Let The Franchise Rape Begin, Activision Announces Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

Written by Kevin Alexander

Friday, 15 February 2008 09:27

You know, who would have thought that I'd fall so far out of love with Guitar Hero so fast? We've probably mentioned this before but Dan and I jokingly thought about changing the name of this site to World Of Guitarcraft to properly reflect 90% of the posts that we were putting up. There wasn't a day that went by that we didn't have some sort of post about Guitar Hero. Now? Now that's all gone.

Blame it on Guitar Hero III, if you will. I'm choosing to blame it on Activision and Neversoft. Our distaste for GH III was well documented (and in some cases, well counter-argued) but the fact remains the same for both of us: GH III killed the franchise in one fowl swoop.

I'm not really going to go into the details about this newest announcement as they're readily available on a lot of other sites, like this one. Also, it might sound like I'm shitting on the idea of band-specific branding of a rhythm game, which I'm not...at least not really. It's probably the pairing of franchise-milking Activision and whore-ourselves-out-for-anything band Aerosmith. I'm not the biggest Aerosmith fan, I liked them better when they were all strung-out and still making albums like Toys In The Attic, but I imagine it was probably either going to be them or U2 to be the first to do something like this. Rock Band's eventual release of full albums for download without having to purchase a whole different disc seems like the right way to go. Though I'm sure Activision will find a way to rip that off and milk it for all its worth.

Comments (6) Add Comment

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written by rdaneel72, February 15, 2008

Areosmith is the poster child for drug legalization. The classic stuff rules. Everything they did once they got sober is crap.

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written by Andarko, February 15, 2008

My response is a resounding "meh". Even if I was not retired from Guitar Hero due to wrist injury, I still wouldn't really be inclined to pick this up. I think it's a combination of a "been there, done that" feeling about the game format and my ambivalence about Aerosmith. I'd be more inclined to buy it if it was a band I really loved, like U2, but even then, would I really want to spend another $60 on another Guitar Hero? Probably not.

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written by Xerxes3rd, February 15, 2008

I think Activision/Neversoft's decision to turn GH3 into a "let's make it really hard just to make it hard" game was part of the Guitar Hero killer for me. Couple that with the release of Rock Band, and the only use I have for GH3 is the wireless guitar controller that was supplied with it. When playing GH1/2 and Rock Band, you definitely get the feeling that it was designed by musicians. GH3, on the other hand, really feels more like a video game than it does a "rock simulator," if you will.

@rdaneel72: That logic applies to a lot of bands. =)

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written by Dan Zuccarelli, February 15, 2008

Kev,

I couldn't have said it better myself, and I agree with everything left in the comments so far.

The wireless GH3 guitar is the bomb and is my favorite game guitar out there. But that's because of Red Octane, not Neversoft

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written by rdaneel72, February 15, 2008

"That logic applies to a lot of bands."

Agreed. Musicians and artists should be allowed to take drugs to preserve the integrity of their art.

I AM AN ARTIST!!!!!