No matter. Our enthusiasm and anticipation for this prequel/sequel was set at maximum from the moment we finished the first game. That experience was so mind-bendingly unique and original, it’s almost impossible to imagine a follow up… which is the exact reason we’ll be so damn curious for most of 2009.

It must be particularly trying with a project like The Beatles: Rock Band, where the focus is entirely on the back catalogue of a single artist. Then again perhaps it’s a pleasure. Harmonix says that everyone who worked on this game is a massive fan of the Fab Four, and whether or not that’s true, the end product certainly feels as if it was made by Beatle-philes.
Advertisement

There’s no getting away from the fact that this is essentially just a new version of Rock Band 2 with a catalogue of Beatles songs, although given the quality of both the game and the music, this is hardly a bad thing. There are, however, a few changes and additions that are worth discussing. Foremost among these is the new mechanic for vocal harmonies, allowing up to three people to sing select parts of a song together. This may not sound complicated, but Harmonix states that it’s one of the most technically complicated things they ever had to implement within their series. I’m no engineer, but I’m prepared to believe them.

During a song the harmonies are represented as three different bars appearing at different heights on the vocals track. At the end of the song you then get a complete breakdown of your efforts, including how many fabs (successful harmonies) you scored. An advanced set of results will also show how much each player sang of each vocal part, a feature that may help if you’re aiming for one pitch and hitting another (apparently Paul’s notes can be the trickiest to hit). The full game will also include a dedicated training mode for the three-part harmonies. Hopefully this will help those of us who sound like drowning cats when we murder Here Comes The Sun.

Aside from the harmonies, Harmonix has also been making a song and dance (ha!) about the effort they’ve put into the game’s look. I’ll admit to be being a bit sceptical about this, since graphics are hardly the most important element of a music game, but I have to say that the new visuals do look really good. There’s a clear split in BRB between those songs culled from the band’s early career and those that were written after they stopped touring. In the former category, the four are shown playing at virtual recreations of real-life venues – notably The Cavern Club in Liverpool and the Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. The models for John, Paul, George and Ringo are a notable step up from the characters used in Rock Band 2, while the backgrounds have been based upon reams of research material and photographs from the time. Clearly the music is always going to be the focal point of a game like this, but it really does add something to have the smoky confines of the Cavern on screen while you’re jamming away.
The Beatles: Rock Band is looking like a great present for under the Christmas treeThe Beatles: Rock Band is looking like a great present for under the Christmas tree

The second set of visuals are arguably more of an innovation. From 1966 onwards the Beatles stopped playing live gigs and largely focused on studio work. Aware that this backdrop might become a bit dull if it were used for half of the game’s songs, Harmonix has instead created a set of “dreamscapes” – colourful videos that tie into the themes of each song. The one for Octopus’s Garden begins with the Abbey Road studio flooding, while the clip for Back In The USSR is packed with classic images in the style of those Soviet propaganda images. They look pretty great, and arguably set a new standard for visual accompaniments in games like these.

All the same, there’s no getting away from the real appeal here: 45 Beatles songs, available for you to play with up to six friends, provided that two people are content to just be backing singers. In addition to the pleasure of the songs themselves, hardcore fans should know that even the warm-up and failure noises have been culled from previously-unreleased recordings: cock up a song, and you may hear one of the band making a joke or an excuse. If you’re a purist with a fat wallet, or if you’ve never bought one of these games before, you may also choose to splash out on a new set of peripherals based on instruments used by the guys. There’s John’s Rickenbacker 325, George’s Gretsch Duo-Jet, Paul’s Höfner 500/1 bass guitar and a Ludwig drum kit. Being a non-musician, none of that last sentence means much to me, but I can confirm that the new kit looks very nice. The new devices are just redesigned versions of the Rock Band 2 controllers, so they should work very well.

One thing worth mentioning is that this game won’t work with any DLC songs for previous Rock Band games, so if you want a non-Beatles tune you’ll have to change discs. Some people may find this a bit irritating, but as Harmonix points out, it would be a bit weird to have Lennon and McCartney playing Hammer Smashed Face by Cannibal Corpse. In any case, the whole of the Abbey Road album will be available to download shortly after the main game is out. There will also be a timed exclusive release for All You Need Is Love on the 360, with all profits going to Doctors Without Borders (the charity, not the band).

All in all, this looks like it should be a great package for Beatles fans. If you play Rock Band and Guitar Hero for their metal tracks then I suspect you may be a bit disappointed, but everyone else is going to flock to this. Expect it to sell by the bucket load on release, and many more when Crimbo rolls around.

The Beatles: Rock Band will be released on September 9 on PS3, Wii and Xbox 360.

Produced by Imagi Animation Studios, the guys responsible for the recent computer animated TMNT film, and set in futuristic Metro City, Astro Boy is about a young robot with incredible powers created by a brilliant scientist named Tenma (Nicolas Cage). Powered by positive “blue” energy, Astro Boy (Freddie Highmore) is endowed with super strength, x-ray vision, unbelievable speed and the ability to fly.

Embarking on a journey in search of acceptance, Astro Boy encounters many other colorful characters along the way. Through his adventures, he learns the joys and emotions of being human, and gains the strength to embrace his destiny. Ultimately learning his friends and family are in danger, Astro Boy marshals his awesome super powers and returns to Metro City in a valiant effort to save everything he cares about and to understand what it takes to be a hero.

Nothing I’ve seen so far from this film has impressed me much, which is a shame because (stupid story aside) I really enjoyed the stylistic animation employed in TMNT. Astro Boy just seems a bit too vanilla, and the corny jokes sure don’t help. I think I’d rather see a big budget Japan-produced 2D/3D animation hybrid produced using the character. Watch the trailer for yourself below, and tell me what you think in the comments.

For everyone else, though, “Ponyo” will seem beautiful but surprisingly boring: a children’s film that’s at once overly simplistic and needlessly nonsensical. The hand-drawn images can be wondrous and inventive as they are in all of Miyazaki’s films, but this story of a goldfish who longs to be a little girl lacks the sophisticated depth and engaging weirdness of his most acclaimed and best-known work, such as the Oscar-winning “Spirited Away” and the Oscar-nominated “Howl’s Moving Castle.”

It feels safe — and that extends to the casting in this English-language version. Rather than playing in Japanese with subtitles, “Ponyo” is coming to a multiplex near you with a team of all-stars voicing the characters. (Pixar Animation guru John Lasseter is among the co-directors and “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial” writer Melissa Mathison wrote the translated screenplay.)

It might have been easier to immerse ourselves in Miyazaki’s story, inspired by the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale “The Little Mermaid,” if it featured unknown actors rather than Tina Fey, Matt Damon, Liam Neeson and Cate Blanchett. Exceedingly capable as they are, they also remind you of their stardom with every word. With Betty White, Lily Tomlin and Cloris Leachman serving as a sort of Greek chorus at a senior center, it’s hard not to think about the meatier, smarter, more daring material we’ve had the pleasure of watching these women work with before.

Meanwhile, Ponyo is voiced with girlish enthusiasm by Noah Cyrus, Miley’s younger sister, with the Jonas Brothers’ younger sibling Frankie (otherwise known as the “Bonus Jonas”) playing Sosuke, the boy she befriends on land.

Being an inquisitive and playful little fish, Ponyo sneaks away from the underwater lair of her wild-haired wizard father, Fujimoto (voiced by Neeson, though the character looks distractingly like Phil Spector), who fights the damage humans do to the ocean. Once she reaches the shore of a remote Japanese village, she meets Sosuke, a lonely and serious boy who lives in a cottage atop a hill with his mother (Fey) and father (Damon), a sea captain who’s rarely around.

Instantly smitten by Sosuke, Ponyo transforms herself into a person using the magic inside her and a drop of blood she licks from a cut on Sosuke’s thumb. (This is one of the many leaps in logic in Miyazaki’s fantastical world you’re either going to go with or you’re not. “Ponyo” handles it rather matter-of-factly.) In no time she’s enjoying all the mundane joys of human life: a warm towel, a mug of tea and the food that becomes her obsession: ham.

But the ecstasy she experiences inspires her thousands of goldfish sisters to swim around with such frenzied energy, they cause a tsunami. Miyazaki depicts this torrent first as a golden burst of light, like the eruption of an underwater volcano. But then the storm churns and turns darker, more dangerous. Dark blue waves with eyes form over and over, leaping across each other with fierce momentum and eventually submerging the town. It’s easily the highlight of the film.

From there, the pieces feel a bit scattered. Mom feels compelled to leave her son and the fish-girl home alone while she battles rain, winds and flooded roads to get back to the senior center where she works: “You’re only 5 but you’re very smart,” she tells Sosuke. Could she be the most neglectful mother ever?

Later, Sosuke must rise to a totally arbitrary challenge posed by Fujimoto and Ponyo’s mother, an ethereal ocean goddess voiced by Blanchett. The fate of the planet, which is suddenly out of balance, is all that’s at stake. Sure thing — no biggie for a little kid.

“Ponyo,” a Walt Disney Pictures release, is rated G. Running time: 100 minutes. Two stars out of four.

Motion Picture Association of America rating definitions:

G — General audiences. All ages admitted.

PG — Parental guidance suggested. Some material may not be suitable for children.

PG-13 — Special parental guidance strongly suggested for children under 13. Some material may be inappropriate for young children.

R — Restricted. Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian.

NC-17 — No one under 17 admitted.