Green Day: Rock Band

When Green Day: Rock Band was first announced, I did a fair share of groaning. I understand why The Beatles: Rock Band was warranted, but Green Day is no Beatles. But as time wore on, I realized that Green Day actually had a number of songs that could be fun to play on pretend instruments. The final selling point? This game allows you to export its library for play in other Rock Band games, something The Beatles: Rock Band didn't do. My biggest complaint about the game was its price-to-length ratio. It's sold as a $59.99 full-fledged game, but it's really just 49 Green Day songs. Forty bucks sounds a lot more reasonable. But so be it. My other big complaint is the focus on full albums at the expense of true hits; aside from seven singles from Insomniac, Nimrod, and Warning, the game's setlist is comprised of the entirety of Dookie and American Idiot and most of 21st Century Breakdown. I didn't like this. Not only was there too much emphasis on Green Day's "sell-out" era in the form of their two "rock opera" albums, but also the whole middle of the band's career felt largely absent. Where was "Walking Contradiction?" "Stuart and the Avenue?" "Redundant?" "Waiting?" The biggest problem was the complete lack of the band's first two albums. If the game was meant to be some sort of chronicle of their entire career, why neglect their roots? I just think the game could have been a lot more epic and memorable with a few simple tweaks to the playlist. At the end of the day though, the game is really just exactly what you think it is: a whole lot of Green Day tracks on Rock Band.