Thoughts on Guitar Hero: Aerosmith
By: Eric M. Martin |
Friday July 04, 2008 |
 |
Just released on June 29th, what kind of overall impact will GH: Aerosmith ultimately have on the franchise? |
| Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is one of those titles that will not shake everyone’s cage. Initial sales may fall within a moderate-to-high range, but that’s not what I’ll be watching. I want to see the numbers on store returns that will follow within the next two weeks. Even fans of the Guitar Hero series may not jump on this title, largely because it focuses on one band. If you have no love of Aerosmith, you’re not likely to pick this one up, even if it is another GH game. Players start as Joe Perry, then move on to unlock Tom Hamilton and Brad Whitford. Everything else is standard GH fare, except they’ve made improvements to make hammer-ons and pull-offs less muddy, like they’ve done EVER SINCE GH BEGAN! They have a Boss Battle, but only one against Joe Perry. There is no Co-operative Career Mode. Fortunately, the Hard-O-Meter will get brought down a notch or two from GH III. There are twelve songs on the set list that were not written by Aerosmith and the rest is either the band or Joe Perry. Sadly, tracks from Deep Purple and The White Stripes did not make the cut, although they were supposed to be included. In between all of this, there will be unlockable songs and video clips of Joe Perry talking about Aerosmith and high school. Why am I so down on the “potential success” of this title? Sherman, set the Wayback Machine. The year, 1995. The place, IMB distribution headquarters. The game, Quest for Fame. Using a device called a V-Pick, which plugged into a parallel PC port, you could strum against any kind of mock-up guitar-like object and generate riffs and strums. The idea was that you, the player, were a lonely musician with big dreams of making it to the top. And yes, the game was based on tunes done by Aerosmith. Overall public reception? Come on, if I haven’t heard of it until now, the answer is obvious. Sounds like the only difference between the two games is the amount of Joe Perry time. I think there’s a solid argument for a classic case of the gimmies. Aerosmith has been around for over 30 years, long after other bands have given up and gone home. Because of them, many bands have gotten their starting debut and others have developed some kind of inspiration. I’m not denying Aerosmith’s achievements, I’m questioning the motive. I don’t see Eric Clapton, Carlos Santana, Rush or Metallica lining up for their piece of the GH pie., and for good reason. There’s no need to! I don’t see improvement on GH, I see another money buffer until the release of GH IV. |
