The Game Composer’s Blog

Fake plastic instruments all over the place…

With games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero selling millions of copies all around the world, I can’t help but wonder if there is going to be a boom of games coming that take advantage of their fake plastic instruments. Sure, people are getting many hours of use out of their instruments in the games they were created for but once all those songs have been played to death or the players need a little break from all the rockin’, will they have some other games to plug their instruments into?

I’ve seen an experimental platformer called “Fret Nice” that uses the Guitar Hero guitar. I haven’t played it but it seems like it might be interesting. But besides that, I haven’t heard of any other games using GH/RB controllers. Maybe a guitar isn’t the best type of controller. How do you get past the fact that you are holding a decent representation of a rock and roll guitar? But with the drums and microphones, I think there could be a lot of potential for new and fun games. It could be as simple as whack-a-mole with the drums, but I’m sure something more interesting could be dreamed up. With microphones, there is also a ton of innovative ideas to be explored. What could be simpler than controlling a game with your voice?

I would love to see some original new games come out using these controllers. I look at the three Donkey Konga bongo controllers sitting in our closet and wonder why they couldn’t have gotten more use. Well, the games never came out (besides Jungle Beat). But with today’s downloadable games markets on all the consoles, there is no reason not to have some unique new games that use the music controllers. As long as they’re fun, I’d love to see them. In the interest of conservation, please, developers, give us something else to play using our fancy new plastic guitars and drums!

This blog came into mind because I am really looking forward to Guitar Hero World Tour on the Wii next month. The game looks like the bomb. But that will also bring our fake instrument count up to 3 guitars, 1 drum set, 1 mic, and 3 sets of bongos. Add the Wii Fit board and nunchuks littering the living room and I start to get a little… uneasy.

This picture has nothing to do with the blog post. Just wanted to brag about my perfect 300 in Wii Sports bowling.

September 20, 2008 - Posted by thegamecomposer | Ponderings | fake instruments, Guitar Hero, innovation, Rock Band