Lego bricks are awesome. Just look at this damn thing. Mad props to dm_meister for constructing such an awesome tribute to an awesome character. Mad, rage-filled props.

LEGO Rock Band has been officially announced today, after plenty of internet rumours and speculation. The game will ship in “Holiday 2009″ for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and DS. Harmonix and TT Games will be working together for all versions of the game, and Rock Band Unplugged developer Backbone Entertainment will join in the fun for the DS version. Hit the jump for a little more info and a few confirmed tracks (The Final Countdown is in there).

• Blur: “Song 2″
• Carl Douglas: “Kung Fu Fighting”
• Europe: “The Final Countdown”
• Good Charlotte: “Boys and Girls”
• Pink: “So What”

Warner Bros. have issued the following statement, too:

“LEGO Rock Band combines the multiplayer music experience of Rock Band with the fun, customization and humor of the LEGO videogame franchise packed with brilliant chart-topping songs and classic favorites suitable for younger audiences.”

So LEGO Rock Band is to be aimed at youngsters. Makes sense, but since when do youngsters need a LEGO version of Rock Band to get your plastic guitar all sticky? They do it fine with the normal version.

It’s not like we didn’t see this coming, but at least now we have a 100% solid source. Harmonix’s Dan Teasdale published his full presentation from GDC, including a slide that listed every Harmonix game coming out over the next year, including Rock Band for PSP, The Beatles: Rock Band, and Lego Rock Band. Problem is- Lego Rock Band hasn’t yet been announced.

Teasdale got wise to his egregious boner and promptly fixed the PDF, but as with anything posted on the internet, nothing stays hidden. The PDF, though interested in its entirety as well, also holds a bit of information as to the future of the Guitar Hero franchise. Not only did Teasdale reinforce my theory that the Guitar Hero franchise is dead in the water (That’s about 20 games in two and a half years. Christ, Activision! Harmonix only made 3 games in two years!) but he also displayed rumored Guitar Hero games, such as GHDS 4, GHWT Backstage Pass, and Guitar Hero: BH and MC. No idea what either of those acronyms mean, but I can only hope it’s not Buckethead and Motley Crüe.

Of course, since the LEGO cat is out of the bag, what could this game possibly have regarding LEGOs? Hit the jump to find out.

My Predictions:
•Lego Note Charts – the standard red, green, blue, yellow, and orange rectangles will be replaced with LEGOs, and they’ll break whenever you hit them.
•Brick-based songs – The first tier will probably be along the lines of “Brick House” by the Commodores, “Brick” by the Ben Folds Five, “Hip to Be Square” by Huey Lewis and the News, and “Square One” by Coldplay. Last tiers? All of “Thick as a Brick” by Jethro Tull.
•LEGO Instruments – New instruments! A LEGO guitar, LEGO microphone, and LEGO drums. The LEGO drums are much louder, mich less tactile, and easily broken. But it’s cool, because they’re LEGOs. If they break, you can just put them back together yourself. For this reason, there is no warranty.
•LEGO World Tour – You start off as a greeter at the Legoland gift shop, playing songs for tourists at they enter the door. But you eventually get enough fans to move around the world- to other Legolands! Livin’ the dream, kid!
•LEGO Vehicles – The current Rock Band franchise sports regular vehicles that move you across the world, but none of that crap gets into LEGO Rock Band. As a matter of fact, traveling is very difficult. You could just walk, but then your feet would get stuck in the craggly, symmetrical LEGO ground on occasion. You could drive- but your wheels are bricks. It’s a hard knock life, son.
•Special shoes for drumming – Double LEGO bass pedals. That is all.
•Release date and price - April 9th, 2025 for $196. They’re square numbers.

Every once in a while, we here at Ripten come across barbaric rumors that seem too good to be true, and othertimes, too strange to be true. Sure, there are some weird rumors that have turned out to be true- the Beatles in Rock Band, Street Fighter IV LBP DLC, and even Punch-Out! for the Wii- but I don’t see any way this rumor could be true. According to VG247, Traveler’s Tales is currently hard at work, making a LEGO™ Rock Band game.

I don’t see how this would be in any way different from regular Rock Band game, except for the addition of LEGO™ singers and note charts, but I don’t think that justifies a game. I’d probably just write this off as another joke if it weren’t for VG247’s source assuring them that they are 100% correct. I guess we’ll just have to wait for further comment from Traveler’s Tales or MTV Games.

One thing you could probably say for sure: If this game exists, it’s final song has to be ‘Brick House’ by the Commodores.

Source: Videogaming24/7

When your wife says that you should make a Donkey Kong game, you know you married the right woman. Dan Kressin’s wife Robyn did just that, and Dan (like any good husband) said yes mam and got right to work.

The following video shows off Dan’s LEGO Mindstorms RCX Donkey Kong creation and definitely drives home the reason why Mario was called Jumpman back in Nintendo’s original 1981 release of the game. I won’t even try to explain how this thing was built, so if you are interested in finding out, read Dan’s explanation here.

Hit the jump for the video.

Source: wrench.vib.org (via brothers-brick.com)

I think that a LEGO GTA game would actually be pretty awesome. Think about it.

Source: WeGame

Who remembers growing up with Lego? I did, but my strongest memories were not the creating of castles, cars, or in my case, the indescribable. No, some of the best times I had with Lego were from wrecking what had been created.

I had an older brother that spent hours before work creating ships, cars & buildings from the various Lego pieces I had. When I’d get up each morning, my brother’s next Lego creation would keep me in a state of wonder for a few minutes. I’d try to work out how he put them together, then in a blink of an eye, spend the next 5 glorious minutes, knocking it down.

EA’s Boom Blox is a throwback to a more innocent time, where creative toys like Lego were king. Up to a point, it could almost be like Jenga and Lego got together to create this booming offspring of a game.

O.K., now onto what makes Boom Blox tick: the blox themselves. All the individual blox have varying properties (gem, immobile, fragile and bomb being just a few).

The Explore mode, coupled with the initial training mode allow the player to come to grips with each type of blox. These modes also highlight how blox can interact with each other via player’s actions, causing some of the great chain reactions within the game.

Through the Explore mode, Boom Blox presents the player with prizes for doing well, in addition to the chance of a bronze, silver or gold medal. These unlockable prize items are for use within the game’s level editor and they come in all shapes, from extra scenery items right through to new blox characters.

Players using the editor are able to create a brand new level from scratch or remix a previously played level. This goes a long way to keeping the whole Boom Blox experience fresh, but is let down by the fact that player created levels can only be shared with friends. There is no option to show off your created levels within the whole Wii community, which once again shows up flaws within the Wii’s current online makeup.

Since Adventure mode is less adventurous, managed by weak and even childlike storylines, it’s the party mode that keeps Boom Blox afloat. Be it co-op or competitive play, players can put their single-player expertise into the world of Boom Blox multiplayer.

This doesn’t mean that the player can’t head straight into the multiplayer, but make sure you attempt the training stage at the beginning of the game before you jump in. However, once multiplayer has been feasted upon, the single player does seem like a very light snack in comparison.

The Havok physics engine tunes the whole Boom Blox experience into a feast of crash, bang, and smash action that requires more precision with the Wii remote than you may think at first. Players will have fun discovering just how hard to throw or how delicate to pull at the blox structures in Boom Blox.

Luckily, the frustrations of failed attempts by players can’t be directed at the game engine. The Havok physics engine feels a perfect foil for game play and stays totally in tune with each player move via the Wii controller.

Boom Blox is a perfect companion piece for the Wii, showing off what the console can do right and giving a future scope for game publishers. Wii owners can dare to be a little more hopeful that the future of gaming for the console will bring titles that compare with the effortless pleasure that is Boom Blox.

What does this score mean? Check out our review scoring breakdown.

As if June wasn’t going to be busy enough with Lego Indy on the 6th and Guns of the Patriots on the 12th, two more heavy hitters have been stamped with a June release. 

Sierra have let out that the Bourne Conspiracy will be released on the 27th for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. We sat down with three levels at Play.com Live a few weeks back – expect a preview shortly.

Meanwhile, Tecmo’s claret-heavy Ninja Gaiden 2 for 360 is mooted as the 6th following an update to retailer GAME’s website – an assertion that has allegedly been confirmed by ‘inside sources’. 

True or not, better start raiding the piggy bank; July’s going to be tight.

Source: Bourne Conspiracy, Ninja Gaiden 2