It's hard to compete with The Beatles. Just ask every other music game at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. Thanks to a hip trailer, a great line-up of songs and the magic only Yoko Ono can provide, The Beatles: Rock Band was the hit of the show. Not even Activision, one of the biggest companies in the music genre, was able to match the hype of the fab four ... and they came to L.A. with five different guitar games. If Guitar Hero couldn't even compete with the likes of The Beatles, then what chance did Konami have when they stunned the industry by announcing the news of a Rock Revolution sequel?

Apparently, they had no chance. Zero. Nada. Which is probably why it's me (and not IGN or GameSpot) breaking the news about The Rutles: Rock Revolution, Konami's second stab at the lucrative guitar-game market.

If you're looking forward to the upcoming Beatles game, then The Rutles: Rock Revolution will sound awfully familiar. You can grab the guitar, drums or bass and watch Ron Nasty, Dirk McQuickly, Stig O'Hara and Barry Wom impress the crowd with songs like "Piggy in the Middle," "Doubleback Alley" and "Get Up and Go." Impress the crowd to earn big points and see the full story of this influential band.

While Konami could have taken the easy way out and simply made this Rutles-centric game nothing more than a track pack, developers Zoe Bell actually spent the time to tell the full story of these classic rockers. As you play through this game you will be impressed by how the development team was able to capture every one of the different eras and styles. You start out in the early 1960s, playing small clubs like Reeperbahn. These are the so-called Leppo years. From there we are swept away by the emerging Rutlemania that is taking its hold all across the world. It's here that we see these young blokes from Liverpool swiftly conquering the United States, playing to sold out arenas and going on the biggest TV shows of the day. Best of all, in the game you even get to take part in the filming of the band's two films from the era, A Hard Day's Rut and Ouch!

The developers promised me that the game would be about more than just the meager beginnings of the band. He suggested that they would introduce the controversies (like when Nasty was quoted as saying that the group was "bigger than God") and delve deeper into the band's more experimental (read: drugged out on tea) sounds, including the band's masterpiece, Sgt. Rutter's Only Darts Club Band. I hear that they may even go into the band's biggest disasters, such as the Tragical Mystery Tour, an album that failed on the pop charts (despite having the singles "W.C. Fields Forever" and "I Am the Waitress"). In all, the game will feature cuts from all of the band's albums, including some tearful jams from Let It Rot, The Rutles' final album.

While I was certainly impressed by the game's ambitious story mode, I was disappointed to learn that The Rutles: Rock Revolution would not be bundled in with its own fake instruments. Instead the development team suggests you pick up The Beatles: Rock Band or Guitar Hero 5 and use their instruments. Fans looking to play with the instruments made famous by Nasty, Stig, Dirk and Barry will need to settle for the sub-par instruments that John, Paul, George and Ringo used. Talk about downgrade.

Thankfully the game will have a heavy emphasis on downloadable content, something desperately lacking from the first Rock Revolution. Not only with Konami support the game with popular songs from the band's archive, but they are also releasing full albums, starting with Shabby Road. As of now no prices or dates have been made available, but this is certainly shaping up to be a real treat for all of fans who have been patiently waiting for such a release.

Sadly my hands on time was limited, but Konami's PR did clarify that the game would not feature the master tracks, instead once again resorting to covers of the original songs. They also said that none of the footage from the documentaries (All You Need Is Cash and The Rutles 2: Can't Buy Me Lunch) will be in the finished product. They hope to have this game out by the second week of September on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and Nintendo DS. We'll have more information and screenshots as soon as they are available.