Harmonix has announced Guitar Hero Hero, a music/simulation game about getting good at music/simulation games.
“Some people weren’t good at jumping on turtles, so Nintendo gave them Mario,” Harmonix King and President Fred Guitarsman said. “Some people aren’t good at playing guitar, so we made Guitar Hero. And some people aren’t good at playing Guitar Hero, so now we’re making Guitar Hero Hero.”
Finally, a dev that gets it!
“Guitar Hero was original in its execution, but not necessarily its core concept,” Guitarsman explained. “At their centers, most video games allow players to live out some kind of fantasy or get a small taste of being good at something that they’re not actually good at, even if the act of playing the game is nothing like the real action they’re imitating. Playing Gran Turismo, for example, is an entirely different skill from actually driving a car.”
Similarly, Guitar Hero, though its controller is shaped like a guitar, isn’t truthfully a simulation of playing a guitar.
This brought developer Harmonix to an interesting question: what about people who want the feeling of being good at Guitar Hero? In the newly announced Guitar Hero Hero, you’ll take on the role of a gamer playing Guitar Hero. You’ll see what the on-screen character picks, and help him/her struggle through the gradual creation of muscle memory required to master its toughest tracks and sickest solos.
Is it too early to hand out Game of the Year awards?
Look for more news on this story as it develops. Meanwhile, I await my pre-order of Games Writing Hero, because I am out of ideas.
