Wednesday, February 9, 2011

All Things Considered, I Feel Fine

You've probably already heard about Acitivision's announcement from earlier today--you know, the one that finally killed off the Guitar Hero franchise, at least for the time being. As someone with some pretty fond memories of the series, I feel like I should be more upset than I am.

My first experience with music games was on a trip to Japan in 1999. Beatmania was all the rage there at the time, but in one arcade, I also found what looked like a rarely used Guitar Freaks cabinet. A friend and I, both of us guitarists, tried it out, and found it utterly inscrutable.

Because of that, I had to be pressured into trying Guitar Hero, and in fact missed out on the series until its second installment. When I finally gave in and borrowed a copy of Guitar Hero 2, I was instantly sucked in. It helped that the songs I was playing were (mostly) the real deal, or at least pretty good covers. But beyond that, everything about the game just clicked for me. The best songs in that game even sort of approached something not entirely unlike the feeling of playing a real guitar.

Most of them were just damned fun, though. They continued to be damned fun when Guitar Hero 3 came out the next year. I didn't think much about Guitar Hero one day not being fun until the first time I encountered Rock Band. I remember there being a fair bit of skepticism in the game journalism community, about whether people really wanted a full band's worth of plastic instruments in their living rooms, but the first time I played "Wave of Mutilation" in Rock Band in a crowded Best Buy, I knew my relationship with Guitar Hero was over.

The same held for the vast majority of my friends, and Rock Band parties became our preferred way of interacting for at least a couple of years. Meanwhile, Activision ran Guitar Hero into the ground with way too many iterations, each one more mediocre than the last. As a result, I can't say I feel much of anything at today's announcement. Honestly, it was past due. Even if Activision brings back Guitar Hero at some point (they certainly left the possibility open), I doubt I'll be interested. Sometimes, it's best to let the past be the past.

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