I remember playing Guitar Hero at the Best Buy in Crossgates Mall back in around 2006. Yeah, I played the demo in the store – probably played it for hours every time I went to the mall. It was fun. I enjoyed the game immensely, and when I finally got an XBOX 360, the first games I purchased were Guitar Hero 2, Guitar Hero 3 and Guitar Hero Aerosmith. I even wrote an article about the popularity of Guitar Hero and all the rhythm-based games that were on their way – like Rock Band and such – for Toy Collector Magazine.
Today, however, I received news that Activision is shutting down the Guitar Hero franchise, effective immediately. Apparently this is also going to affect Vicarious Visions, the Albany-based video game company that designed a version of Guitar Hero for the Nintendo Wii.
This is sad news for the video game industry. And it’s sad news for the local economy, with the potential layoffs at Vicarious Visions. Sadly, I remember how powerful and popular this game was. Everybody who had a game system had a plastic guitar – or, if they really felt adventurous, bought the entire peripheral series with drums and a microphone.
So I guess the only rock rhythm game left will probably be Rock Band or DJ Hero, so we’ll see how that turns out.
And I guess out of all the songs that have appeared on the Guitar Hero series of games, they never got around to putting Blotto’s “Metal Head” into the rotation. Ah, to see Lars Umlaut or Judy Nails or Axel Steel rocking through Buck Dharma’s guitar solo… he he he…
Chuck The Writer 