Best of 2009 - The Beatles: Rock Band

As one year transitions into the next, I find it a healthy and refreshing endeavor to look back upon the past year and reflect upon those experiences which touched me the most; to discover which games stood tall above the rest and, for one reason or another, made a lasting impression.

Over the next few days, I will be sharing my own personal list of the ten best games of 2009, followed by those that didn't quite make the top ten and even a few of my greatest disappointments of the year. These are in no particular order, but they are the games I found most worthy of praise. Reflecting upon them makes one thing clear: it was a great year for gaming.

One simple fact is all it takes to explain why The Beatles: Rock Band is such an amazing game.

No it doesn’t radically alter the music gaming landscape. No it doesn’t introduce buckets full of innovation to the stagnating genre.

What it did do was teach me to appreciate The Beatles when I had never been able to do so before.

For a simple video game to accomplish such a feat is simply amazing, and a true testament to the love and care that went into this amazing package. 

Being able to hear their classic songs along with the great visuals and imaginative dreamscapes while playing along with them on my little plastic instruments allowed me to appreciate their music in a way I had never been able to before. Which is to say, it allowed me to appreciate it at all. 

By introducing the music to me in a modern form, in a format I could interact with and that was familiar to me, The Beatles: Rock Band managed to make fifty year old music completely relevant to someone like me, a slave to modernity.

Even more, it got me interested in the band. I found myself reading their history when I had never cared much before. I found myself browsing the collection of photos you unlock in the game itself with an interest I wouldn’t have thought possible for me.

The game didn’t manage to catapult them to my favorite band of all time or anything, I don’t even find myself listening to their music outside the context of the game often, but even giving me a way to appreciate their music at all is amazing enough. This was a band I could simply not understand the popularity of until The Beatles: Rock Band came out.

For allowing me to finally appreciate and enjoy a band that I previously found baffling, The Beatles Rock Band makes my Best of 2009 list.