Kotaku: Guitar Hero 7 Was a Disaster

[toymachineSH]

http://kotaku.com/5965684/guitar-her...celled-in-2011

The new console game was going to be solely guitar-based, according to my source, who was thoroughly unimpressed with the development of the game. GH7 would have no drumming. No singing. Both of those elements had been added to the series after the series' original developers, Harmonix, began creating their own Rock Band games for MTV. But a troubled development cycle would see GH7 pare back to the series' roots: playing along to music with a video game controller shaped like a guitar

Guitar Hero 7's guitar would be its most obvious deviation from its predecessors. It was going to change the gameplay of the series. "This amazing thing was a six stringed guitar," the source told me, sarcastically. "Not a real guitar, or even full six-stringed. It had the classic Guitar Hero buttons on the neck with one extra new button, and six strings where the strum bar used to be. YAY! Now they have an extra button and five more strum bars!"

The morphing venue concept was too unwieldy and the game began to collapse under the weight of the developers' "big ambitions". "They started designing locations," my source said. "A tomb, the back of a moving truck. The locations were going to match the songs. Each song would have it's own music video. It was a nice idea, and some of the concepts looked great. Then they realized they didn't have any songs. Everything was being built around 'Turn The Page - Metallica,' and 'A Thing Called Love - The Darkness.' They'd change the venues and animations as the songs came in.

"When the songs started coming in, a great sense of dread came about everyone with an active brain," the source continued. "The game had all of the worst hits from the 1990's. They realized that, with our lack of budget and time, they couldn't get quality music so they bought bargain basement music like 'Closing time' and 'Sex and Candy.' There were some songs in there that had been used at least three times in the GH franchises before.

[MagicMurderBag7]

If Sex and Candy and Closing Time are what they consider a crappy setlist I bet it would have been decent. The setlist that is, the actual game would have been a disaster. Making people buy new guitars, taking away drums and vocals, and not supporting old DLC is just a dumb move.

[firedoom666]

If Sex and Candy and Closing Time are what they consider a crappy setlist I bet it would have been decent.

I have to disagree with that... both of those songs are crappy

[Runesmith]

We need more 90s hits, damnit.

[Megashot]

Ah, just another one last bashing of Guitar Hero by blog sites like Joystiq and Kotaku. Everyone knew GH7 was cancelled. Old news is old. I have no idea why this even made the headlines, other than to slap it in Activision's face that the series failed.

GH died because of the internet cynicism regarding music games. That and Activision wanting to release 5 GH games in one year, and marketed each as a standalone game. They should have been downloadable expansion packs for GH World Tour/GH5.

[horsepastriesa]

Ah, just another one last bashing of Guitar Hero by blog sites like Joystiq and Kotaku. Everyone knew GH7 was cancelled. Old news is old. I have no idea why this even made the headlines, other than to slap it in Activision's face that the series failed.

It's not saying "HEY GUYS REMEMBER GUITAR HERO THAT WAS LAME LOL." Instead, it's giving a look at what could've happened and why it ended. None of this info was ever released to the public, so I think it's pretty interesting how things might've played out.

With that said, it sounds like Guitar Hero would've taken the Power Gig route instead of the Rock Band one. Ouch.

[nascargo19]

RB3 just got Sex and Candy didn't it?

[toymachineSH]

GH had it as DLC two years ago this Friday

[TheStuddz]

Long live RB

Boo GH

[Munnchy]

I used to love GH but I was kinda relieved when they said it was being stopped. It wasn't going so well.... Kinda wish they'd have released turn the page sooner though. I know the original is in GHM but I really liked their cover