Green Day: Rock Band Announced

At the Spike VGA’s this evening, Green Day revealed that they are getting their own Rock Band game.

No release date was given, nor was much information about the game at all. We got a short trailer, showing off some gameplay featuring the band’s song American Idiot, which is a terrible song and shouldn’t be in any music game ever.

I am horribly disappointed by this news. Artist-specific music games are not where this genre should be headed. The Beatles: Rock Band was fantastic, but that is due in large part to the band it focused on. Green Day hasn’t put out any good music in the last ten years (I know this is a very subjective point, but most of the people I talk to agree), and I’m honestly sick of the group altogether. The last thing I want to play is fifty songs of the same drum riff, repeated power chords and lyrics from a 37-year-old eyeliner model who wishes he was still twenty years younger.

Rather than waste time emulating Activision, Harmonix should be forging ahead and making Rock Band 3 the best game it can be. They reshaped the entire video game industry with Guitar Hero, and then again with Rock Band, but with Lego Rock Band and now this, the franchise is starting to feel stale.

The lack of a new flagship title this holiday season was a big disadvantage to the series, so that really needs to be the next thing out of the company’s doors. If Rock Band 3 ends up taking them until Holiday 2010, I don’t know how many of Harmonix’s loyal fans will still be around to support it.