To the general public, the argument over Rock Band and
Guitar Hero may seem trivial, since the two are simply different games in the
same genre. But for those who know better, the two brands represent not only a
schism among many music gamers but also an epic feud between two studios. The
drama began when Harmonix, the mastermind developer behind the Guitar Hero
franchise, split with publisher Red Octane and teamed up with Electronic Arts
to create Rock Band, a multi-instrument rhythm game that added drums and vocals
to Guitar Hero’s guitar. Red Octane, unable to let Guitar Hero go, decided to
pair with Activision to continue releasing more iterations of the well-known
series, thus sparking bitterness from both studios. Essentially, the story is
one of a fantastic marriage and a messy divorce that forces unfortunate gamers
to choose between the two pricey brands.
It’s not much of a secret that Guitar Hero is one of this
decade’s most successful videogame franchises. The series signified both a
gaming and cultural revolution. It was the bestselling game franchise of 2007,
setting an NPD-group record by raking in a whopping $820 million and allowing
Activision to beat out corporate mega-behemoth Electronic Arts to be the No. 1
gaming software publisher of ’07. Even as you read this, Guitar Hero III is
flying off the shelves faster than a lone hiker fleeing from a moose.
In contrast, Rock Band is relatively unknown, selling a
comparably meager 360,000 games in its first week in November and not even
cracking the top 10 in sales for December. If there’s any battle between the
two brands, it seems obvious that Guitar Hero is winning. But as history has
proven repeatedly, commercial success does not equal long-term success.
To put it bluntly, Activision screwed the franchise by
handing it over to Neversoft, the gaming studio that develops the long-running
Tony Hawk series. While Harmonix has always been about combining music with
games, Neversoft has always been about just making games. With Guitar Hero III,
Neversoft tried to incorporate gaming elements that ultimately proved
detrimental. First, as if to please only the hardcore demographic, designers
upped the difficulty. What was easy became medium, what was medium became hard,
what was hard became expert and what was expert became holy-fuck impossible.
There’s absolutely no joy in finishing the game anymore;
trying to beat the final bracket is like trying to jerk off an acorn:
frustrating and pointless. Second, they tried to make it competitive.
Let’s be frank: Guitar Hero was never about the game aspect
nor was it ever about competition; people played Guitar Hero to play the music,
to feel like a rock star. Proving you can play guitar better than someone else
is as pathetic in virtual reality as it is in real life. Third, they
implemented Battle Mode, which is quite possibly the series’ worst feature yet
and the most frustrating experience next to eating soup with a fork. Every
battle is a crapshoot that depends on who gets the power-up first, unless
you’re playing against the computer, in which case you’re better off against an
army of Terminators.
If Guitar Hero III proves anything, it’s that a franchise is
only as good as its creators. While Guitar Hero III fails to be the compelling
next-generation music experience that many had hoped for, Harmonix’s Rock Band
aims to deliver the next step in music interactivity. Essentially, by adding
other instruments to the successful guitar peripheral, Rock Band delivers not
just different gameplay styles but also a means to play with other people.
Unlike most rhythm games, Rock Band was designed to be a multiplayer
experience, to be enjoyed by gamers and nongamers alike.
Yet the true beauty of Rock Band lies not in its compelling
gameplay but in its potential: it’s essentially developed to be the iTunes of
videogames. With the licensing support of MTV and the financial backing of
Electronic Arts, Harmonix has unfettered access to countless catalogues of
music. With songs available for download every week and the promise of full
playable albums in the near future, Rock Band is not just a defined gaming
experience; it’s the desired drums, guitar and karaoke game people want it to
be.
So I guess the question that’s been posed to us gamers by
this unfortunate divorce is if we’re buying a game for its quality, for being a
popular brand, or both. Though Guitar Hero has undeniably been the more
powerful franchise for the past couple years, Rock Band is ultimately proving
to be the more compelling experience. While Guitar Hero III is by no means a
bad game, it’s incredibly underwhelming when pitted against its multilayered
brethren. Unless you’re one of the lucky few who has the money to buy both
games with their respective peripherals, I’m sure it won’t take long to
convince even the most diehard Guitar Hero fans to invest in one Rock Band
rather than 20 other future Guitar Hero variations.