From a local guitar hero to the frontman of the band
The arena of guitar-fronted games seems to be in quite a flux.
Just to spoil this week’s release of the fifth game in the Guitar Hero series, the one concentrating on Aerosmith, Harmonix put out a press release to inform the game-buying public of the impending release of sequel to last year’s Rock Band. With Guitar Hero adding a comparable set of instruments in the forthcoming World Tour, Rock Band’s success is by no means as guaranteed as it appeared to be upon its release.
The first Rock Band still hasn’t been released in Finland - and the rumor mill spins out that it never actually will, and the sequel will take care of all the wannabe rockers. A very positive factoid of the christmas release is the continued usability of content from the first game as well as of any downloaded songs. Clearly a step up from the game-specific music of the Guitar Hero-series. My exposure to the game is limited to a two hour review session, but the guitars left a definitely flimsy impression. The instrument quality is one of the issues Harmonix will address in the sequel, so the complaint is probably not valid for long.
Incidentally, the third installment of the Guitar Hero-saga is available for a very reasonable price in the summer sale of Stockmann. The 30 euro price doesn’t include a guitar, but for owners of the previous games it’s a definite bargain. I’m now 3/4ths through the easy game, and the song selection has been very much on the impressive side, with only a couple of boring pieces thrown in.
The highlight of the show, the digit-maiming Through the Fire and the Flames by DragonForce is not available immediately, only after the game’s been beaten once. I’ve seen it shredded close to perfection on expert-difficulty, and don’t anticipate to be able to ever reach those lofty heights.
The Tuba Hero t-shirt pictured here is yet another spoof on the original game, this one produced by Torsopants.
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