
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.

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“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.