It's interesting to see just how creatively Freestyle has mapped the complex fingerings of a real guitar onto the six buttons of the Live controller, aping classic fingerings like the three-finger spread of an open C, or beefy bar chords with added extensions, represented by pressing down across a single row and adding in a higher note with another finger. Instead, the difficulty in Guitar Hero Live comes from chords (in this case, that involves pressing multiple buttons at once) and alternating single notes between the two rows of buttons. The position shifting of the original Guitar Hero games, not to mention having to get your pinky finger involved (something that even proper guitar players often struggle with) was always a barrier to entry for the higher difficulty levels. Spreading the six buttons across two rows is a smart move. Even better, while you're still ultimately pushing buttons in time with a stream of prompts, it tweaks the established Guitar Hero formula just enough to make it challenging again for the obsessive gamer hell-bent on mastering every single song in the catalogue, while simultaneously making it easier for newbies. Everything about Guitar Hero Live-from the stark presentation of its menus, to its creative take on multiplayer and DLC-is slick, and modern, and wonderfully compelling. While the reasons for its comeback are likely to be as much about tapping the nostalgia of fans as they are about making a great game, the fact is, Activision and developer Freestyle Games (of DJ Hero fame) have made a great game. It's nice that it supports old instruments and DLC, but Rock Band 4 doesn't solve the fundamental problem of rhythm games becoming tired. A similar problem afflicts the just-released Rock Band 4, a game that-while ultimately good fun-could have been released on 2010 and we'd be none the wiser.
Let's be honest, we were all pretty sick of rhythm games by the time Warriors of Rock-the sixth game in the Guitar Hero series-came along and we discovered it was pretty much the same as the previous five games.
There are two of them now, back after a five-year hiatus following what many will remember as a flooding of the market with absolute tosh. Wait, what was I talking about? Oh, yes, guitar-based rhythm games. "Hello, good sir!" they'll exclaim, "can I interest you in this fine piece of rhythm-based video game tomfoolery? You're just about old enough to feel nostalgically attached to the genre and earn good money, yet young enough that you don't have any true worldly responsibilities to dictate the practicality of your expenditure." What's that saying about buses? That you wait, and wait, and then two come along at once? Now imagine you've been waiting for five years, and that instead of a bus, you're waiting for a giant red plastic guitar-shaped bus, with shiny Blu-ray discs for wheels, and besuited passengers employed by a huge multi-conglomerate video games publisher. Platform: PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii U
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