Default Prime's Tom Peeters takes a closer look at music and rhythm games, explaining why he was never truly drawn in, until Rocksmith came along, that is.
"Since a few years back, music games have become a solid niche in the video game market and a favorite for many. 2005 saw the release of the very first Guitar Hero, a game that allowed you to be a rockstar. A rockstar with a small plastic guitar featuring nothing more than five buttons and fans that consisted of a few 3D models (and possibly the people in the same room as you, admiring your button-bashing skills), but a rockstar nonetheless. The game became an instant classic and spawned an entire series of sequels."
Want to learn how to play acoustic, electric, or bass guitar?
TheGamer Writes "Harmonix has proven plenty of times it can make Rock Band work without instruments."
I mean, yeah, but was anyone saying otherwise? The fact is people liked the plastic instruments rather than pressing buttons on a controller. They enjoyed the simulated experience.
"Work"? No, but to be good? It's absolutely necessary. Not having the accessories is like playing a lightgun shooter with an analog stick sure it works, but one experience is completely unique and fun as hell, and other is torture trying to make do playing in a way it was never meant to be played
I think CHEAP plastic instruments is THE reason why the instrument-genre ‘died’.
People invested in buying the game AND the peripherals, so the guitar, the dj-set, the drum, whatever, and the experience was absolutely fantastic. Great fun, great music, etc.
But then the instruments would break. A button would stop working, or your hits wouldn’t register, and that kind of hardware failure would end in you not being able to play the game as intended, and thus you not getting the scores you deserve.
So, now you had a great game, but a broken instrument, and nobody is gonna buy a new plastic instrument every 3-6 months in order to keep playing the game.
A solution would have been to release better quality instruments (obviously), at a slightly higher price, so you could have kept the new games coming and the genre alive, but sadly, that didn’t happen.
Bust a Groove, Gitaroo Man and Parrapa the Rappa were such good games. Neither needed any extra peripherals
Join Dan as he picks up his guitar again. This time to learn he is using Rocksmith+. Keep reading to find out how he gets on!