Last night at the 2009 Spike Video Game Awards, MTV Games and Harmonix announced Green Day: Rock Band for the XBox 360, PS3 and Wii, the latest outing in the Rock Band franchise. The second band-specific Rock Band game, following Beatles: Rock Band, will follow the career and musical achievements of Green Day, rocking out with digital versions band members Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool in venues and performances reflecting the bands successes.

“We’ve worked with the Rock Band team in the past year to enable our fans to play tracks from 21st Century Breakdown, and we’re excited to now be working on a game, spanning our entire career,” said Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong.  “We want people to fire this up, choose their favorite Green Day tracks, and play along with us as Rock Band avatars so they can feel what it’s like to perform on stage as Green Day.”

Somehow, I doubt Green Day really feels that, but this game is an interesting proposition to say the least. Beatles: Rock Band was a phenomenal achievement, elevating the rhythm game to a new level, if not in gameplay, but in the celebration of music. And now, Harmonix is attempting to do the same with Green Day. It sounds great in principle, but in practice, can Harmonix and MTV Games really believe that they can recapture that same magic with a band that doesn’t have the same pedigree or history? Can they make a game that’s a must-play, or is this going to be Rock Band’s equivalent of the narrow-focused and lackluster Aerosmith, Metallica and Van Halen Guitar Hero titles?

Beatles: Rock Band had fantastic intangibles going for it, intangibles that it celebrated: a legendary band with a history dating back almost 50 years, timeless songs that everyone knows, and a profound impact on popular music. In contrast, Green Day is certainly near the top of the list as the best current band in America, and they’ve enjoyed both critical and commercial success. But are they even remotely on par to receive the same treatment as the Beatles? Not even remotely close.

In fact, the only current band I think you could make a case for, to have a game to follow on in the footsteps of the Beatles is U2, who’s musical career exceeds Green Day in every imaginable way. With plenty of albums and dozens of hit singles there’s enough content there to make it work. In contrast, Green Day has maybe a dozen real hit songs, and nowhere near the universal acclaim. But they are big, they have great music for a Rock Band game, and that’s probably enough.

The track list is also fully exportable for play on the PS3 and XBox 360 versions of Rock Band or Rock Band 2, which is a positive change on one hand from Beatles: Rock Band, but other the other hand, it does take away the specialness of the package.

Expect to hear a whole lot more about Green Day: Rock Band in the months ahead.