Tunes for our times
Is the Rock Band/Guitar Hero concept getting silly?
Last Updated: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 | 10:48 AM ET
By Peter Nowak, CBC News
In the video game DJ Hero, players earn points by spinning and scratching to music by the likes of DJ Z-Trip, seen here. (Activision/Associated Press) If you haven't noticed that video games are increasingly becoming like movies, you haven't been paying attention. Graphics, storylines and voice acting are all generally top-notch these days, making many games indistinguishable from something you might see in a theatre – except, of course, for the interactivity.
It's only natural, then, that video game makers are falling into one of the movie business's biggest pitfalls – a lack of fresh ideas. Case in point: two of this season's big games are DJ Hero and Lego Rock Band. Both recently released games are descendants of Guitar Hero, the title that has grown into a smash franchise.
DJ Hero and Lego Rock Band are certainly fun, but one thing is becoming clear: the whole fantasy-musician premise is starting to get tired.
For the Guitar Hero uninitiated – and there can't be many of you left – the premise is simple: you strum along to songs on a plastic guitar, pressing coloured buttons on the neck in time with notes as they scroll down the screen. In 2007, this basic idea begat Rock Band, which added plastic drums and a microphone for vocals, and resulted in another huge hit. Both franchises have reaped big rewards for Activision and Electronic Arts, their respective publishers, which have milked them for a slew of sequels. Activision recently released Guitar Hero 5, while EA countered with Rock Band: Beatles.
Lego Rock Band is a hybrid of two massively successful series. Previous Lego titles were action-adventure games that had players re-enact plots from Star Wars and Indiana Jones movies, respectively, or Batman comic books. The games were great fun, not just because they were colourful and comical, but also because they required players to solve clever puzzles by building items and tools with Lego pieces.
Lego's foray into Rock Band, though, is just plain puzzling. Other than expanding Rock Band's appeal to younger players with the promise of building characters and instruments out of those iconic blocks, there doesn't seem to be a rationale for the crossover. The puzzle solving that has become the Lego games' hallmark is noticeably absent.
British music act Queen gets Lego-fied in Lego Rock Band. (Warner Bros./Associated Press) DJ Hero expands the guitar concept by introducing a plastic turntable. Players spin the wheels of steel and press coloured buttons to "scratch" with one hand, and control a cross-fader and mixer with the other. The motive here seems clearer – the game is Guitar Hero for people who don't necessarily like guitar-based music. Ultimately, that means it's a game for a niche audience. Or, when the turntable is combined with the other instruments, it must mean that Guitar Hero: Linkin Park is on the way.
Both games are certainly fun, but one thing is becoming clear: the premise is starting to get tired. The trend, however, is likely to continue until sales slow down significantly, which may take a while yet. If that's the case, here are a few ideas that Activision and EA may want to consider as new entries.
Peter Nowak writes about technology for CBC News.
