Way back in the day, Dance Dance Revolution captured the hearts (and feet) of many gamers looking for a fun, arcade experience.  I think its popularity stemmed from the fact that pretty much everybody could just jump right in and play; it was fun to watch somebody who sucked just as much as it was to watch somebody make the game their bitch.  With the DDR craze, I fell into that “clumbsy idiot you see flailing around at the arcade” category…never was very good on my feet.  However, I have had a history of playing guitar and piano, so being much better with my fingers, I instantly fell in love with the Guitar Hero franchise.  This game was fun to master, and a blast when you had friends to battle for the title of “Rock God” of the neighborhood.  The game was gaining in popularity, which meant sequels galore…this is my problem, is there too much of a good thing?  If you ask Activision, they will most likely say “no”, or be too busy counting money to answer you.

Activision is a publisher known for “raping” some franchises for all they are worth; Tony Hawk’s name comes to mind.  Shoving titles down a consumers throat will inevitably make them sick, and I fear this is happening to our beloved music/rythm games.  The GH series first hit the scene back in 2005, and it seems that since then, the number of titles in the franchise has blown up.  In fact, it has gotten the point where they released GH: Smash Hits, with a bunch of old songs on it…now that’s just lazy, in my opinion.  This trend of releases doesn’t seem to be slowing down either, with Guitar Hero 5 out now, and GH: Van Halen on the horizon, it looks like we have yet another helping to be shoved down our throats.

Guitar Hero: Bobby Kotick Edition

If I had to choose which franchise will probably last longer, I am more inclined to go with Rock Band.  The RB series is much more accessible to new players and as a whole, the band elements were better than Guitar Hero: World Tour.  While accessibility is a plus, to me it is also a downfall, since even on Expert difficulty, Rock Band is still pretty easy.  Also, the first time RB has done a “band-centric” game is with The Beatles.  I guess that’s why I am starting to have a bit more respect for the guys over at MTV Games, since they haven’t made as many games.  However, I remember when RB was first released, I remember it being hailed as a “new platform” and that the DLC would last forever…then before long we saw Rock Band 2.  This quick and somewhat unnecessary sequel pissed some people off, but at least it hasn’t been over-saturating the gaming market the same way Guitar Hero has been.  I guess the fact that Harmonix is now doing Rock Band, is the reason its still quite enjoyable.

There will always be that niche crowd of people that will gobble up any music game you feed them.  However, I think that we need to start seeing less titles, with more innovation.  The music studio tool in the last GH was a great addition; more user content is what we need to keep the genre fresh.  The “Rock Band Network” is a new tool that is allowing bands and record labels to put their songs into the game, so it seems like the libraries for these games will be endless.  So if we keep seeing these interesting additions, then I think that each series has a bit of steam left in them.  I guess with the releases of DJ Hero and Band Hero we will see exactly how much people can tolerate.  My predictions?  It’s hard to say, but I think the Hero franchises still have some fight left in them, but in the long run, Rock Band is going to outlast the competition.  The RB business model of not releasing as many games in a short amount of time will really help the franchise in the long run, and keep it interesting with DLC every week.  While I have grown a bit tired since the early days of the genre, I really hope we don’t see companies like Activision and Neversoft run these titles to their grave.  Here’s to more originality, and less crap in the titles to come, so we can keep rockin’ on.

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