Like Activision’s recently-released Band Hero, LEGO Rock Band seeks to be the E for Everyone answer to the band-based rhythm genre, delivering songs that parents don’t have to explain to their children while blushing profusely. Unlike Band Hero, however, LEGO Rock Band has the power of one of the world’s most popular toy lines behind it. There’s really no doubt that the familiar red logo on the front of the case will attract game buying parents like moths to a flame. Will they get burned?

Loved
Rock Band’s Gameplay: It’s the same Rock Band gameplay we’ve all come to know and love, plastic instruments and all. Cosmetic changes aside, there’s nothing stopping anyone who has played previous Rock Band titles from picking up the mic, drumsticks or guitar and rocking out.

LEGO Charm: If you don’t find the LEGO video games charming on some level, you might as well treat LEGO Rock Band as a giant, $US50 track pack. If you do find the LEGO-brand cuteness adorable, then the game has plenty for you to gush over, from the LEGO block notes on the highway to the ridiculous hijinks your band and crew get up to during jam sessions. New venues are opened up by unlocking new, increasingly absurd LEGO vehicles, with each new location loaded with cute little touches that you’ll only notice if you are watching someone else play. Once again, Traveller’s Tales manages to squeeze refreshing water from a LEGO block.

Rock Challenges: While they aren’t particularly challenging, LEGO Rock Band’s Rock Challenges do split up the monotony of playing song after song after song. These special stages have specific goals, like blowing up a building with the power of rock, or ridding a haunted mansion of ghosts. In single player you simply play through the song presented as per normal, but with a friend the action is broken up, giving each player a bit of solo time to accomplish their goals. Again, not all that challenging, but a welcome distraction. Plus, the Ghostbusters challenge features some of the most adorable moments in gaming this year. To quote my girlfriend, “Cutest. Thing. Ever.”

Eclectic Selections: Despite its family-friendly theme, LEGO Rock Band has managed to gather together a nicely varied list of music that might not have seen the light of day in any other Rock Band title. The introduction of my favourite band, Counting Crows, to the Rock Band universe was almost worth the game’s $US50 price tag for me, while songs like “Kung-Fu Fighting”, “Ghostbusters” and “Walkin’ on Sunshine” are exactly the sort of light-hearted fare that other Rock Band games lacked.

It’s A Brick House: Like other LEGO games from Traveller’s Tales, LEGO Rock Band is all about collecting bits, and once you’ve collected those bits you can use them at the in-game store to buy new outfits, instruments, staff members and even decorations for your LEGO headquarters. Your headquarters acts as the main menu for the game, so being able to add your own personal touch is kind of nice. This is really the feature that separates the game from the rest of the Rock Band lineup, even if it doesn’t allow for in-depth customisation of your pad.

Super Easy: A new addition to the standard Rock Band difficulty settings, Super Easy means even your most uncoordinated friends can pick up a guitar and play, as long as they have even the most rudimentary grasp of the concept of rhythm. Just push any button and strum, or hit any drum pad. We don’t care which, just pound the damn thing. There, now you’re playing Rock Band. Perfect for those singers in your group who are afraid of the plastic instruments.

Export Business: If all else fails, LEGO Rock Band functions as a 44-song track pack. A code included with the game allows you to export the songs on the disc to regular Rock Band for $US9.99, meaning that if you’d like to play “Accidentally in Love” with your friends without worrying about LEGO Rock Band’s lack of online multiplayer, you still have another option.

Hated
Skimpy Track List: Three years ago we would have been perfectly happy with 44 songs, but these days that’s around half of what we generally expect. The songs might be a nice collection of tunes, but when you have to play them over and over again throughout your career in order to progress, they wear thin rather quickly. In one venue I played through two songs I wasn’t particularly fond of, only to have both of said songs show up in the mystery set list I played next. That’s not fun. That’s annoying.

Offline Only: I suppose stripping away the online play from previous Rock Band titles was one way of making LEGO Rock Band more family friendly, but its presence is definitely missed.

LEO Rock Band makes several painful trade-offs in order to present a game that can be considered family friendly, and your enjoyment of the game hinges on whether or not you can handle the changes. You get half as many songs as a normal Rock Band release and no online multiplayer, in exchange for a rhythm game that’s brimming with unique LEGO personality and music you won’t find anywhere else, until Harmonix releases the tracks as paid DLC for the regular versions. Plus, LEGO Rock Band is by far the most accessible of the Rock Band titles, with a lower level of difficulty making it an excellent gateway game.

There’s a lot to love in LEGO Rock Band, as long as you don’t try and take it too seriously.

LEGO Rock Band was developed by Harmonix and Traveller’s Tales and published by EA for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Nintendo Wii. Retails for $US49.99/$AU79.95 (Wii $AU79.95). A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through complete career mode on the Xbox 360 version both alone and with a friend.

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Traveller’s Tales does what they do best in this cinematic launch trailer, lampooning existing properties through gratuitous use of LEGO blocks. Why simply stop at a tour bus, when the whole of LEGO creation is at your fingertips?

You may remember Blur from their runaway hit “Song #2″, which made its way into nearly every sports game published in the late ’90s, early 2000s. The song’s profound lyrics included the haunting “Woo-hoo”, which brings to mind carefree revelling and the strangling of unsuspecting owls. “Song #2″ is one of the tracks in LEGO Rock Band, and all four members of Blur have gotten the tiny LEGO guy treatment, joining Iggy Pop, David Bowie and Queen in the family-friendly LEGO lineup. Woo-hoo.

Rolling Stone has a video of the band’s LEGO avatars doing their thing, so click the link below if you feel the desperate need to.

Blur Join “LEGO Rock Band”: See the Band’s Avatars [Rolling Stone - thanks Noble!]

The opening moments of this trailer for Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues portray a dance party concept I find much more intriguing than the actual game.

The Lego series lost me after the first Star Wars game was released. Batman was interesting and nostalgic, but not that much fun to play. I own the first Lego Indiana Jones game but haven’t been able to force myself to play for more than an hour. I guess the charm of the concept just came and went too quickly for me. Seeing classic scenes recreated in Lego form is novel, but when the core gameplay is more or less the same, it just isn’t enough for me.

Now, if they did a Lego Indiana Jones Dance Party game…

Luckily, LEGO Indiana Jones 2 does it right. Not only is it adding a gameplay element that you’d kind of expect based on what went down in the movies, it’s actually really fun. And entirely made of LEGOs.

What Is It?
LEGO Indiana Jones 2 is a complete rehash of the first LEGO Indiana Jones game — as in, no re-used levels whatsoever. It also adds the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull movie, the new Builder Mode where you can go nuts putting together endless LEGOs and also driving segments.

What We Saw
I was allowed some hands-on time with just the driving portion of the game on an Xbox 360 build. I think we were playing in a car chase scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark because Marcus Brody and Indy were there. However, like all LEGO games, you can replay levels with any characters you’ve unlocked. So it could have been from The Last Crusade, I suppose…

How Far Along Is It?
The game is out November 17.

What Needs Improvement?
Nothing: No, I’m serious. I didn’t find any kind of actual fault with the way the driving levels are designed or executed in LEGO Indy 2.

What Should Stay The Same?
Easy Controls: The left analogue stick makes the car go, B is the break and can be used to back the car up if you get stuck and A will pop the car up if it falls over or needs to make a jump. Not a lot to keep track of and everything works right when it’s supposed to.

Excellent Physics: Like most LEGO levels, pretty much all of the setting is destructible in the driving segments. You can ram your car into carts, buildings and other cars to cause huge explosions of LEGO pieces and blue pick-up pieces. You can also drive your car right over a cliff and bail out just before it, too, explodes in a shower of LEGOs. The car will just respawn right at the edge of the cliff so you can keep on wrecking stuff by driving into or over it.

Everything: I can’t believe just how fun the driving section felt. Maybe I’ve just been shell-shocked by too many poorly-made driving segments, or maybe LucasArts drugged my water cup. But I do strongly consider the possibility that this part of the game is just so well made that it deserves to be enjoyed by everybody. Even cynical critics like myself.

Final Thoughts
LEGO Indy 2’s driving section may be incredibly fun, but it’s not the majority of what you’ll be doing in the game. This is as it should be – because it’s an adventure game with a driving segment in it, not the other way around. If the rest of the game (which I didn’t get to play) is as fun as the driving section, then we’re all set. If not, it’s going to result in the tragic reversal of my adventure-game-plus-driving-segment anxiety.

Jonathan Smith from British developer Traveller’s Tales confirmed to game site VG247 that the Jackson 5 tune will be appearing in the game. Other newly announced titles are “Breakout” by the Foo Fighters and “A-Punk” from the Vampire Weekend.

The teen and tween geared game already boasts some of these tunes: Blur’s “Song 2″, Carl Douglas’ “Kung Fu Fighting”, Europe’s “The Final Countdown”, Good Charlotte’s “Boys and Girls” and Pink’s “So What”.

LEGO Rock Band is slated for later this year.

Jackson track confirmed for Lego Rock Band [VG247]

Not the catchiest title, we know, but it gets its point across, with players given the option of controlling Harry, Ron or Hermione as they work their way through the first four books/movies of the Harry Potter series.

Long-time LEGO Star Wars/Indy developers Travellers Tales will again be developing the title, which is scheduled for release sometime during 2010.

No platforms were specifically indicated, probably because you can bet it will appear on all of them.

While Harmonix senior designer Dan Teasdale had intentions of talking about LEGO Rock Band during his GDC talk, “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap: Design Lessons Learned From Rock Band,” that obviously didn’t happen.

Whoops! According to the curriculum vitae of an animator currently employed at LEGO developers Traveller’s Tales, the team is currently working on two games. One a Harry Potter title, the other a second Indiana Jones.

LEGO Harry Potter, eh? Pardon us if we’re less than surprised. Still, surprise isn’t the point. The point is, it’s LEGO, it’s Harry Potter, it will, in all likelihood, conjure money.

The Indiana Jones game, meanwhile, sounds like one giant, crushing disappointment. The right thing to do would be to take the rich “universe” of Indiana Jones and pit him against some kind of nefarious Nazi scientist and/or plot. Maybe a LEGO Fate of Atlantis. But no.

We’re getting LEGO Indiana Jones: The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

So, so sad. Anyway, let’s move on. Onwards and upwards, as the resume leaks a third possible LEGO project: a demo pitch (remember, it’s not a done deal, just a pitch!) put together by Traveller’s Tales for the upcoming Hobbit films, the first of which is due in 2012. LEGO Lord of the Rings? With that many characters and that much combat, it could – like Star Wars did – actually work.

Charlotte Parker [CV, via GamesIndustry.biz]

TT Games and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment have teamed up once again to deliver an all-new Lego experience to the Nintendo DS, this time simply focusing on the toys themselves with Lego Battles.

Lego Battles is a game for the Nintendo DS that combines three popular Lego toy lines – Lego Castle, Lego Pirates and Lego Space – allowing players to create bases and customised squads in order to engage in more than 70 different levels worth of fierce block combat, or head-to-head via Nintendo DS wireless multi-card play. Players will mix and match units from all three Lego sets, resulting in epic confrontations the likes of which we’ve only dreamed about. A pirate ship filled with ninja versus a spaceship manned by wizards? It’s the kind of stuff you’d find airbrushed on the side of a van 30 years ago.

“LEGO® Battles offers players the action-packed and humor-filled gameplay that make LEGO games great, along with the added bonus of linked multiplayer battles on DS,” said Tom Stone, Managing Director, TT Games Publishing. “We are excited to introduce a new LEGO videogame experience to fans and young gamers and look forward to expanding upon the beloved toy lines.”

So the next Lego title from TT games isn’t Lego Transformers. It’s time to see if the Lego brand can stand on its own two blocking legs. Look for Lego Battles to erupt on the Nintendo DS this summer.