Green Day has a fairly storied past, starting in the early days with angst-filled punk and making it all the way to Broadway with their own show. You can’t deny they’ve had a large impact on teen culture and the punk genre over the past decade. Being the second single-band Rock Band game, Green Day has some huge shoes to fill. The Beatles: Rock Band set the bar extremely high, as it should. Does the punk trio deliver on the same level? Not completely, but it’s a solid effort.

Green Day: Rock Band follows the same formula used by The Beatles: Rock Band, tracking the group’s history through various venues and albums. You’ll have three venues here to play, each with differently styled characters to properly reflect the music of the time. Being able to play the whole “Dookie” album was great for me – it’s still one of my favorite albums from my teenage years. The career mode isn’t the longest, taking me roughly four hours to complete in one sitting, so keep that in mind. I was happy to see the 3-part vocal harmonies make a return as well, although finding enough people locally to fill out your band might be tough – but there’s always online play for that. Your standard Rock Band online play is available as well as various Challenges you can unlock by playing through Career.

I already mentioned the career mode being short, which is one of my minor gripes with Green Day: Rock Band. The other is having two songs in the career setlist that have certain instrument requirements. One song has no drum part and another is vocal only; so if you hoped to get through the whole career on only one instrument, you’re out of luck. I played through on drums the whole way and needed to go find my guitar and microphone to complete the others. While skipping those songs won’t prevent you from progressing in the career, it will definitely prohibit you from getting quite a few Achievements.

Ultimately, Green Day: Rock Band is a solid game, albeit one mainly for hardcore Green Day fans. Rhythm game fans will get a kick out of it, but it’s not on the same level as The Beatles: Rock Band. You don’t get the awesome Dreamscapes and varied locals to play your songs. While both were solid affairs, I’m hoping the single band Rock Band games come to an end. Being a full priced $60 game, it’s tough to recommend a buy for anyone other than hardcore Green Day fans or those of you dying for more Rock Band in your life. It’s definitely worth a rental for everyone else.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]