14 DAY TRIAL // The latest Rock Band downloadable content brought a nice addition of Queen songs to the game, but in case this wasn't enough for you, the band will get even more time in the spotlight. Lego Rock Band will be released in the first half of November and it will include lego figures that depict John Deacon, Roger Taylor, Brian May and lead singer Freddy Mercury. Gamers will get the chance to perform songs like "We Are The Champions" and "We Will Rock You" while under the lego appearance of the famous band.
So far, the artists announced for Lego Rock Band are the newly added Queen, David Bowie, Blur and Iggy Pop, but others are bound to make an appearance too. Celebrities featured in video games have caused a lot of commotion in the industry lately, and even though EA's sports series has seen the worst of it, the rhythm genre hasn't managed to stay clear of the storm either. Activision managed to bring down some serious hail on themselves when they used the likeness of Kurt Cobain in their Guitar Hero 5.
The whole mess started when Courtney Love threatened to sue Activision for allowing the game to use her late husband's image to perform all songs, and not just the Nirvana ones. While the chances that Lego Rock Band could find itself in a similar situation do exist, they are pretty slim. Even if the game uses Freddy Mercury's image, it’s not really an accurate depiction, with the lego stylized shape of the character.
Not only that most people would need to be told who they're looking at to make the connection, but, while alive, the artist seemed to be a reasonable person and definitely one that could take a joke. The best example of this would be the music video for the "I Want to Break Free" song where Freddy is dressed as an emancipated housewife, while the rest of the band is also dressed in female outfits. If anyone could complain it's either his family, the other band members or the fans, and if there is little chance the late artist would feel wronged by the lego-Freddy, there is no reason why any of the above listed would either.