I recently received a review copy of The Beatles: Rockband for the Nintendo Wii and let me just tell you – this game really is as good as all the hype. When we reviewed Rockband 2 awhile back, we just loved it – my husband, my three year old son and I loved jamming together on the guitar, drums and microphone. But I remember wishing I knew more of the songs, or at least could play more songs that were a little more my style. So when I heard they were making a Rockband that would be all Beatles music, I was immediately dying to try it out.

I was not disappointed. Again, we pulled out all our instruments and sat down to play together. I loved sharing all our favorite Beatles songs with my son in Quickplay mode. Next we checked out the story-style gameplay and my husband was immediately hooked on it. It divides the game into chapters, where you have to play a number of songs to earn challenges and prizes. How well you perform the songs determines how quickly you can earn your prizes and challenges. The challenges are to play all the songs from that chapter simultaneously, almost like performing your own mini-concert. Luckily you’ve had some practice with each of the songs before tackling this! The prizes are various photographs of the Beatles with fun facts about each photo and what was going on when it was taken. A great treat for avid Beatles fans.

We’ve loved taking a trip down memory lane, enjoying some of our all-time favorite Beatles songs and even discovering some new ones that we’d never heard. One of my new favorite songs is now Boys, which was originally performed by The Shirelles. The Beatles recorded a cover of the song on their first album released in the UK, Please Please Me back in 1963. It was Ringo Starr’s first recorded lead vocal with the Beatles. Since this song was originally sung by girls, they altered the gender pronouns accordingly to, “my girl says when I kiss her lips…” But I couldn’t help but notice while singing it, that it felt like a very feminine song. I have to admit, I rocked that song, and it was awesome.

If you are thinking about picking up a copy of The Beatles: Rockband you have a lot of options. It’s available for the Nintendo Wii, X-Box 360 and Playstation 3 AND you can choose to buy just the software for $53.99 on Amazon right now (if you already own all the instruments from a previous Rockband installment); the Special Value Bundle for $139.99 on Amazon, which includes a Rock Band Guitar, Rock Band Drum Kit, Microphone, Guitar Strap and “The Beatles: Rock Band” software; or the Limited Edition Premium Bundle for $249.99 on Amazon, which includes a Höfner bass controller, The Beatles branded ‘Rock Band’ drums, microphone, microphone stand, and special content.

Another great tip: This week they released Abbey Road (1969) for purchase as downloadable content for The Beatles: Rockband. You can already play “Come Together,” “Something,” “Octopus’s Garden,” “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” “Here Comes The Sun” and “The End” on The Beatles: Rockband game disc, but now you can purchase the rest of the songs from the entire Abby Road album.