Guitar Hero goes arcade
Activision is planning on bring a port of Guitar Hero 3 to the arcades in a port called Guitar Hero Arcade in a co-venture with Raw Thrills and Konami. This actually seems pretty perfect — the gawking crowds of skill-appreciating teenagers of your local arcade makes for a real life crowd to give you star power.
My only hesitation is that playing Guitar Hero in a loud, public setting tends to be unsatisfying: you can only barely hear the notes you're playing and it's easy to get knocked out of the rhythm. This is the very problem I had showcasing my skills at the Guitar Hero II launch party and at GC, and, I assume, the reason I was not buried under a flurry of lustfully cast off underwear.
Guitar Hero Arcade based on Guitar Hero 3 [Multiplayer]
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mark
#1 – 6:54 AM December 10, 2008
Given the nature of the attendees you may have actually dodged a bullet on that one.
Endymian
#2 – 8:50 AM December 10, 2008
A loud, public setting wasn't a problem for Dance Dance Revolution or, what many people never knew about--the precursor to Guitar Hero, Konami's Guitar Freaks.
Guitar games have been in arcades before. And they were good.
It is nice to see a triumphant return.
G_Mehum
#3 – 6:18 PM December 10, 2008
...but the people that still go to arcades these days are all on Guitar Freak...
Anonymous Anonymous
#4 – 6:35 PM December 10, 2008
Funny... I thought guitar hero -came- from an arcade. At least, there was a game at my local arcade five or six years ago based on the same principle. Hold a guitar, hit the buttons when the lights came down the track in the right spot. It was right across from the DDR machine.. hum.
DrBrianFields
#5 – 6:40 PM December 10, 2008
One year from now...
Guitar Hero games discontinued. Vendors cite costs of replacing broken guitar controllers monthly as reason for yanking machines from arcades.
Brandon Boyer
#6 – 8:17 PM December 10, 2008
#4: You're not far off: more than likely you're thinking of GuitarFreaks.
It's a bit snake-eating-its-own-tail, but the gist is this: Konami makes GuitarFreaks and inspires Red Octane to hire Harmonix to make Guitar Hero, Harmonix drops that franchise to make Rock Band while Guitar Hero/Octane move to Activision, who puts Guitar Hero in the arcades where the GuitarFreaks used to be.
Meanwhile, Konami tries to make up for lost time and move in on HMX/Activision's turf, but ultimately releases Rock Revolution to an empty concert hall.
Tenn
#7 – 9:09 PM December 10, 2008
Zombie shootin' games with plastic shotguns have survived well enough, DrFields. I'm sure guitar controllers can, too. They'll be built more solidly with perhaps metal-mesh-sheathed wires in certain locales, but they should be alright.
shMerker
#8 – 1:08 AM December 11, 2008
This seems backwards. Guitar Hero is the sort of game you'd normally see in arcades first, since it's hard to sell someone on a specialized controller for a game until they already know that they like it. But all of that's already been done for Guitar Hero. Aren't the people who frequent arcades basically going to say "forget that, why would I rent Guitar Hero when I already own it?"
Anonymous Anonymous
#9 – 1:18 AM December 11, 2008
Wait...Activision is PLANNING on bringing it to the arcades? But I've already seen it there!
Exhibit A
Exhibit B
In all seriousness though I'm wondering if Activision knows about these, the cabinet art was rather professional (not that you can tell from my crappy pics) and it was surprisingly well made. The only time you could tell it wasn't legit is when you put in your coin and some sort of saved routine began where a phantom controller directed you to "Quick Play", let you choose a song and then immediately afterward began another bout of "ghost navigation" that led you back to the start screen. Anybody have any idea how they did that btw?
As for the "big buttons" form factor I imagine it would have a lot of detractors but I actually enjoyed it quite a bit, not to say I'll forego using a guitar controller from now on but if you're one of those people who finds themselves air-drumming to guitar riffs instead of air-guitaring then this is your game--well, if you live in Bangkok that is.
laffmakr
#10 – 3:50 AM December 11, 2008
DRBRIAN, you may be bit off. Within a year you'll see NBC premiering the "Guitar Hero" reality show.
theawesomerobot
#11 – 8:07 AM December 11, 2008
Arcades are long gone, but maybe this is an effort to bring some life back into the ones that only exist because they leech onto bowling alleys, movie theaters, etc... Guitar Hero is only a few steps away from jumping the shark IMHO.
Just a side note, I hope to one day own my own arcade, or at least convert my entire basement into a full-sized arcade. What saddens me though, is that by the time I can afford to do so – I may have a REALLY hard time securing any decent machines. Thank god for MAME.