Unless you’ve been living under a rock fro the past 50 years, you know that The Beatles are one of the most influential rock bands in the world. Even today, their music seems to strike a chord worldwide. So it’s no wonder that it was not long before the video game world took notice. This year, The Beatles: Rock Band promises to re-define the music/game genre by setting their sights on a wide demographic.
In order to make a play for would-be-fans, the animations have been taken to the next level. Apart from a loving tribute to a landmark act, Harmonix’s singularly-focused rhythm game The Beatles: Rock Band is just as significant a work for being what is essentially gaming’s first, best interactive documentary.
Tracing the band’s rise and rise from their inauspicious Cavern Club beginnings to the Apple Corps rooftop finale, TB:RB offers a look inside the life of the band both overt (see: the traces and ephemeral snippets in the form of unlockable photos and fan club merch) and covert (see, here: the difficulty-arc-dip from their early, more technical work — a band with something to prove — to the remarkably simple bliss-outs as they move into their, er, higher, altered states).
But possibly its most remarkable achievement is the art and motion graphics that went in to the game, from Passion Pictures’ eye-searingly gorgeous intro and outro videos, aided by Alberto Mielgo‘s concepts (at top), and the ‘Kid Stays in the Picture’-esque interstitials by Kansas City, MO’s MK12.
Below the fold, then: the best of all the above in a high-res gallery, giving you everything but the game.
But possibly its most remarkable achievement is the art and motion graphics that went in to the game, from Passion Pictures’ eye-searingly gorgeous intro and outro videos, aided by Alberto Mielgo‘s concepts (at top), and the ‘Kid Stays in the Picture’-esque interstitials by Kansas City, MO’s MK12.
Below the fold, then: the best of all the above in a high-res gallery, giving you everything but the game.
The intro and outro videos directed by Pete Candeland (the Passion Pictures producer best known for his work animating The Gorillaz) remain the highlight of the entire TB:RB experience, as becomes instantly clear with a quick view of the following.
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