to the effect of it being our generation’s Quadrophenia or White Album. I was positive that couldn’t possibly be true, but it certainly piqued my interest.
I don’t know that I’d make quite such bold statements about American Idiot, but it took me about half a listen before I realized Robin wasn’t far off. It’s a legendary rock album, one of the greats of the last decade to be sure, and to my mind it put to rest any question about whether Green Day had “sold out” or whether they were still (or were ever) “punk” or not. It just doesn’t matter. This is a spectacular album.
To my mind it would have been virtually impossible to follow it up with anything approaching the same quality, and I don’t think 21st Century Breakdown did. But it’s still a fine album, and that in itself is quite an achievement — that is, it’s an achievement that the next album wasn’t a complete disaster and a total letdown.
I’m telling you all of this to give you context for what I’m going to tell you about Green Day: Rock Band. I’m a fan — not the biggest fan, but still a fan — and I know that colors my impression of the game. I have had a hell of a lot of fun with this game over the past few days, and I imagine other fans will as well. But is it worth it for those who don’t have much experience with the band? I’ll tell you about my experience so you can decide that for yourself.
THE BASICS
If you’re looking for something brand-new added to the Rock Band formula here, you’re going to be disappointed, I’ll say that. This is a familiar experience, a small refinement to the established gameplay. It’s got harmonies like we saw in Beatles — fun as hell if you’ve got multiple singers — and a slightly different career structure, but it’s not a markedly different game. As such, I’m sure it’ll come under fire by those wondering why it couldn’t just be an expansion. These are not wholly invalid criticisms, but to my mind they’re a matter of taste. Because some of the things the game does probably couldn’t have been done as an expansion — not profitably, at least.
Take, for example, the “linear motion capture.” What this means is that each song is animated all the way through, with unique animations from start to finish. It’s surprising how something so subtle can make such a difference. Seeing Billie Joe mime smoking a joint while singing “smoking my inspiration” in “Longview,” or shove his guitar up to the amp to generate feedback at the beginning of “Murder City,” is surprisingly effective. And watching the characters wander around the stage, interacting with the audience or hamming it up while their instrument parts are idle, is surprisingly entertaining. It’s not a revolution in music-game design, but it does make a difference — more than I thought it would.
Of course, if you’re actually playing you’re probably not watching much of the action, so I can’t say this is a huge selling point. And the game does have some areas that seem to show a little less careful orchestration. Take, for example, the structure of the career mode. In what is certainly a nod to the traditional escalating-difficulty model of music games, each venue begins with the simplest songs and works up to the most complex. From a certain perspective this makes sense: You want to ease any newcomers into the music-game format.
The problem is that, since each venue is restricted to mostly one album, this means you’re usually starting out each venue with that album’s weakest songs. The very first song in the game (assuming you start out playing Dookie at The Warehouse, as I suspect most players would) is “Pulling Teeth” — not an awful song by any means, but not exactly a barn-burner of an opening number. (To be clear, you don’t have to start with that one…but all the songs in the first tier of each venue are the weakest, is what I’m saying.) For a game that focuses on a single band, I would have much rather had the songs structured either in album order (after all, songs are ordered on albums the way they are for a reason), or a more traditional live-show order: a strong couple opening numbers, followed by one or two slower or less well-known tracks, and so on.
Maybe I’m overthinking it, but I was genuinely taken aback by the choices in the first sets, from pretty much each venue. So it’s something to be aware of.
Good review. I, like you, have liked Green Day on and off since I was younger (I’m only 19 now). However, having Dookie playable in it’s entirety was enough to sell me.
I will be picking up my copy from Gamestop tomorrow morning.
Great review! I’ve been on the fence. I liked it on and off, and am currently on “off,” but listening to Dookie again really changed my mind. I think I’ll probably give it a rent and see if I like it, at the least, because harmonies sell me pretty quick.
Great review, I was really on the fence about picking this up but I’m definitely going to get this tomorrow. Should I pick up the Plus version of the game? I haven’t listened to 21st Century Breakdown so I’m curious to see if it’s worth the extra $10 for the code.
“For multi-song challenges, Overdrive and score multipliers carry over from song to song. I’m not sure if this was the case in Beatles, but if it was I didn’t notice.”
Yes, that was the same in Beatles. I recall noticing it and wondering if RB2 also did that (which it doesn’t). Anyway, great review. I’ll also be picking up my copy tomorrow at GameStop. Just out of curiosity, which game do you think you’ll end up enjoying more: Green Day or The Beatles?
Difficulty wise: Green Day
Overall song quality wise: The beatles
Content from entire career: The beatles
On disc full album wise: green day
this game is gonna be as sweet as the beatles
Thanks for the review!
May you tell me if the DLC of RB works within Green Day which is NOT from Green Day? eg Lady Gaga and whatnot?
No DLC from RB2 (Non-Green Day) will not work in this game.
Also if you like drumming you should be buying this game.
Arkk,
Speaking of the 6 tracks they’ve released from 21st Century Breakdown, I personally have enjoyed them. Some are super-easy (21 Guns), but others provide a real challenge.
And if you think you’d like to have everything, the game, the export to Rock Band/Rock Band 2, and the 6 tracks already released as DLC, then the “plus” version is the way to go.
For $10 more, you get $21-$22 worth of content (the export would normally cost $10, and each of the two 3-packs cost $5.50 on the 360 and PS3, and $6.00 on the Wii since there’s no multi-pack song discount available there).
I already grabbed the 6 songs from 21st Century when they came out, so I went with the cheaper option (and actually pre-ordered it from Gamestop and got a free export code).
Nice write-up, Joe. I agree with you regarding the relative pleasure of navigating chording sections versus noodly solos. I much prefer banging through a complex set of chord changes in time with the rest of the band. I’m sure that’s due to being a long-time drummer.
Thanks everyone for the kind words. I was a little concerned at the length, glad to know it wasn’t an issue. To answer a couple questions:
@Arkk, if you haven’t downloaded any of the 21CB songs, I’d go with the Plus version. Those are some of the more entertaining tracks from the album, and the game just doesn’t feel complete to me without them. Sucks that that kind of makes it a $70 game, though.
@Dry Country: On an intellectual level, I think I got more out of the Beatles; I didn’t really know much of their stuff beyond the super-popular songs, and it was really interesting to me to discover more about this legendary band. But in terms of actual entertainment value, Green Day wins for me, hands down. I just find these songs a lot more fun to play.
@Voegelchen, toymachine is correct: other DLC does not work in Green Day. In fact, you can’t even download the 6 21CB DLC songs in the game — you have to do it in one of the other games, or in the standalone RB Store “app” on 360.
I have it preordered, but I Cant pick it up til after work. I am looking forward to it. Great review Joe.
What’s your gamertag?
I got it, and was able to play it for a little over an hour. Finished the Dookie Set on Expert guitar, but the triple strums in between chord changes killed any chance of me scoring more than 3 stars on about 75 percent of them.
Moved on to Milton Keys, and based on the simplicity of the guitars on the first 3 songs, I decided to pull double duty and bust out the microphone. Thats probably the most fun I have had playing GD thus far, being able to sing along. I wish I could do it more often with RB2, but in order for me to pull it off, I really need to know the words by heart. Good thing I’ve been listening to Green Day relentlessly for years!
Had to stop playing in order for my lil one to get to bed and sleep, but I am itchin for the next chance for me to fire it up!
Grant – My GT is Astroburn. When I log in on here at my work computer it has me in as Nate. I need to change that…
When I played the demo, I was surprised by how difficult the drums were — and I’m one of those irritating people who only plays on Expert. I’m always up for a challenge, so I enjoyed replaying “Welcome to Paradise” (or whatever it was) a few times until I could get a decent “5 star” score.
But when it comes down to it, I can’t stand listening to Billie Joe or any other whiny, perpetually adolescent frontman sing. Good Charlotte, Panic at the Disco, Fall Out Boy — the singers from these bands all sound identically terrible.
The drumming may be fast and fun, but the music is such a turn off to the ear that I’m going to have to pass.
Great review, Joe. Thanks
I’ve been ripping through the game on the drums for the last couple of hours. Aside from many of the things I love about it, I must say that I’m extremely disappointed that they have not fixed the lag on the drum fills!
For some reason it seems worse on this game than Beatles or RB2, probably because of the difficulty of Tre’Cool’s rythms.
(I can’t get out of the fills without losing the rythm unless I can completely block it out)
My set up is calibrated perfectly, which makes the fills sound and feel like there’s another drummer joining in and jacking up the song. I used to love the fills when I played RB on my 25″ tube TV and I counld actually improvise within the song.
But the better your home theatre, the worse it plays. I really wish they would do away with the fills now, or give us an option to turn them OFF.
Anyone know where I can give this feedback that it might get through to the makers?