'Green Day: Rock Band': Welcome to pixelated paradise

Green Day: Rock Band, to be released June 8 for the Wii, Xbox and Playstation looks and plays like a real, action-packed Green Day concert. It's a faithful reimagination of the band in the most interactive medium of the day. If you're either a casual Green Day fan or just a fan of Rock Band: it's well worth a play-through. If you're already a die-hard fan of the East Bay act: welcome to pixelated paradise.

Green Day: Rock Band is only the second Rock Band title after The Beatles: Rock Band where you play as the actual band, instead of as your own avatar. Replacing the normal career path for Rock Band, players control Green Day through three “tours” representing different parts of their career. You play 47 songs, including three entire albums: Dookie, American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown. And you'll play in three custom venues:

Inspired by landmark punk venue 924 Gilman (the East Bay spot that black-balled Green Day as an early band), The Warehouse's brick and plywood aesthetic exudes Dookie.

American Idiot goes down before a seemingly unending crowd of thousands at the UK's Milton Keynes Ampitheater.

Then, the band debuts 21st Century Breakdown at The Fox Theater in Oakland, a simulcra of the secret shows the band played there in 2009.

Rock Band expertly replicates the Fox down to the golden statues flanking the stage, and the game faithfully conveys the energy in the building on those historic nights. Fans know a Green Day live show is a kinetic affair, with Billie perching atop monitors and Tre Cool leaping from the drum kit. Harmonix developed new technology to code for all those shenanigans. Now, rabid fans stage dive and crowd-surf, says Chris Foster, creative designer for Green Day: Rock Band.

The actual band has kids and they're hip to the rhythm game genre, he says. Green Day approved unprecedented access to their archival videos, photos, and outtakes, tons of which appear in the game as unlockable rewards. The band told Harmonix to honor the rabidness of their fans.

“Basically they just told us not to screw it up,” Foster says.

As per the rules, players score points by hitting buttons on a video game controller in time to the beat. (You can buy custom guitar, bass, drum and vocal controllers for a more authentic feel. Three-part harmonies, anyone?) Score enough points to advance and unlock harder songs, and new venues. Fail to score big and the crowd boos. In a special Green Day fail animation, the trio point at each other in what is called “the circle of blame”.

“They are really good musicians that craft incredibly catchy songs,” says Foster. “But they are willing to poke fun at themselves. It's part of how fun they are.”

Most of the band's adult content in still in there, says Foster. Green Day: Rock Band had to cut four words and their conjugates to make their “T for Teen” rating, but it doesn't detract from the game.

Watchers say a certain rhythm game fatigue has set in across the country, but it's hard to imagine the band's legions avoiding such a carefully crafted collector's item. Harmonix creates the highest-quality titles in the genre, and Green Day: Rock Band - drenched in the band's iconography - still feels fresh and fun. I found myself getting 150-note streaks (on Easy) and looking “offstage” to my invisible guitar tech, as if to say, “Are you seeing this? I'm killing!”

Rock Band's 'Rock Band 2' controller handles especially well. The pick action feels neither clicky like a cheap Guitar Hero controller, nor mushy. The fret buttons are embedded in the stock, giving them a solid feel that's lacking on older guitar controllers, where the lateral wobble of the raised plastic button feels uncertain and cheap.

Plenty of people still question the point of rhythm games, including the White Stripes' petulant Jack White, who says to quit playing and join a real act. It's an astoundingly naive sentiment. Rhythm games lower the learning curve of an instrument and provide immediate, positive feedback. That high is crucial to the pursuit of any new skill. The best rhythm game titles have the power to not only mimic music but inspire musicianship. Green Day: Rock Band ranks among them.