Shock horror, we have new Rock Band and Insert-Instrument-Here Hero games coming this year. Part of me dreads the yearly, or more than yearly, release schedule of these game. Perhaps the band specific games like Rock Band Beatles and Green Day are more acceptable, they add a new ‘storyline’ to the game, to the extent that these types of games can actually have storylines.
With the huge online stores that these games are releasing, do we really need yearly updates to the games? When you have new content coming out on a weekly basis it does seem a little pointless to release a game every year, even with new features that they’re adding. I’d say they’re almost worse than sports games, at least a sports franchise tends to only update once a year. This year we have two Rock Band titles, and two entries in the Hero series.
The main thing about these games is that really we’re only doing one thing with them, playing them at parties. Whilst they do add new modes to them in the releases, do we really want them? When it comes down to it all we’re really doing is playing the songs with friends. Everything else is an added bonus that could wait more than a year to be pumped out. I’d say that they’re killing the longevity of the rhythm game genre, but yearly releases of sports games for however long they’ve been going on has pretty much shown that it does very little to effect the series in the long run.
I realise that this sounds like a big slam on music games as a whole, but I love them. I love playing fake guitar, or failing dismally at playing the drums. I even kinda enjoy the singing part, although anyone that’s played with me will attest that I’m a terrible singer. I’d even love to play DJ Hero, the unloved step child of music games.
What do you feel about music games? Should they take a break more often? Do you like playing them, or do you feel that it’s blindly smooshing bits of plastic? Do they take away from the achievements of real musicians, or do they exemplify them?
Deathbrin
No idea. Never played or even seen anybody playing one.
Deathbrin
*except the gh: aerosmith demo with a sixaxis once, doesn’t really count as i still have no idea
bunimomike
What do you feel about music games?
Don’t like any of them. They don’t have my unique musical tastes catered for so I just ignore everyone single one of them and get on with proper games.
I know, I know… they ARE proper games. Kinda. :-)
bajere
i was the same, none of the tracks were in my music collection on GH3, but i got the game anyway for £35 with guitar, and i loved it! got me hoocked on music games. give it a bash and you might be suprised.
As for the release shedule, i just feel they need to release dlc and forget about all the extra features… all we do is put it on quick play, make a playlist then go for it. no need for any other modes IMO
3shirts
I can only speak for Rock Band but the online music store is great and allows you to build a library to your taste. The Rock Band Network (which lets people create their own tracks or make existing songs ‘rock band-able’) extends this even more.
bajere
Yea i got Rockband as well. I would agree the DLC on RB is way better than GH
3shirts
What is your musical taste?
carson321
I would like it if all the songs released for guitar hero were compatible with all versions of the guitar hero game, and I do believe there are far too many incarnations of rock band and guitar hero, esp when they havn’t been around for any real length of time yet.
Also, I’m sure I heard talk a while back of making peripherals (i.e. guitars) interchangeable between the two games? Whatever happened to that? I loved that idea!
colmshan1990
They are.
3shirts
Yep, I only have guitar hero guitars, but I use them on Rock Band and they work perfectly
hairfreax
Id rather learn Guitar and Listen to my Music than try and hit the coloured bars at the same time. Plus ive got fingers like sausages so im no good at them
3shirts
Just because it’s not like the real thing doesn’t make it value-less though. I can’t, and have no intention of learning to, skateboard but I still play Tony Hawk’s games.
The genius of these games is that you can play along to songs you like, with a significantly shorter learning curve than the real instrument, yet it does feel like you are involved in some way.
Forrest_01
Surely not ‘Ride’ though???
Danza Di Fuoco
It’s not buttons anymore….
theDAZBOMEGATRON
I’ve never played any of them, not once. I’m not even remotely interested, although DJ Hero looks good, but the mashed up music puts me off, i’d prefer remixed classics. Example: We will rock you – Queen, it sounds great on the video… until you add too many beat drops, there’s no flow or continuiuty with the music, it’s just mashed up for the sake of it and the game.
mugsybalone
I own a few of these games, playing mainly Rock Band 2 and its Beatles edition, as far as my own musical tastes go, I think I’m pretty open minded so with the size of the song library there’s a good sized list of songs that I’m happy to play along with, mostly with the drums as the guitars are apparently incompatible with my hands :)
I certainly wouldn’t say it’s comparable to playing a real instrument, and I’m quite aware that any respectable score I could manage in-game is of no consequence in the real world, it’s just a bit of fun.
igotmy9milli
I personally enjoy Dj Hero, it’s the kind of music I listen too. Also enjoyed Beatles RB. Haven’t enjoyed a Guitar Hero since number 3. I love rhythm games.
DrNate86
No-one cares about a story mode, they just get them for the songs, so I think releasing new ones is pointless. They should just release the songs online to download and leave it at that. I find it silly that you have to buy a whole new game just to get access to a few new songs you like. The same problem applied to singstar, I liked it when they just released songs online without having multiple discs.
3shirts
I disagree. I am a massive Aerosmith fan and the reason I liked Guitar Hero Aerosmith so much is because it told the story of them as a band, featured key events/gigs in their history and had some nice little VTs of the band talking about their rise, fall and rise.
It was like a rockumentary that you could get involved in.
I understand Beatles Rock Band is a similar deal
3shirts
I seem to be in the minority here but I love the Harmonix games (early Guitar Heroes and now, Rock Band). I have RB 1 and 2, loads of downloaded songs, buying Green Day this weekend and RB3 when it arrives.
I am lucky as two of the band-specific games (Aerosmith and Green Day) are bands I love and have been to see live so I get the full value of these products. I can see the argument that most people probably just want the songs but not me :)
Rock Band is a great party game. Me and one of my best mates are addicted to it but even people who haven’t played it will enjoy it once they give it a try at a party. I play it with my girlfriend or alone too but it’s main advantage is breaking out the full band at a party and alternating between playing and drinking!
Can’t wait for keyboards in RB3.
DJ-Katy
I don’t see why everyone is so desperate for this market to die. If you don’t like music games, don’t buy them.
Running a music site as I do, my PSN list is crammed with people who love SingStar, Rock Band and Guitar Hero and we all have a great time with it, the number of people playing these games is enormous, it’s not necessary to re-invent the genre with every release because the gameplay is solid already. I enjoy collecting the new disks although I would prefer it to be released as DLC, this is an ongoing topic of complaint over on SingStar’s Facebook group.
People on here seem to forget that these games have totally outstripped pretty much everything else in sales, they are extremely popular and will continue to be so. I also disagree about them only being used at parties, there are plenty of people who play these games solo and online – everyone I know who plays them does this, we don’t use them just for parties.
3shirts
Yay, backup has arrived. It’s amazing how much ire these games seem to generate. Also, lots of people say things like “I don’t play them and never will” – um, so why should I listen to your opinion if you have no background to support it.
DJ-Katy
Ok, now go onto http://www.totalmusicgaming.com and introduce yourself and post some scores :D
*shameless plug*
Raen
I don’t want the genre to die at all, I enjoy it. I think there’s a chance it may kill itself if they keep up such an aggressive cycle at the enhanced cost of music games (I know you can get away with out buying new equipment, but with some of the new features you do need new controllers) it may burn out quicker than either fast cycle franchises.