Now before I anyone jumps the gun let me explain, I love Guitar Hero. When the game first arrived on the scene it was a new and fresh idea, letting players jam along with their favorite songs. The guitar peripheral was awesome making the experience that much better, immersing the players by letting them strum along with the songs.
But soon I began to grow tired of just playing the guitar when deep down I really longed to play the drums. I often pondered why there was no drum peripheral or a game that allows you to take on this role. Then a shiny beacon of hope Rock Band was released and finally I could live my dream of being Neal Peart.
All good things come to an end and this is where my hate comes in, I love these games but the sheer saturation of mostly Guitar Hero games has left me jaded. Then to top it off we now have Band Hero and DJ Hero, whats next Saxophone Hero, Orchestra Hero, I mean where does it end. Games are already expensive enough but must publishers try to slap some paint on an idea pair it with a different controller and call it a new game? I mean there's only two versions of Rock Band, but did they really have to make new instruments for The Beatles version?
How many more Hero games do we really need, hell soon people will have to dedicate a whole room to all of their peripherals for all of these games. I know you can buy them and then just buy the games as they come out without having to buy a new guitar or what not but it just seems a waste to me. It makes me feel that game companies and publishers are to chicken to take a risk and will just put on a diffrent skin on and old game and try and pass it off as new.
Gamers are not stupid, you cant fool us. Please go easy on me this is my first blog post for the Monthly Musings and thought I'd give it a shot.
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I'm the resident Rock Band whore so needless to say when I saw your title I was excited. I've been debating whether to write on the same two games.
But I have to say I don't see how the saturation of games actually affects the quality of those games. In fact if Guitar Hero 5 is any indication the saturation helped. If you follow every spin-off this year from Metallica to Smash Hits and finally GH5 each spin-off fixed something that was clusterfucked in GH:WT which was by far the worse GH in my opinion. But GH5 fixed everything and added a lot.
Then there's Rock Band. You say The Beatles: Rock Band didn't need it's own instruments but you don't know that for sure. I can almost guarantee you if Harmonix hadn't given them the full package the Beatles estate would have never agreed to handing over those masters. Not to mention GH5 would have had a good shot at beating them in sales. I mean realistically speaking there are two versions of RB hardware on shelves now. Not that bad. Plus, have you played the Beatles guitar? They are VASTLY superior so it's not like they're just slapping new paint on the same hardware.
Now call me Devil's Advocate but I think the saturation argument is just because RB/GH have gotten so bog, so fast, and require so much. I don't think it's any different from any other franchise.
Also, DJ Hero not only kicks ass but I don't see how it hurt anything. It's not at all related to GH or RB except by name and it allowed for a new style of music and new genres to be introduced. If anything that could help freshens things up, no?
And there are not that many peripherals. There are different versions of four peripherals total. Guitar, drum, mic (like that's a big deal), and the turntable. And have you seen the turntable? Tiny.
The RB/GH hype is a lot to handle in a short time but two or three years from now regardless of where the genre is the "cool to hate" factor will blow over and it'll just look like another franchise.
The genre is not without it's flaws. In fact they are glaring flaws. Like I said I've been tempted to write a Love/Hate about it and I certainly have hates. I hate that devs want you to keep all these disc, I hate that Microsoft heavily advertises and supports Rock Band but offers piss poor memory solutions, I hate the lack of non-rock music, I hate the exploitation of non-music gamers to spend hundreds of dollars needlessly, and it goes on.
Devil's advocate out.
Aaaaanywho...let me just pitch in my two cents- I don't see it as oversaturation as much as I see it as evolution. Sure, there hasn't been a full-scale REVOLUTION like when Rock Band first hit the scene, but everything released from that point (Even...siiiigh...World Tour) has made both subtle and major improvements to the core mechanics since then, to the point where Guitar Hero 5 has finally put Activision in a place to be competition against the reigning king of rhythm gaming, Rock Band 2. And that competition is EXACTLY what's needed to keep the genre fresh- this constant sense of one-upmanship is nothing but a good thing. If you need an example, look at sports games. Everyone could tell you that the grand high point of football gaming was before EA bought out the rights and when the 2K series gave Madden a reason to actually try to make a better game then last year. So I say, let it continue, it could only get better from there. Maybe one day we'll see a day where the Guitar Hero franchise will actually stand on equal footing with the guys at Harmonix.
And as for the instruments, pretty much every single one released has been a major improvement over the last. Everyone knows the horror stories of the RB1 peripherals, but just as many people know how much better the second batch were (The RB2 Strat is still my preferred instrument, two years old and still works flawlessly). And I've personally never used the Beatles instruments, but from what I've heard they're leaps and bounds ahead of the RB2 ones quality-wise...not to mention a helluva lot better looking on the eyes and simply better designed. It's just like with the software themselves- it's a subtle but very noticable evolution. Would you really rather be playing these games with that old, clunky SG controller from Guitar Hero 1?
And yes, DJ Hero is actually a major surprise. Not only is it awesome, but it's also such a different experience from the other rhythm games out there that it stands on seperate ground from the GH/RB Behemoths. And, as Xzyliac noted, the peripheral from that is actually quite small. I can fit it in my bookbag after stuffing a 360, all the cords, an extra controller and 3 games into it. That's tiny.
Still, I hope you don't take this as an attack because really it's not. Also, welcome to the blogging world, hope to see more from ya soon!