This year, Guitar Hero is back.
After a half-decade hiatus, the music rhythm franchise is making a return to consoles and mobile devices with a new controller and several new features.
There are two modes in Guitar Hero Live - GH Live and GH TV. The former is a traditional story mode in which the player takes on the role of a band member, although it now has a new presentation that utilises actual footage, filmed first-person style, with real people acting as band mates and the crowd.
GH TV is described as "the world's first playable music video network". The presentation in this mode uses the song's official music videos.
At E3 last month I caught up with Jonathan Napier, development director on Guitar Hero Live for Freestyle Games.
I had assumed it was publisher Activision deciding when the market would support a Guitar Hero return that triggered a new release, but Napier insisted it was a creative decision.
"We wouldn't bring the game back until we'd made enough of a leap forward over the previous generation of games to justify the reintroduction of the franchise," said Napier.
"Through the combination of our six-button controller that means your hand is getting closer to the movements of a real guitarist on the neck of a guitar, the entirely new presentation in GH Live through to GH TV, the first 24/7 playable music video network - these as a combination mean, yes, we've made enough of a leap and it's time to bring the game back."
The franchise's roots were largely in hard rock, classic rock and metal, although spinoff title Band Hero expanded into the pop realm with hits from the likes of Taylor Swift, Spice Girls, Culture Club, No Doubt, Fall Out Boy, Duran Duran and Robbie Williams.
While there are tracks from the likes of Pantera, Judas Priest, Alice in Chains, Anthrax, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Bring Me the Horizon and Deftones in the new game, it looks to have a far broader range of music than the classic Guitar Hero games.
"In the GH Live side of the game, that's a music festival experience. We've tried to reflect the breadth and variety of modern music festivals, with all sorts of subgenres of guitar-based music. We've got alt-rock, indie rock, dance rock, metal of course, hard rock but also folk and pop as well," said Napier.
"In GH TV, we've packaged the songs together in genre-specific shows. So you'll have an alt-rock show, then a metal hour and we have every intention of having a classic rock hour, for example. We could do the top 10 classic rock hits of a particular decade, it's easy for us to do that."
In GH Live, players perform as part of a fake band created by Freestyle Games, each with their own fictional history and unique characteristics. The GH Live bands are titled Broken Tide, Blackout Conspiracy, Portland Cloud Orchestra, Our Pasts Collide and the Jephson Hangout.
"Those different bands are matched to different genres of music; we've made an alt-rock band, an indie rock band, a dance rock band and so on," said Napier.
"It was great fun going through a process of drawing up different concepts for these bands and creating backstories for them. There is a narrative and as you play through the different sets and festivals in GH Live, you'll be able to follow the stories of each band in the game."
There's no way of predicting if the release of Guitar Hero Live and rival Rock Band 4 this year will herald a new boom in musical rhythm games, potentially leading to the market oversaturation seen with the genre in the late '00s.
But with Guitar Hero Live it appears Activision is committed to selling additional content, rather than releasing another multitude of full game releases.
"In GH TV, given its very nature, it's very easy for us to add music into the game on a regular basis. We'll constantly be updating the game and adding new music into it. We have premium shows as well, the idea with them is working with bands and their labels to secure early access to new music that isn't available to the public," said Napier.
"We've done a deal with the Black Veil Brides, we've got some of their concert footage from a recent concert that isn't available yet to the public. We've also announced a partnership with Avenged Sevenfold and when the game comes out, there'll be some exclusive music and content from them as well."
Guitar Hero Live is set for release in October on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Wii U, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
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