We’re long past the days of Guitar Hero, Rock Band, and their plastic instruments. I’ve still got a whole band’s worth knocking around somewhere gathering dust, relics of a very specific era. Going into a Game store and nailing one of the hardest Guitar Hero tracks in front of a crowd is one of my favourite gaming memories – and my proud dad, funnily enough.
But those games have fallen out of favour, be it for cost, environmental reasons, or fashion. Just this week, Guitar Hero creator Harmonix announced its latest game Fuser would be going offline – not played with a plastic instrument, but in-line with the same philosophy of approachable music-making.
Besides, we have Ubisoft’s Rocksmith now as the next logical step: a game that teaches you how to play guitar, using an actual guitar. Its latest edition, Rocksmith+, released back in September and promises to teach technique with over 5,000 songs. Perhaps after all that, you might consider writing your own.
Since those Guitar Hero days, though, music games have moved on. Now developers have branched out from simply mimicking an instrument to infusing games from different genres with music.
This year in particular has seen a plethora of music-inspired games that can be broadly split into three categories: rhythm games, genre mixing, and storytelling. Are these the future of music video games?
I say rhythm games, but viral sensation Trombone Champ is more of an anti-rhythm game. The premise is simple enough – use your mouse to slide and match notes – but it’s incredibly difficult to master. That, though, is intentional: it’s all in the name of comedy.