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Mega64 gets back to its roots in the troupe's latest video, enlisting the aid of John and Jane Q. Public to create another minute and a half of comedy based on The Beatles: Rock Band. You're probably asking yourself how the trio can recreate the full British pop quartet. To answer that, we offer this: through the aid of a surprise guest, of course!

Head past the break to see who. We're pretty sure you'll never guess who it is.

[Thanks, Brock]

Eleven days ago, Harmonix delivered on a concept many of us had fantasized about since the very first time we ever played Rock Band: It democratized the track-making process. For the first time in the franchise's history, any schmo off the street with a bit of MIDI engineering experience and a song in their heart could put that song on the Rock Band Store for the world to see (and hopefully purchase).

At GDC, Harmonix senior sound designer Caleb Epps and Rock Band Network producer Matthew Nordhouse sat down to speak about the challenges that came with opening up the game to user-generated content, and how its dedicated community has organically evolved the song-sharing process.

The one track we were most looking forward to from Green Day: Rock Band was, of course, "Brain Stew/Jaded" from the outfit's 1995 album. It's a powerful, triumphant tune -- and, apparently, it's also super hard. The Harmonix crew attempted the song during last night's "Rock Band Bar Night" event at GDC, and -- well, it ended in tears. Or rather, jeers.

You can check out some off-screen footage of their tremendous failure above, or footage of them actually playing the game past the jump. To be fair, the drummer didn't see the flurry of notes coming at him, due to his attempt to refresh himself with some libations. You know who else was enjoying a few beverages? The drunk dude who kept trying to throw the devil horns up in front of our camera while we were filming. Really, drunk dude? Really?

Rather than, we don't know, a press release or any other professional method of disseminating a message (Twitter, perhaps?), Harmonix took to Facebook to tell friends and friends-of-friends that Rock Band 3 will be released "this holiday season."

The announcement is brief and detail-free, but reveals that EA will distribute the game -- apparently having renewed its Rock Band distribution deal with Viacom. With Rock Band 3, the developer promises to "innovate and revolutionize the music genre once again, just as Harmonix did with the original Rock Band, Rock Band 2 and The Beatles: Rock Band."

If previous comments by Dhani Harrison are to be believed, you may even learn something from playing RB3!

[Thanks Helloimbob!]

For those of you looking to put your '80s singing chops to the test, it would appear that iNiS will be offering you just that chance if a recent ESRB listing for a fourth installment in the Lips series is to be believed. "Lips: I (Heart) the 80s" was recently spotted by IGN over on the ratings website, sporting a description that reveals at least two tracks from the 1980s-centric title -- The Police's "Roxanne" and Rick James' "Super Freak."

The game is also said to feature "depictions of men and women in revealing outfits performing provocative choreography -- for example, women in negligees, black bras, panties dancing inside a classroom; large amounts of exposed cleavage, some grinding dance moves; and background images of storefronts/signs reading '25 cent Peepshows,' 'Live Sex Theatre,' and 'Topless Girls Dancing.'" Gosh golly! Regardless, with the recent release of Lips: Party Classics and today's ESRB listing, we have to imagine the official announce of Lips: I (Heart) the 80s is just around the corner. We'll be prepping our boom boxes with plenty of Public Enemy until then.

[Via IGN]

Gaijin Games has released the first trailer for Bit.Trip Runner, the fourth game in the WiiWare Bit.Trip series. Now we can see what the developer means by calling it a "rhythm platformer." The layout of the stage, from enemies to terrain, is all designed in accord with the chiptune soundtrack, and Commander Video, the franchise hero, jumps, slides, and collects gold at super-high speed -- all to the beat of 8-bit-inspired music.

We wanted to point to one specific moment in the video (posted after the break), but, as trailers tend to be, this one's full of moments. So, see if you can spot Super Meat Boy! Check out that Pitfall level! Watch out for the ... giant miner? ... Who shoots fireballs at you from a lantern? While you're on a treadmill?

We suggested our enthusiasm for THQ's Beat City may be reduced upon seeing actual screenshots of the rhythm-based minigame collection. We're delighted to report that in addition to sounding like a neat idea, we think it looks pretty interesting as well! It's got an unusual geometric art style.

You can inspect the style of Beat City for yourself in our gallery, and even see storyboard-style sequences that are ... intended to explain the gameplay. We see an assembly line of crows being turned into parrots. We see a loving couple wearing outfits that grow spontaneously more ren-faire. We don't feel illuminated.

Last week, the Rock Band Store got a few healthy slices of Americana with tracks from Otis Redding and the Brian Setzer Orchestra. This week's offerings are much more foreign -- there's a three-pack from Finnish rock band HIM, a song from Britain's One Night Only, a track from The Police, and a song from Marilyn Manson, whom we all know actually descends from an extinct alien race whose name our human tongues could never hope to pronounce.

Click past the jump for the full list of new additions!

Eclectic might be a bit of an understatement when it comes to next week's Rock Band Weekly offerings, which run the gamut from soul to electronica to swing. Otis Redding dominates the majority of the new tunes, which is just fine by us. As for the rest, well you're just going to have to hit the jump to see!

USA -- the television network, not the nation -- has selected Harmonix founders Alex Rigopulos and Eran Egozy as the two most important "New Media" figures in its annual Character Approved Awards. According to USA's announcement of the 2010 winners, the awards are designed to "honor the real characters who are changing the face of American culture." Considering we haven't been to a social gathering in two years that didn't turn into an impromptu Rock Band party, we think Rigopulos and Egozy are deserving of the honor.

Check out the pair's award page to find out more about their personal history. We didn't know Egozy is actually a classically-trained clarinetist. Where's that peripheral, guys?

The rhythm-based games developer has apparently filed for several hip-hop and rap song licenses, indicating something a bit funkier and perhaps a bit fresher is in the works. Scripts may be flipped. We really don't know.

Here are the requested tracks (via Royalty Network):

• "Ante Up" by M.O.P.
• "Evacuate the Dancefloor" by Cascada
• "Say Aah" by Trey Songz
• "The Way I Are" by Timbaland feat D.O.E.

As you can tell, these tracks aren't really known for their rocking and/or rolling, so it's not the usual Rock Band fare. Wanton speculation would suggest that Harmonix is working on an extension of its franchise into the hip-hop, R&B and rap segments -- a possible answer to Activision's DJ Hero?

[Via Destructoid]

Hey, Rock Band aficionados! Are you ready to spend your hard-earned Microsoft Points, Wii Points or good old-fashioned cash money on tracks which you'll never be able to play without injuring your tender, fragile metacarpals? Brace your bones -- the Music Store is about to get a healthy dose of Megadeth, in the form of the outfit's 1990 album "Rust in Peace." Or, as it's more commonly known, "The one with 'Hangar 18' on it."

The nine-track album will be available for $14.99 (1200, bundle not available on Wii), and can also be purchased piecemeal for $1.99 (160, 200 Wii Points) per track. In addition, the Who's "Super Bowl S-mashup" medley will be made available on Sunday after the big game for $1.99 (160, 200 Wii Points).

Check out all the songs included in next week's update after the jump.

In the latest issue of Edge Magazine, Harmonix head Alex Rigopulos and Neversoft project director Brian Bright both speak out regarding the current state of rhythm-music gaming. As you might imagine, neither developer thinks that the genre is flatlining. In fact, Rigopulos even believes that "future music games will exceed the sales success of the last generation."

Surprisingly, though, while each heads up their own approach to the genre, the two seem to be in near-direct agreement on the next step for their franchises. "User-generated content will be absolutely critical to the ongoing success of the genre, I think," Rigopulos says. Bright echoes his statement, saying, "I think user-created content is key to the evolution ... if you can't create or edit licensed music due to copyright laws, then you're limited to pretending to play someone else's music."

That said, each developer differs in their definition of exactly what that "user-created content" will be. In the case of Rigopulos, he believes the Rock Band Network and its potentially "huge community of power-users -- skilled music creators" will be his company's next "defining moment." Bright is less sure of a plan, simply stating, "I think the key is to create music, but make it compelling to create, so the game is in the creation."

There's bound to be someone else out there waiting for news about Natsume's super-cute artillery puzzle game Squishy Tank, because we know we are. Natsume just announced that both that puzzler and Cheer We Go will be released in March, which is ... unfortunately, so overloaded that these games are likely to founder in even deeper obscurity than they would anyway.

Squishy Tank, based on a series of Japanese Flash animations, is a color-matching game with soft, animate tank characters and adorable parody minigames. Cheer We Go is a rhythm-based game in which the player revitalizes a failed town, home to terrible sports teams and widespread despair, with cheerleading! The games will retail for $20 each.

Speaking to Nintendo Life in a podcast, Gaijin Games's Alex Neuse spilled plenty of details about the fourth Bit.Trip game for WiiWare, Bit. Trip Runner. Neuse calls the game a "rhythm platformer," a genre populated, in his estimation, only by Vib-Ribbon. Which means that players will move Commander Video through side-scrolling environments to the beat of new chiptune songs, two of which are provided by chiptune superstars Anamanaguchi.

The game's 50 levels will make use of user-submitted fanart, for which the developer is still soliciting entries. The universe of Bit. Trip will also expand a bit: "We're going to be adding a lot more to this game," Neuse said. "There's going to be multiple characters – not playable characters, but we are going to introduce some new characters into the franchise." Runner is around 2/3 complete, and is expected to release on WiiWare sometime this spring.