Despite popular belief, music games are far from dead. Rock Band is still holding strong, and newer titles like Dance Central add more ways to game and jam at the same time. Starting with the original title, Harmonix continued in its efforts to innovate the music game genre, succeeding with each entry. With Rock Band Blitz releasing this coming Tuesday, iGo Gaming is going to take a look through the years of Harmonix’s history with their critically praised Rock Band series. Let’s hit the same time machine Harmonix is implementing in Dance Central 3 and take a look at the past…
TheGamer Writes "Harmonix has proven plenty of times it can make Rock Band work without instruments."
I mean, yeah, but was anyone saying otherwise? The fact is people liked the plastic instruments rather than pressing buttons on a controller. They enjoyed the simulated experience.
"Work"? No, but to be good? It's absolutely necessary. Not having the accessories is like playing a lightgun shooter with an analog stick sure it works, but one experience is completely unique and fun as hell, and other is torture trying to make do playing in a way it was never meant to be played
"trying to make do in a way it was never meant to be played"
I disagree. The accessories were a fun gimmick (and very marketable) but they were added AFTER the genre had been well established with games like Frequency and Amplitude (both also made by Harmonix).
The gameplay formula is different on a controller - there's a focus on switching lanes and contributing to all of the instruments.
Never played Frequency, but Amplitude and Rock Band Blitz were really good. I would love to get more of that kind of game. It's basically a different part of the genre, and stands on its own.
The insurmountable difference in popularity between Amplitude and Rock Band proves my point
Popularity isn't proof of quality. If it was, then Harmonix wouldn't be making music for Fortnite now. lol. Our disagreement wasn't over which one is more popular. Amplitude and Blitz just aren't "torture" to play.
Rock Band 4 and Guitar Hero Live failed to revive their sub-genre, and Rock Band 4 caused Mad Catz to have to file for bankruptcy. Doesn't mean that instrument-based music games are bad.
It does mean that there's too much overhead and risk for anyone to take a gamble on a big budget game that needs instrument accessories now though.
For the genre to thrive, for now, it needs to do so without the instrument accessories. That's just a fact, unfortunately.
VR games like Beat Sabre (a new sub-genre) and traditional music games make more sense and are more viable right now.
*"If quality is always proved by popularity, then Harmonix wouldn't be making music for Fortnite now."
I think CHEAP plastic instruments is THE reason why the instrument-genre ‘died’.
People invested in buying the game AND the peripherals, so the guitar, the dj-set, the drum, whatever, and the experience was absolutely fantastic. Great fun, great music, etc.
But then the instruments would break. A button would stop working, or your hits wouldn’t register, and that kind of hardware failure would end in you not being able to play the game as intended, and thus you not getting the scores you deserve.
So, now you had a great game, but a broken instrument, and nobody is gonna buy a new plastic instrument every 3-6 months in order to keep playing the game.
A solution would have been to release better quality instruments (obviously), at a slightly higher price, so you could have kept the new games coming and the genre alive, but sadly, that didn’t happen.
The only issue I ever had with any of the hardware was the drum pedal on the original rock band set stared to crack in half. The reason I, and other friends I know who played, lost interest is they weren't putting out new tracks that we were interested in anymore. I think earlier this year I looked through the releases for the last 2 years or so, and there was maybe 3 songs I would have bought.
Yeah I had this happen too with my drum controller, I ended up attaching a metal strip to it which fixed it up nicely.
Bust a Groove, Gitaroo Man and Parrapa the Rappa were such good games. Neither needed any extra peripherals
Dave writes: "Hopefully time will be kind to Rock Band 3. It’s the equivalent of a Blade Runner or Van Gogh, unappreciated and undersold in its own time, but something that has undeniable quality. We may never see another Rock Band, no encore to this great series, but in Rock Band 3 and Rock Band 4, we got some pretty awesome final tracks."
Player 2's long-form feature about kids and video games continues with a look at introducing toddlers to games for the first time.
Rock Band was cool the first two games for me. After that, I was done.
I like the games. I think everyone just got tired of them when both Guitar Hero and Rock Band were consistently coming out what seemed like every few months. Luckily, we got rid of Guitar Hero and Rock Band has slowed down as well. If they come out with one every two years, I would enjoy that.
Im so pumped for Blitz. I do have an incredible list of complaints (one difficulty, no online vs mode, only two buttons instead of three, etc) but my excitement for an Amplitude-esque game is way too high to be put off by the minor complaints.
Im seriously curious how they're gonna pull this game off to be honest. The one difficulty thing in particular.
But i mean, Blitz works with ALL OF MY DLC and has 25 songs that work with Rock Band 3 all for 15 dollars?
Probably the greatest deal ever. =D
I loved Rockband and I played it for so many hours with friends, but I believe that a 2nd and 3rd game was not needed, the extra features they added in the sequels could have easily been patched in or even sold as some kind of DLC expansion, there was no need really for 2 more full priced games.