Parent's Guide: Green Day: Rock Band - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

Taking the button mashing, instrument playing fun of Rock Band and mixing it together with the pop-punk of Green Day, Green Day: Rock Band is a music game that lets you play through 47 of the trio's finest tracks, including the albums Dookie and American Idiot in its entirety, along with the vast majority of 21st Century Breakdown.

The game itself plays out in much the same way as the earlier Rock Band games - picking up either a guitar controller, a microphone, or sitting down at the drums, it's up to you to play along with the songs, by following the coloured notes that come down the screen towards you. On guitar, you have to hold the relevant coloured button on the neck of the guitar and strum as the icon crosses over a line at the bottom of the screen; on drums, it's a simple case of whacking the right coloured drum as the notes; while if you're singing, you have a pitch bar you have to try and sing within. It's all very easy to pick up and play, and while you will need at least one instrument (or a microphone) to play along here, the game's fully compatible with either the Rock Band or Guitar Hero instruments.

In terms of things younger children may struggle with, it likely depends on the instrument they're playing. While singing is fine for younger children, some of the lyrics may not be all the suitable for little ones to sing. The guitar controller is also rather large, and younger players with littler fingers may not be able to stretch enough to reach the required notes. Drums, meanwhile, can take some getting used to, especially when it comes to play the bass pedal and the drums at the same time. That said, as the game does come with an optional no fail mode, which lets you play all the way through to the end of the song even if you don't hit any of the notes, even those who aren't that great can join in, and play along with the rest of the group.

While there's no bad language in Green Day Rock Band, and no violence, there are a few questionable lyrics - as you'd likely expect from a band like this. There are several references to sex ("I went to a whore" being perhaps the most obvious), and other lines that reference drugs ("doing someone else's cocaine"), so it's possibly not the sort of thing you'd want younger children singing. While there's no swearing, it does make the song "F.O.D." (or as it's otherwise known, "F**k off and die") kind of awkward, as the word "f**k" is removed from the lyrics, yet all it leaves is as somewhat awkward gap. "You're just, a ... // I can't explain it 'cause I think you suck. // I'm taking pride // In telling you to ... off and die"

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Xbox 360