Oh, how the mighty have fallen. There was a time when rhythm gaming was a driving force in the industry, letting us all live out our rock star fantasies in the comfort of our homes, and filling Activision and EA's pockets with cash in the process. Guitar Hero wasn't the first rhythm game, but most will agree that it was the one that blasted the genre into the public eye. Developer Harmonix was soon picked up by MTV Networks, which is when they really spread their wings - with the genre on the up, it was time to take things from a one-man-band to full-on rock epic, with the multi-instumental Rock Band. And suddenly the grandfather of this corner of the rhythm gaming genre was left on the back foot. Those still faithful to the Guitar Hero brand had a tough time justifying their convictions in the face of the undeniably brilliant Rock Band. When Guitar Hero III went to fight it out with Harmonix's new creation in the 2007 holiday season, a lot of longtime Guitar Hero gamers jumped ship. The social party aspects of a four-piece band that Rock Band was built around made it really hard to resist. New Guitar Hero developer Neversoft was forced to play copycat, also taking their franchise in a multi-instrumental direction for Guitar Hero: World Tour. Gamers weren't convinced though, and the Guitar Hero franchise started to feel more and more like a second-rate knock-off of Harmonix's pioneering efforts. Fast forward to 2014, and both Rock Band and Guitar Hero have all but disappeared from public consciousness - years of relentless rhythm games with very little innovation left the market completely saturated, with only the heavily technical Rocksmith still making any impact.
Game-obsessed since the moment I could twiddle both thumbs independently. Equally enthralled by all the genres of music that your parents warned you about.
