Throughout most of this year's E3, the Bitmob crew got pulled in every different direction trying to cover the show with our shorthanded staff. But The Beatles: Rock Band was the one time (well, outside of the requisite Big Three conferences) that most of us came together to enjoy a game. It's definitely my Game of the Show -- I already gushed about it over at 1UP (warning: obsessive Beatles fan mode ahead), but I made a return trip to MTV Games' booth when I heard Bitmob managing editor Greg Ford, staff writer Michael Donahoe, and Mobcast contributor Robert Ashley would be there. After all, while it was great to impersonate John Lennon with a few strangers, I knew the experience would be that much better with Robert as Paul McCartney, Greg as George Harrison, and Donahoe as Ringo Starr.

Sure, the game's pretty much regular Rock Band with the Beatles, so while the attention to detail is amazing, there isn't much to separate it other than the Fab Four's music and likenesses (though I'm intrigued by the possibilities of the game's story mode, which developer Harmonix wouldn't discuss at E3). But what makes The Beatles: Rock Band work so well is that everyone knows the songs and the band so well. For example, I'm an obsessive R.E.M. fan, but I'm also probably the only dude I know who dreams of becoming frontman Michael Stipe up on stage.

So while performing "Orange Crush" in Rock Band is special for me, it's only another song for the rest of my friends. It's a similar story for the rest of the Guitar Hero and Rock Band catalogues -- even bands with their own games like Aerosmith and Metallica don't have universal appeal.The Beatles are different. My mom's a hardcore Beatles fan. I'm a hardcore Beatles fan. Should the Geekbox's Fitch Hitch segment ultimately prove successful and I somehow manage to produce offspring one of these days, my kids will be hardcore Beatles fans. I don't have memories of John Lennon being alive, but his music moves me more than any modern artist. Just about everyone knows at least part of the Beatles 13-album catalogue, and just about everyone's dreamt of being John, Paul, George, and Ringo.

...Well, OK, maybe not Ringo. Still, The Beatles: Rock Band does offer Ringo fave "Octopus's Garden" if ya wanna roll that way.

And it's clear that Harmonix wants to appeal to all Beatles fans, not just the ones who happen to be gamers. All 45 songs will be unlocked from the start, and you can toggle the difficultly on and off from the song menu, including No-Fail Mode. This is what made our Bitmob Fab Four performances at E3 so enjoyable -- particularly our rockin' rendition of "Back in the U.S.S.R." I'm more into the performance aspects of these games, not so much the high scores, so I turned on No-Fail Mode, where I could let loose with my enthusiastic "Georgia's always on my-my-my-my-my-my-my-my-miiiiiiind"s without fear of failure. Meanwhile, Greg, Robert, and Donahoe approached the performance from a more competitive angle.

But here's the real indicator of The Beatles: Rock Band's appeal: This is the only game I can imagine ever playing with my mom, who's in her 60s and has never touched a controller in her life -- even the Wii hasn't grabbed her. But I'll bet even she can't resist the opportunity to become one of the Beatles -- and you can be sure I'll be testing that theory come September 9!