"Videogame Manufacterer Hit Sour Note With Latest Release"

"Let it Be... Let it Be..."


It's that time of year again when updated versions of videogame favorites hit the store shelves. Among these are of course, the ones that take gamers into the alternate world of virtual reality. With this in mind, the floodgates have been opened for the release several bundles of software associated with the "Rock Band" franchise. In it's humble beginnings, kids and their Dads had to settle on a small variety of titles that were released one at a time and rather "generic". Popularity of this concept, began to soar into a marketing blitz that currently rakes in the majority of the kids allowence money in sales receipts.

As time rolls on, the pretend world of getting on stage and trying your luck as a rock star has expanded into entire store aisles full of all genres of music. I guess I shouldn't had been as surprised as I was when I discovered The Beatles would also be entered into the virtual world of gaming. It was a bold move on someone's behalf and a marketing strategy that is probably resulting in the late, John Lennon and George Harrison spinning in their graves. Wrapped into an already mysterious mix of circumstances is that all of this should surface within the recent months following Michael Jackson's death. Jackson claimed ownership of the majority of The Beatles music catalogue and tightly kept everything away from the surviving Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr.

The game was loaded into XBOX and PLAYSTATION 3 consoles at Best Buy on the release day as crowds gathered around. Personally, I wasn't too impressed by what I saw. It was more or less a cut above The Beatles cartoons of the 1960's that were produced by the same folks who gave us Rocky and Bullwinkle. For an investment under a hundred bucks, you get the game and a cheap knock-off of a Beatles classic guitar as you make your way through rehearsals. Just as AC/DC used their version of the game to release a new album of material that goes along with it, this offering is no different as the entire Beatles catalogue was remastered and re-released for the billionth time to iclude bonus material and DVD snippets of the boys in the studio putting the various albums together.

These gamemakers are getting careless and greedy by pumping these games out faster than a nickel jackpot from a slot machine win. In this particular case, a group of twenty something kids stumbled upon a hidden character which may have or may not have been intentional...as The Beatles perform in the area of the game which is supposed to be their American debut on "The Ed Sullivan Show", it was rather surprising to see them being joined onstage by Marilyn Manson. Be careful before you invest in this one, kids! Meanwhile, a call was placed to the company regarding this "glitch" however, all calls went unanswered.