Traveller's Tales' intelligently marketable franchise of Lego Star Wars and other Lego themed games has been a powerhouse in the "family gaming" industry for years now. In fact, one of the only recent franchises that seems to have reached a wider audience than the Lego titles is Harmonix and EA's Rock Band series. From this sort of a standpoint you could see that it would be mutually beneficial for both companies to get together, shake hands, and write up a plan for world domination right? Well not quite.

When Lego Rock Band was announced, reactions were initially those of confusion and betrayal - akin to a smaller size version of the Disney/Marvel announcement. However, crazy idea mergers actually work sometimes; especially in the gaming world. Don't believe me? Try the Kingdom Hearts or Marvel vs Capcom series. Unfortunately, in the case of Lego Rock Band a perfect harmony just can't seem to quite emerge. This isn't to say that Lego Rock Band is a bad game though. It merely falls short of the potential it had in several ways.

Let's start with the game-play as that is probably the easiest to lay out for you. The game-play in Lego Rock Band is the same as the game-play in any other Rock Band title, except Lego themed. If you enjoy hitting on-screen notes in a song by using a plastic guitar with five buttons, a plastic drum with four pads, or singing into a USB microphone then you will enjoy playing Lego Rock Band. In fact, the game-play is almost identical to previous Rock Band titles with exception of newly added Rock Challenges that pop up during your crazy Lego world tour and the fact that it is impossible to fail nearly all songs (except these Rock Challenges). The Rock Challenges are in no way game-altering but help to highlight the other half of the game (the Lego franchise) through familiarly quirky background video and plot concepts.

Although the signature Rock Band game-play is basically untouched, the Traveller's Tale Lego game mechanics do take place in several ways. Instead of winning cash for performing tracks you will win "studs" (tiny Lego pieces) to purchase new Lego items for your "rock den" or new characters and instruments to rock out with. While this adds a bit more personality and ability to customize your band and den it isn't truly applied to the degree it should have been. By this I mean you will not be able to actually put Lego pieces together too often.

Where Lego Rock Band is ultimately disassembled is with the repetitive nature of the campaign, lack of any online multi-player, and odd censorship. As I mentioned briefly above Lego Rock Band follows after the Rock Band 2 style of "touring" which means you unlock new venues and gigs to perform as you progress through the "story". While initially a fun concept, this will often have you playing the same songs five to ten times before the campaign is completed (especially if you don't have any Rock Band DLC on your hard-drive). While there are certainly a ton of gems on the track list it ultimately seems like a down-grade (a meager 40-something tracks compared to Rock Band 2's 80-something) and worst of all is the bizarre selection and censorship.

As you've probably figured out, the concept behind Lego Rock Band is to bring Harmonix and EA's franchise to a more family-oriented setting (meaning removing the hardcore songs so that the youngins can have fun and parents don't have to worry). I then find myself baffled to see artists like Korn, David Bowie, Queen, and Spinal Tap on the list. Obviously these artists all present clean and suitable songs but I can't imagine anyone under the age of ten listening to them (or if they do, I can't imagine them wanting a "family friendly" game). I feel like this alienates the younger audiences in some ways. To make matters worse the older audiences are also alienated by not being able to download any DLC that is remotely offensive. Why couldn't they simply include some sort of parental lock on offensive songs if they truly wanted to make a game for all ages? Or why didn't Rock Band simply join forces with Disney or Nickelodeon if they wanted to make a family friendly edition?