Guitar Hero BANISHED

We all knew this day would come. None of us wanted to admit it entirely but we knew that sooner than later, this series was going to come to an untimely end. Guitar Hero and Activision have made so many mistakes within these past few years that they were never able to recover; they released 5 games in one year, they changed a perfect formula (from 5 to 6), and they just did not have the accessibility to songs that Rock Band has had. So where did Guitar Hero and Activision go wrong? Hypothetically speaking, where did they go wrong?

This next section will be mainly opinion but based loosely on facts. I think that Guitar Hero went wrong after 3. They started to perfect their formula. They had some AMAZING songs on 3 and the feel of the game was just so natural and exciting. 3 started to push downloads a little more. It seemed all was going great for Guitar Hero. Then Rock Band was announced. Drums? A microphone? Finally, they catered to the whole band! I was unsure of how this would go over. Would it be a passing fad, or would it truly be able to dethrone the Guitar Hero colossus that was ever-growing? The answer was a resounding yes. I think that there was one thing that everyone overlooked on Guitar Hero 3 and continues to overlook: they had lead and rhythm guitar! They had it in 2 as well but it was much more prevalent in 3. For some reason, Rock Band or Guitar Hero never picked that back up. Why?

With the release of Guitar Hero 4, it just felt so unnatural and dark to me. It did not feel like a Guitar Hero anymore. I loved that they added drums and a microphone into it but it did not feel as polished as Rock Band. The singing was a little more confusing and the bass pedals for the Guitar Hero drum set were easily breakable as well as semi-unresponsive. Soon, Rock Band 2 came out and once again dominated the music sales. Guitar Hero 4 added another key element as well: you could make your own songs; something that had not been done before. I gave it a few tries but it was too confusing for me to figure out so I never fully dicked around with it.

I assume at this point that Activision thought that if they upped how many games they released that they would eventually overcome the sales. Soon the armada of Hero games out: GH Metallica, Guitar Hero Smash Hits, Band Hero, Guitar Hero 5, and GH Van Halen ALL in one year. Talk about a fucking overload. The results were catastrophic. Each game was $60 which meant paying $300 for songs if you were a huge fan boy.

In reality, Smash Hits was a waste of money entirely. Sure, it was fun to play Through The Fire And Flames on drums until your arms were jell-o and you wanted to sit down and cry, but it was fun only 2 times max. The rest of the songs were either released as DLC for Rock Band or just not good enough to mention a second nod. They did not even include some of their better songs onto this game: Six by All That Remains, Jordan by Buckethead, The Light That Blinds by Shadows Fall, My Curse by Killswitch Engage, Arterial Black by Drist, In the Belly of a Shark by Gallows, and many many many other songs. They only had 48 fucking songs on there. Come on, Activision. What a load of shit. Truly.

GH Metallica was an awesome game for metal heads whether or not you were a Metallica fan. The song arrangement that they had for that game would make any avid metal player giddy with excitement. They also had guest acts that had toured with the band which was a nice reprieve from Metallica overload. You actually learned about Metallica’s history. I think that this was one of the most solid, if not most solid Hero game of the year.

Band Hero was a way for Activision to try to draw in a new audience of gamers that would bring them into an entry level for the Hero games. Not a bad idea, but I think that the idea was poorly executed and their song choice for the game was terrible (though it had a few gems like Believe by The Bravery).

Guitar Hero 5 could have been their rise back to some fame. Activision had executed some really innovative ideas: party play, 4 instruments at once, and the whole album incentive challenges. This game came out looking strong and back on top. However, this game came out about 4 games too late. Rock Band had already been wearing the crown for so long that there was no removing it from the throne. Sadly enough, Guitar Hero 5 never got the credit it was due, and it fell on the back burner.

Activision’s biggest disappointment and probably truly the nail in the coffin was Guitar Hero Van Halen. What a great band to acknowledge with their own game. This band has arguably one of the greatest guitarists of all time and has had 2 of the greatest front men for a band. This game could really have turned out amazing, but alas, it was shit on horribly. No Sammy Hagar songs were present in the game. It was only David Lee Roth. Truly a letdown. On top of that, they used the Guitar Hero 4 engine and not the improved Guitar Hero 5 engine. Why the fuck would you not put the best technology in a game newer than Guitar Hero 5? On top of that, the guest acts made absolutely zero fucking sense. Don’t get me wrong, I loved seeing End of Heartache by Killswitch Engage and Stacy’s Mom by Fountains of Wayne on a music game finally, but where in Van Halen’s 40 years of making music have they ever played with any of these guest acts? A side note is why did they not implement some band history into the game like they did with Metallica? Was it because the band was plagued with constant front man changing and bickering with Van Halen? Or was it because Activision got completely fucking lazy by that point and said, “Fuck it. No one cares anymore. Let’s make the consumers suck our cocks as much as we can before we have to pull out?”

I don’t even need to go any further. Go play Rock Band 3 then go play Guitar Hero 6. Tell me which ones actually give a flying fuck about the customer. I am completely ecstatic that Activision cut the cord on this series. They did not even deserve to make any games after 3. I would defend this series left and right even after Rock Band came out. I would always say, “Wait until Guitar Hero 4 comes out. It is going to blow Rock Band out of the fucking water.” Oh believe me, Guitar Hero 4 did some blowing all right. But not the good kind. What is truly a disappointment, however, is the fact that there are a lot of bands that are either signed exclusively to this series or have songs on only the Guitar Hero series (and some bands have songs on both but have not been made available for both). I hope that somehow, Guitar Hero realizes they can make money in one final way and make it possible to transfer the songs that are not available on Rock Band. They would make one last final bit of money before the Guitar Hero series becomes completely obsolete. So I leave the final opinion up to you, my readers. Where did they make the first mistake? Did Guitar Hero ever even have it right? Was Rock Band destined to be the victor or could Activision have implemented some drastic changes that were right for the series and brought it back up to par? I would love to hear your opinions.

As always, stay classy you awesome mother fuckers!

Professor Layton