Yesterday gaming giant Activision announced that they are going to mercilessly kill off the Guitar Hero franchise.
I’ll give you a moment to process that.
A decline in demand for music-themed video games has been blamed for the cut, apparently the gamers of today are more interested in stealing cars and blowing shit up than rocking out to “Only Happy When It Rains” via a smokin’ hot Shirley Manson avatar.
I am completely gutted. Guitar Hero has been an integral part of my life since 2006, it completes me. It’s not just a game to me. See, I have huge rockstar dreams but limited natural music talent, so I rely on simulated play for a sense of fulfillment. On a real guitar with real strings I can’t even nail the chorus of a 3-chord Green Day song. On one of those shiny Guitar Hero toy controllers, however, not only can I can play the shit out of Tool’s “Vicarious” I can also occasionally beat my freaky guitar genius girlfriend in a battle. That smug feeling I get from being able to tap brightly colored buttons in time to visual cues better than anyone else in my living room is really good for my self-esteem. Maybe you know what I’m talking about.
Yesterday I was sitting in my emo cave contemplating a world without Guitar Hero 7, and started daydreaming about some awesome future Guitar Hero games that will now never see the light of day. At least not until some marketer decides that enough time has passed for The Kids to consider the controllers ‘retro’.
Amazing Guitar Hero Games That Will Never Be:
Guitar Hero: Kaki King
The closest I’ll ever come to playing one of my favorite Kaki King songs on guitar is if developers somehow found a way to translate them into play-by-color Guitar Hero tunes. Impossible, right? Let a girl dream.
Guitar Hero: Girl Band
Did any of you ever listen to Veruca Salt? Seether! Think about how good that could be! See also: the Spice Girls, Kittie, The Go-Gos, The Bangles, The Runaways… in my head they cross-promote with the movie and make Kristen Stewart a playable character.
Guitar Hero: 00’s Emo Anthems
Give me a mega play list of bleeding heart she-left-me-and-now-everything-has-gone-dark anthems from Taking Back Sunday, The Used, Fall Out Boy & My Chemical Romance.
Guitar Hero: Tegan & Sara
I mean you guys would’ve bought that, right? Me too. Their avatars would be super cute, they could play matching Les Pauls omg.
Guitar Hero: Erasure
Listen to “A Little Respect” and tell me that it wouldn’t be a little bit amazing. See also: Guitar Hero: Ace of Base.
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How do you feel about Guitar Hero ending? lost? sad? me too. Let’s process.
Happier times
A moment of silence for the drunken family guitar hero marathons, a la Christmas two years ago. The songs were perfect- ones my aunts/uncles knew in high school and possibly slow danced to at prom, the alcohol was free flowing, and the blackmail photos are worth at least one acceptance-upon-coming-out-later-down-the-road. These are the memories I will cherish.
This makes me sad that I will never get to strum a plactic lever to “You Wouldn’t Like Me” in time with colourful dots.
Noooooo! This can’t happen! :(
Man, a T&S edition really would have been awesome.
No no NOOO! This makes me so sad. Rock Band will keep going, hopefully. The song choices were always killer on GH. :(
The Guitar Hero controller does weird things to my jacked up joints, so while my dominance at beat games is usually ASSURED (I used to be highly ranked on Amplitude online, suckas!) I’ve never really been able to do Guitar Hero.
I have a game that I got off Steam that’s a Guitar Hero clone that you can plug your own music into! I think you can even plug in a Guitar Hero controller if you have a USB one or something! But I dunno if it would work for you Mac-types…
Incidentally the game in question is called Rhythm Zone.
I am devastated by this and I don’t even know what video games are
this made me have a sad.
But Rock Band lives on (at least so far)! I know it’s not the same, but there is still the potential for Ace of Base Rock Band. Which I would buy the shit out of even though it would cost me, like, $400 to play because I don’t have any current gen systems or Rock Band paraphernalia just so I could have the experience of rocking out to “Wheel of Fortune” because I love Ace of Base in a serious manner that no one really should so much so that it causes run on sentences.
Where did you see “Wheel of Fortune”?? You must have to download it. I love that song. Ace of Base was the first CD I ever bought. Oh, the memories.
As far as I know, it’s not available, unless someone has gone out and actually tabbed it and put it out there. I was just saying that I wish there was an Ace of Base Rock Band.
Rock Band is infinitely better anyway. Guitar Hero was way too metal/hardcore(?)/music I don’t care for. You can use the same guitars too. You won’t have to buy new ones.
And there is at least one Tegan & Sara song on RB 3. It’s the Con and it’s fun to sing.
Or you could, you know, spend those hours learning how to play a real instrument. I’ve been teaching myself guitar and ukulele. It’s fun.
I was waiting/hoping for Guitar Hero: White Stripes.
White Stripes breakup + death of Guitar Hero = verrrrry interesting.
Sad, eh?
what will i do now, PLAY AIR-GUITAR??
Omg I’ve daydreamed about Guitar Hero TNS forever!!! Very sad that it will never happen! :,(
Me too! I often wished there was a T&S Guitar Hero so I could be Tegan and woo all the ladies…
This is obviously a ruse by Activision to generate publicity ahead of the launch of the music game I have long dreamt of: Marimba Hero.
I wonder if they realised that everyone was getting pissed off at shelling out another hundred quid every time they wanted the latest peripheral.
With the advent of Kinect, I am concerned it will lead to users attempting to control their games with an entirely different type of strumming.
My Chemical Romance is not emo. YOU’RE emo. Your MOM is emo.
ironically, thinking of my chem as emo makes me act emo.
This makes me almost as sad as when Veruca Salt broke up, but not as sad as the teenage girl I’m mentoring who doesn’t know who Veruca Salt is….or Alanis Morrissette?!
Fuck, I’m old.
Oh the lovely “Fuck, I’m old” moments! Mine started a couple of years ago when this Best Buy cashier was clueless about The Goonies. Then I saw that The Karate Kid was being show on Turner Classic Movies….yep.
*funnily enough I happened to be listening to “Only Happy When It Rains” whilst reading this… strange!!
I use to play this game faithfully. It has truly improved my sex life. I can play on expert so I am extremely well with my fingers. “wink,wink”