Games

WB, MTV Games Announce LEGO Rock Band

By Eli Green
April 21, 2009 - 19:00

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, TT Games, LEGO Group, Harmonix and MTV Games announced a large collaboration today, that will see the merger of two popular toy and video game franchises, LEGO and Rock Band, to create, you guessed it, LEGO Rock Band! Yes, the highly popular Rock Band music/rhythm franchise is taking an absolutely family oriented turn, making the game unquestionably suitable for play by younger kids (at least visually). This move may even get some parents, who would not have played the game otherwise, trying their hand at Rock Band.

LEGO Rock Band is currently being developed by TT Games with help from Harmonix, and will be published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Wii. A Nintendo DS version is also being co-developed by TT Games and Harmonix, in partnership with Foundation 9 Entertainment's Backbone Entertainment studio. LEGO Rock Band will allow players, no matter what their age, to build a band and “Rock the Universe”, combining Rock Band's social music/rhythm video game experience with the near-endless customization and humour of the LEGO video game franchise. It will also loaded with a number of chart-topping and classic songs “suitable for younger audiences”, including Blur's Song 2, Carl Douglas' Kung Fu Fighting, Europe's The Final Countdown, Good Charlotte's Boys and Girls, Pink's So What and many more.

“We’re thrilled to offer another LEGO branded gaming experience that will deliver humorous and social play for families and friends,” said Henrik Taudorf Lorensen, Vice President of the LEGO Group. “LEGO Rock Band is built around the same values of imagination and family-friendly creative role play that is present in other LEGO videogames. It will deliver innovative new elements of game play that complement the fun of the Rock Band experience.”

Players will get to enjoy the full Rock Band “rise to stardom” experience, as they play their way through local venues to stadiums, and fantasy locations on earth and beyond (thank you LEGO Space), in locations that “mimic the imaginative settings the LEGO world offers”. And, as you'd expect from a LEGO video game, LEGO Rock Band continues the “build-and-play” experience, allowing players to create their own unique LEGO avatars, band and entourage, including roadies, managers and crew.

LEGO Rock Band will be fully compatible with all Rock Band instruments, as well as “other music game controllers”, though we're not sure what that includes. This did leave us with a question however. Will Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment go as far as to make specially designed, child-sized instruments, so younger kids can play the game more easily? And, with that question in mind, we're already expecting LEGO Rock Band to include No Fail Mode, but we're wondering if it, perhaps, will include a special No Fail Mode for kids? A Kid Mode perhaps, which not only lets players not have to worry about failing, but continues to play the whole song, whether or not they hit the notes.

Considering Tom Stone, Managing Director at TT Games says, “LEGO Rock Band combines two compelling properties and creates an experience that family members of all ages will enjoy playing together as a group,” we would certainly hope that the experience will combine the best of both the LEGO video game franchise and Rock Band worlds, and do it all.

LEGO Rock Band will be releasing holiday 2009 for Xbox 360, Playstation 3, Wii and Nintendo DS and is not yet rated. LEGO Rock Band is also the second Rock Band title, along with The Beatles Rock Band, that will not be available for Playstation 2.

Last Updated: August 31, 2023 - 08:12