DAILY MANIFESTO

Updated: It Was Nice Knowing You, GH

Posted on Wednesday, February 9 @ 15:21:25 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

Nick has already covered the bases for you, but I wanted to say a few words of my own.

I remember when my friend Scott got Guitar Hero for his PlayStation 2 at launch. He only had one guitar controller, but we passed it around nonetheless. If we were feeling exceptionally competitive, we'd attempt high score competitions on songs. Most of the time, we just played what we felt like, though. It was exceedingly awkward to learn, but now, I can't imagine a plastic guitar without the green button on the first finger.

I remember spending hours in my neighbor's dorm room trying to play hard, desperate to move off of normal mode's four-finger internment camp. Guitar Hero was IT for a few short years. Then Rock Band came along.

There's little else to say about Guitar Hero. The franchise took off like a rocket, successfully putting plastic peripherals in American hands despite Japanese gamers having rocked out in arcades for years.

It's not like Guitar Hero was some blight on the gaming landscape, but it certainly wasn't all it used to be once under the neglectful care of Activision Publishing. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

More than one franchise is suffering Activision's blade today as reports land that layoffs are hitting the company hard. The casualties are long, and among the dead are the Guitar Hero franchise, upcoming open-world sequel True Crime: Hong Kong, and a whole mess of people at Vicarious Visions.

Guitar Hero joins Tony Hawk in the Activision family grave plot. We'll be pouring one for you tonight, GH and former employees of Activision.

UPDATED: TheDiesel gave me a good idea. If you're so inclined, share your Guitar Hero story in the comments.

[Source]

Related Games: Guitar Hero

Tags: Guitar Hero, sale

Comments

TheDiesel
Joined: May 2009

Posted: Feb 9th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
I think I'll review Warriors of Rock as tribute to the franchise.

I remember first playing this game back when the first one was sold on Word of Mouth and became a party sensation. I remember playing GH3 for at least a solid 2 months without playing anything else just to 5-star Through the Fire and Flames [I still got the tapping session embedded into my brain] and being a slave to ScoreHero. Sad to see a franchise I honestly grew up with getting shot down like this. But it was something that needed to be done considering how dry the genre in itself has become.

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Longo_2_guns
Joined: Jun 2003

Posted: Feb 9th, 2011 at 8:43 pm
My review of Guitar Hero 3 was the best ever. Just sayin.

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Lien
Joined: Feb 2008

Posted: Feb 9th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
I just came to the states, after months of struggling to get a stable life and a good job. It was Christmas time and i needed to go back to France. What game should i bring over? as i was walking down San Francisco, i notice the sony store at the metreon (now gone) and notice they set up a guitar hero display there... It was a b*** to bring it over in a luggage but as soon as we were playing franz ferdiand, it made it all worth it!
My favorite GH game, guitar hero 3. I know, you will all say that guitar hero 2 was the best but just like how i prefer megaman 3 over megaman 2, I had more fund memories with guitar hero 3 with all the character you could choose from, the amazing stages and the kicka** soundtrack (from smashing pumpkin's "Cherub Rock" to Rage against the machine's "Bull on parade to Muse's "Knights of cydonia").

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Lien
Joined: Feb 2008

Posted: Feb 9th, 2011 at 11:43 pm
After ward, the franchise seemed to rather copy rock band then to become something completely different... They should of sticken' to the guitar, all I'm saying.

Favorite song in the entire franchise: Push Push (Lady Lightning)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHyg-pead3w
Favorite player: Judy Nails

R.I.P Guitar hero, you've made video game history, now we just want to rokk!

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UghRochester
Joined: Jun 2006

Posted: Feb 10th, 2011 at 5:23 am
RIP Guitar Hero, if it wasn't for people making fun of me by playing on expert, I would never have taught myself how to play an actual guitar.

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Masterwabbit
Joined: Mar 2009

Posted: Feb 10th, 2011 at 8:37 am
I remember playing GH2 at a teen group meeting for the first time way back then. Played Expert mode, just for kicks, on Shout to the Devil, and while I got 70% or so the other person got ~25% on a lower difficulty. I knew then and there I wanted this game. GH3 was fine, I just didn't like it as much compared to GH2. Stupid freaking devil and his cheating duels. Oh, and I had a PS2 only at the time, so downloading the Devil Went Down to Georgia track was not an option. Farewell, Guitar Hero, you were missed when Activision was milking you dry.

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Rinnon
Joined: Nov 2005

Posted: Feb 10th, 2011 at 7:18 pm
For me, GH was dead the moment it wasn't being made by Harmonix. This just makes it official.

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