Review by: Brandon "Moosejaw" Cackowski-Schnell

"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever." - David St. Hubbins

Truer words about rock music have never been spoken and no rhythm game has chosen to walk that particular tightrope and celebrate the gloriously absurd world of rock and roll quite like Lego Rock Band. Look past the kid friendly sheen, the accessible all ages play modes and the towering set pieces assembled from various Lego toys and you'll find a cleverly hidden send up of all that is so wonderfully goofy about being a big time rock and roll star.

By now the Rock Band / Gutar Hero style of rhythm gaming has been seared into the public's consciousness to the point where explaining how the games work is like explaining how to turn on a faucet. There are songs, with notes that move from the top of the screen to the bottom of the screen. You "play" the song by hitting the appropriately color-coded button on your fake instrument of choice, unless you sing where you try to match the pitch of the song. Hit enough notes in a row and your score multiplier will go up. Collect enough specially colored notes and you can deploy overdrive thereby doubling your current score modifier allowing you to reach greater heights of rocking out. At the end of the song you see how many stars you got based on your score, pat your bandmates on the back for a song well rocked and move on to the next one.

The game chooses to focus on the touring aspect of previous Rock Band games, to the detriment of previously available features such as tour challenges and multiplayer. Quickplay is still around for casual, off the cuff rocking, but online multiplayer didn't make the cut. On the one hand, the lack of multiplayer is one more bullet off of the feature list however at the same time, the game is directed squarely at families and the ability to put the game on, give your kids some instruments and know that they can play and not stumble into the morass of online insults is, to some consumers, a feature. The lack of tour challenges isn't so easily explained away however with the copious amount of "build your own setlist" gigs you can, in effect, make your own tour challenges.

Luckily the tour is so entertaining and, at times, downright hilarious. The game uses the usual Traveler's Tales Lego sense of humor and animated cut scenes to tell the story of your band's rise to stardom. The cinematics are all extremely well done and laugh out loud funny offering plenty of gags for both young and old.