Topic: ESRB Gives Rating to Guitar Hero: Modern Hits

[Penguin_Of_Thyme]

The Entertainment Software Rating Board has leaked the existence, and E 10+ rating, of a new Guitar Hero title for the DS.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=17462

 Guitar Hero Modern Hits for the Nintendo DS was recently rated E 10+ by the ESRB. Activision-Blizzard has not made an official announcement for a new Guitar Hero bearing the Modern Hits subtitle. However, Activision did file a trademark for the title in October.    

The short synopsis of Modern Hits from the ESRB website does not make it seem like the game will revolutionize the Guitar Hero series: "players follow on-screen prompts to hit notes in-time with the music and are scored based on their accuracy." However, the ESRB does give some insight into the track list for Modern Hits by mentioning some of the objectionable lyrics that led to the game's E 10+ rating. Expect the game to include Franz Ferdinand's "The Fallen," Sum 41's "Still Waiting," and Finger Eleven's "Paralyzer."    

The last two Guitar Hero games for the DS utilized a Guitar Grip accessory that slides into the GBA slots of the DS and DSLite. However, Nintendo's upcoming DSi version of their portable game player does not feature a GBA slot. Whether Activision has found a workaround to this obstacle is unknown, as is any release date for Modern Hits.

[AV]

so is this the last game for DS ? My guess is Feb or early March release date.

If I was Activation I would just put lots of great songs on it, and call it a day. Don't even bother with DSi version. Those 3 versions should sell well enough.

Anyway the whole play fake instruments to music fad should die soon enough

[vudu]

Over 90 million DS systems have been sold.  Over 30 million have been sold in the USA alone.

Activision isn't going to simply stop making DS Guitar Hero games once the DSi comes out.  As long as people continue to buy them (and they will) Activision willl continue to make GH games for the DS and DS Lite.

[Kairon]

Anyway the whole play fake instruments to music fad should die soon enough

You think the music genre is on its way out?

[King of Twitch]

People have been have been banging drums for 10,000 years, you'd think they'd get tired of it any day now

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

It'll crash harder than the non-casual industry.

[NWR_Neal]

Well duh, Activision's going to kill it.
What was the statement from a while back? Doubling or tripling last year's output? 9 titles in 2009 or something?

We've already heard of GH: Metallica and now this. I'd assume another mainline GH game, and probably DJ Hero or some crap.

[NWR_pap64]

What I find annoying is that Activision has yet to learn about what happened to Tony Hawk. It too was a successful franchise that they ruined by releasing yearly versions non stop. The same will happen to GH if they don't do anything about it.

[Kairon]

What do they do instead? Treat GH as a "platform" and depend on DLC?

[LuigiHann]

What do they do instead? Treat GH as a "platform" and depend on DLC?

That wouldn't be good for anyone except gamers.

[NWR_Neal]

Its not necessarily about the yearly iterations, its about releasing too many in a year.
Tony Hawk was run into the ground with yearly editions, but I think Guitar Hero would be fine with one yearly console game and one yearly DS game.
Its the Guitar Hero: Metallica and the multiple other promised games that worry me.
They're treating Guitar Hero as an expansive franchise, but when every game seems to be more of the same with a few tweaks, that's going to get old fast.

[Ian Sane]

Guitar Hero is going to kill itself very soon.  Rock Band might still be okay though since it hasn't gotten milked nearly as hard but GH might take RB down with it.

I don't think rhythm games are going to die.  We all know that when Guitar Hero was getting praise for being innovative that it was a hunk of crap because games like that have existed for years and Guitar Freaks was even doing guitar before GH was.  It's just that right now that genre has mainstream popularity when in the past games like DDR, Beatmania, Taiko Drum Master, Samba de Amigo were like super hardcore games that required expensive hardware to play.  I think those will still exist and GH and RB might still exist.  It's just the rhythm game mania going on right now will eventually die down.

Activision's business model though is so self-destructive.  The whole thing is based on riding a franchise until it burns out.  But then you need to make new franchises to replace them.  They'll eventually kill themselves doing that.  Hard to believe that back in the Atari days Activision was probably the most respected console developer in the world.

[LuigiHann]

I hope this game features David Bowie's "Modern Love" as a bonus track

[Halbred]

Nobody wants to see this game. If the "Modern" and "2000's" tracks in Decades was any indication, the last ten years have been nothing but SUCK compared to the three decades before them. I do not look forward to "Modern Hits."

As to the longevity of the brand, I do think Activision is branching too much. You've got the ultimately painful DS games, the main "canon" series, and the band-specific offshoots (Aerosmith and Metallica). I think DLC should rule the Guitar Hero world, and the current game (World Tour) should just stay alive forever. You can always upgrade the equipment later, if need be. The software is fine--there's no need to make a "sequel."

[Kairon]

As to the longevity of the brand, I do think Activision is branching too much. You've got the ultimately painful DS games, the main "canon" series, and the band-specific offshoots (Aerosmith and Metallica). I think DLC should rule the Guitar Hero world, and the current game (World Tour) should just stay alive forever. You can always upgrade the equipment later, if need be. The software is fine--there's no need to make a "sequel."

But it's hard for Activision, or their developers, to break out of the holiday game every year cycle. Also, the suits must despise the thought of not having yearly releases and leaving money, however much, on the table.

[Ian Sane]

Nobody wants to see this game. If the "Modern" and "2000's" tracks in Decades was any indication, the last ten years have been nothing but SUCK compared to the three decades before them. I do not look forward to "Modern Hits."

Did you just discover this now?  We were like three months into 2000 and I was already declaring this decade to be musically worthless.

Though somebody does want to see this game.  My opinion that rock music of this decade absolutely sucks and anyone who likes it is a stupid moron is, well, not popular with many people I meet that consider acts like Nickleback to be their favourite band.  You know when you encounter a gamer whose knowledge of gaming covers only about the last three years and literally nothing else?  That's common with music, too.  So many people I know live in the present and lack the interest or knowledge to care about anything else.  If it's even slightly old they either forgot about it or were not aware of it when it was current.  When I first really got into music my knowledge was limited to about a three year span since that's what would have been played on a current hits radio station.  With research I expanded my knowledge and thus expanded my tastes.  I did this when I was around 14.  No one else in my class did this.  They were arguing that the Smashing Pumpkins song Tonight, Tonight was cool and 1979 was old even though they were on the same f*cking album.  I'm on this site so I'm a bit of a geek.  Geeks will put the effort in to learn, most peole won't.

So if your knowledge of rock music is limited entirely to this decade, and if you're a teenager that's very likely the case, you're going to love the sh!t out of 2000's music because you're oblivious to most music from the other decades.  If it ain't in a commercial or a TV show or a movie or you heard it played at a sporting event, you don't know it.  Remove the knowledge of better music and Nickleback does start to sound like the greatest band in the world.  I was there.  I used to like The Offspring.

Though I've read that iTunes sales have gone up for songs featured in Guitar Hero and Rock Band games.  For younger people with limited music knowledge these games have exposed them to a lot of music they otherwise wouldn't hear.

[Halbred]

Good point. Gotta appreciate that.

Funny thing, too. I think Nickelback is one of the better bands of the last decade. Sure, they're not...you know...Pink Floyd, but between Nickelback and Jimmy Eat World? I think it's pretty obvious!

[LuigiHann]

Good point. Gotta appreciate that.

Funny thing, too. I think Nickelback is one of the better bands of the last decade. Sure, they're not...you know...Pink Floyd, but between Nickelback and Jimmy Eat World? I think it's pretty obvious!

As a big fan of Jimmy Eat World's one song, I'm quite offended

[EasyCure]

Good point. Gotta appreciate that.

Funny thing, too. I think Nickelback is one of the better bands of the last decade. Sure, they're not...you know...Pink Floyd, but between Nickelback and Jimmy Eat World? I think it's pretty obvious!

As a big fan of Jimmy Eat World's one song, I'm quite offended

Which song?

Good point. Gotta appreciate that.

Funny thing, too. I think Nickelback is one of the better bands of the last decade. Sure, they're not...you know...Pink Floyd, but between Nickelback and Jimmy Eat World? I think it's pretty obvious!

I hate Nickelback. Jimmy Eat World is ok. I have a pretty diverse taste in music but i know i can still be pretty close minded when certain things piss me off. Certain things like a band has a mainstream hit, then every single they release from that point on sounds EXACTLY like that last hit.

Now I'm not 16 anymore so JEW gets listened to far less then some of the better artists i grew into, but I'll give them more credit than Nickelback as a 'good band' simply because they didn't release the same tune over and over again to the mainstream. I know the singles aren't always representative of whole albums, but it irks me when a modern band puts out single after single of essentially the same song that made them famous among the mainstream audiences.

Examples:

Nickelback: How You Remind me, Someday, Photograph, Far Away.

I omitted a few singles, but i sure its not a bias, just look at the Chart Positions of each single and see where the ones i left off are on the list.

Jimmy Eat World*: The Middle, Sweetness, Pain, Work, Big Casino

*JEW hasn't made the charts as many times or charted as high but a quick look at the ones that did become successful, you'll hear something in each that differentiates itself from the last. Unlike Nickelback, chances of you hearing the music (sans vocals since they're always the most recognizable) and thinking "oh this has to be Jimmy Eat World" is slim.

/music rant.

Nobody wants to see this game. If the "Modern" and "2000's" tracks in Decades was any indication, the last ten years have been nothing but SUCK compared to the three decades before them. I do not look forward to "Modern Hits."

Did you just discover this now?  We were like three months into 2000 and I was already declaring this decade to be musically worthless.

Though somebody does want to see this game.  My opinion that rock music of this decade absolutely sucks and anyone who likes it is a stupid moron is, well, not popular with many people I meet that consider acts like Nickleback to be their favourite band.

Listen
To
More**
Bloc
Party

**This video a MUST if you like old Godzilla-like monster movies!

Ian they may not be your style but at least give them a shot, this one band gives me hope in newer bands. Besides how can you not like a band that wears things like this to festivals:

[LuigiHann]

   

As a big fan of Jimmy Eat World's one song, I'm quite offended

Which song?

The Middle. I was kind of jokingly suggesting that it's their only song... I've never really checked out their other stuff, but maybe I will now.

[EasyCure]

Guess I made it easy for ya then, huh?

[Ian Sane]

Sure, they're not...you know...Pink Floyd, but between Nickelback and Jimmy Eat World? I think it's pretty obvious!

To me this is like deciding between having a hot poker shoved up my ass or down my peehole.  I think I know which would be less unpleasant but does it really matter?

I once caught my friend listening to... I can't believe I'm writing this... MAROON 5 and HE used the "compared to other current bands they're quite good" argument.  The guy's in my band too so for him to be listening to that crap was quite alarming.  Thoughts started racing through my head.  Is Maroon 5 going to start influencing his songwriting?  Is it going to affect our sound?  If we somehow ever made the big time would he reveal this in an interview and completely squash our credibility?  No one else on the band likes anything this embarassing.  I mean you've got two Cure fans, a guy whose sole musical influence seems to be the music from DOOM, and a Maroon 5 fan?!  It doesn't add up.

For me "best of the worst" isn't a good enough excuse to like something.  I'd rather be single than date a fat girl and rather listen to nothing than listen to crappy music.

[EasyCure]

And not a word on a good NEW band i tried to turn Ian on to. Guess i'm stuck as labeling you a fan of OLD MAN ROCK since you seem unwilling to try it out.

Oh well, i should of known better.

[UncleBob]

I'd rather be single than date a fat girl

This says a whole lot about you right there, Ian.

[vudu]

We were like three months into 2000 and I was already declaring this decade to be musically worthless.

Do you like anything new?  It seems to me that you're not happy with the way your life turned out so you hate everything made after you turned 16.  You can't continue to relive your childhood by hating on everything that's come out since.