Has Harmonix struck their final chord?
Rhythm games are fantastic. By combining more than just visual prompts to a game, it makes an interactive experience more immersive and more rewarding. The genre finds its roots in Japan, with games like PaRappa The Rapper (1996) and Beatmania (1997) becoming extremely popular, the former of which selling 750,000 in little over a year. Their migration to Western audiences were less kind, with only the infamous Dance Dance Revolution embarassing children up and down the country, their forty-something fathers telling them of the ‘discothèque where I met your mother’ really grabbing an audience beyond niche status.
In steps Harmonix. The original Guitar Hero, released here in 2006 on the PS2 sold well over 1.5 million. It, as I am no doubt your gran is aware, utilises a plastic guitar-shaped peripheral in order to play and strum onscreen ‘notes and chords’ in time to the music. Since then, it has spawned endless sequels, and a billion dollar franchise. The original Guitar Hero licence was sold to Neversoft for the 2007 sequel Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, which had huge success in the charts on the Wii, appealing to both the core and the expanded audience; a feat rarely pulled off by developers. There is no question about it; Guitar Hero bought rhythm games to the West, and with style.
Harmonix later released Rock Band, which allowed the aggresive and the attention grabbers to drum and sing for virtual stardom. Neversoft responded with Guitar Hero: World Tour, which for Wii owners included a dedicated and extensive DLC option not offered by Rock Band. Rock Band 2 will include this when it is released later this month on the Wii. And so, the two warring factions of plastic instrument peripherals come to attrition. With only minor updates and dedicated band versions planned in the forseeable future (not to mention the pointless addition of Lego characters), what innovation is there left to be wrung? Have they reached the peak of what they can do with plastic instruments?
Is there still hope for the rhythm genre beyond Rock Band or Guitar Hero? Unless they do something to reinvigorate the franchise completely, we will be stuck with constant minor updates every year. Harmonix and Neversoft have the risk of running ‘EA Sports syndrome’ (which, even EAare starting to combat with some admittedly impressive updates of late). But still, they sell.
In addition, original rhythm titles like the recent Rhythm Paradise have failed to do spectacularly in the West. Europe in particular; having been out for a month now Rhythm Paradise has failed to break the 100,000 mark in sales, accomplished in Japan in mere days. If Rhythm Paradise, a first party Nintendo title no less, fails to do well outside of native Japan, what incentive does this give to other developers? Is there a market for quirky, original rhythm titles in the West at all? Only time will tell.
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Tags: Comment, Guitar Hero, Lewis, Paradise, Rhythm, Rock Band
Comment | Lewis@WiiDS | 
June 10, 2009 11:37 am
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By Alex@WiiDS, June 11, 2009 @ 4:38 am
Nice blog Lewis. I think that the majority of Western gamers are just a lot less adventurous and that’s why quirky titles like Rhythm Tengoku won’t do well. Another great game Osu Tatakae Ouendan didn’t do very well either.
Maybe rhythm games are a harder sell as you have to be willing to try them out to really understand why they are so much fun.
I’ve never played any of the plastic guitar games. I think the sales number for them are pretty terrible here. The music/rhythm genre is a strange beast indeed.