Guitar hero worriors of rock release date

Alex Hutchinson Jul 29, 2010

  1. Al

    Alex Hutchinson Newbie
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    E3 2010 has made it interesting to be a fan of music games again. In the span of just a week, we've seen the two standard bearers of the rhythm game genre plot courses in radically different directions. Harmonix has bet big on its focus on their new keyboard peripheral and their Plus modes, designed to teach instrument fundamentals to a generation of music game fans. Meanwhile, Guitar Hero developers Neversoft have signaled a major departure from their own previous work on the franchise and have instead focused on epic heavy metal narrative and aesthetics.



    More Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock Info

    Where previous Guitar Hero games have featured at most the merest indication of a plot (if any plot was implied at all), Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock has made an abrupt about-face. Equal parts Brutal Legend and Heavy Metal (with a little Dream Warriors era Nightmare on Elm Street thrown in for good measure), Warriors of Rock sets the scene with a tale of the Demi-God of Rock, a champion of good battling an ancient evil, the Beast (as narrated by KISS front man Gene Simmons). Sadly, the Demi-God of Rock's licks apparently just aren't tasty enough. The Beast defeats the champion, encasing him in stone and casting his mighty guitar into the void.

    This guitar is the key to the Demi-God's power, and it's up to an unlikely group of heroes to band together to return it to him and help defeat the evil Beast. This is where the misfit cast of rockers and burnouts from the original Guitar Hero games come in. While producer Brian Bright wouldn't confirm exactly which characters would make their return, he did imply that gamers' favorites would return, each with new tricks up their sleeves. As the hero of the game, it's your job to assemble these warriors of the guitar and help them discover their latent mystic talents.

    It all sounds like Tenacious D frontman Jack Black pitched a Guitar Hero game. Each character has been granted a spirit form type transformation - in the land of Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, rocking ****ing faces off is the latest way to find your power animal. Each transformation confers a specific bonus ability that sets the Guitar Heroes apart from mere mortals.

    Thus far, Neversoft has only revealed the transformations for Johnny Napalm and Lars Umlaut. For Johnny (whose home venue is the now defunct CBGBs), things get blue and teleport-y as he transforms into a creature somewhere between the X-Men's Nightcrawler and Eddie from Iron Maiden's album covers. The newly transformed Johnny crawls on CBGB's ceiling before teleporting to the stage to resume his set, where he has the newfound ability of maintaining a 2x multiplier at all times regardless of his streak. Meanwhile, Lars gets the slightly less flattering end of the stick, as his new powers leave him with the head of a boar - but also grant the ability to reach a 6x multiplier without star power.


    Guitar Hero 5 was a big leap for Neversoft after a pair of me-too releases in Legends of Rock and World Tour. It felt like the point where Neversoft had found its confidence. It introduced party-play mode, star challenges, and more, and also made some bold song choices. Mechanically speaking, Warriors of Rock elaborates on the last installment's new features. There are now 12 star challenges per track, and finishing the story mode unlocks Quick Play+, which allows players to use the character abilities unlocked during their quest to defeat the Beast.

    Neversoft has also assembled the heaviest track listing that Guitar Hero proper has ever seen, casting aside the apparent mainstream aspirations of Guitar Hero 5's inclusions of artists like Elton John and Stevie Wonder. Warriors of Rock has put the spotlight back on the "guitar" part of Guitar Hero. This is perhaps most evident in Neversoft's courting of thrash icon and Metallica founding member/Megadeth founder Dave Mustaine to write "the most difficult parts" he's ever committed to the frets of a guitar for Warriors of Rock's climactic final battle with the Beast. Dubbed "Sudden Death," it certainly seemed aptly named, with extended runs on guitar and prolonged blastbeat sections on the drums with an emphasis on double-kicks for Expert+ difficulty.

    All of this speaks to the direction that Neversoft has decided to take Guitar Hero for its sixth official installment. This is not a game for the family to play together in the family room (unless Mom really dug the last Children of Bodom record); Bright and co. are making a concerted effort to court the hardest of the hardcore of Guitar Hero players, and even the new guitar peripheral says as much. Designed for customization, all of the "guts" of the guitar have been moved to the center, allowing players to detach the sides and install completely new bodies. This is the opposite direction to their closest competition, as Harmonix have outsourced all instrument construction and sales to Mad Catz, seemingly happy to avoid the retail battle of large box placement on shelves. Harmonix and Neversoft have made huge gambles on radically different strategies at the music game table, and we'll have to wait until later this year to see whose hand is worth more.

    http://uk.xbox360.ign.com/articles/109/1097903p1.html
     

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