Wake up simulated music junkies – today is your day! Activision announced their fall lineup today, dishing out details for Guitar Hero 5, DJ Hero, and the family friendly Band Hero. In a press announcement the Guitar Hero crew bragged that Guitar hero 5 and DJ Hero would “transform how consumers engage with music,” by expanding the genre with “fun-to-play” experiences and innovative new technologies, all backed up by a wide array of music’s hottest artists!
The last big innovation this genre saw was the addition of a microphone and drum kit – so what does this turntable peripheral have to offer? Why Guitar Hero 5 over World Tour? What’s “Band Hero” anyway? Let’s dive in and see what’s what.
The company’s groundbreaking DJ Hero expands Guitar Hero‘s signature social gaming to all-new consumers with the addition of diverse music genres including hip-hop, R&B, Motown, electronica and dance. Introducing an all-new innovative turntable controller, DJ Hero transforms players into DJs who rule the club scene by creating original mixes of popular songs and music from the world’s most exciting artists and DJs.
Guitar Hero has come long way – and after getting the full band effect, it can be hard to imagine what’s next for the series besides new songs that could probably just be downloaded anyway. These days there is more to a music game sequel then just adding new songs, outfits, and venues. Guitar Hero 5 and Band Hero aim to make the series a little more accessible:
Letting fans continue to fulfill their rock fantasies, Guitar Hero 5 features the hottest rock and roll artists today as well as classic rock bands and gives players an unprecedented level of control over the way they play the game with the ability to drop in and out of songs and change band members, instruments and difficulty levels on the fly.
Dropping in and out at will? Changing difficulties and instruments on the fly? Count me in – nobody likes to restart a song just because your little brother can’t keep pace in expert mode. Besides, that kid should be playing the family friendly Band Hero anyway. Oh yeah, about that:
The franchises’ first E10+ rated console game, Band Hero delivers an exciting music collection featuring top-40 hits designed to expand the experience to a new genre and appeal to a broad family audience who can play together on the guitar, drums, bass and microphone. The game builds upon Guitar Hero‘s easy-to-play, difficult-to-master signature gameplay and allows novice players and expert fans to join together on their favourite songs.
It may be the marching band geek in me, but the title “Band Hero” had me dreaming up plastic trombones and clarinets. No, I’m afraid we’re a far cry from brass and woodwind – “Band Hero” aims to introduce the “hero series” into the family friendly environment.
Head to the last page to check out the full press release, and let us know what you think in the comments: Are you excited about DJ Hero, or underwhelmed? Are the new features in Guitar Hero 5 worth the upgrade, or would you rather have had more downloadable songs? Are you looking forward to a family friendly Guitar Hero to share with your kids? Let your voice be heard!
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