GameSided Game of the Year 2015 | Rebekah’s Picks
Rebekah’s Game of the Year – #8: Guitar Hero Live
Packed together with a daunting new controller and lots of songs I’d never heard of, I was apprehensive at first about Guitar Hero Live. After all, it had been years since I’d last annoyed the RAs at college by jamming way too loud, way too late at night with my friends. Fortunately, Guitar Hero Live turned out to be a much-needed revitalization of a beloved franchise.
Though the new guitar controller set up was initially daunting, I adjusted quickly through the game’s flexible difficulty modes and gentle progression in the Live campaign. The crowd and bandmates surrounding me in the Live songs gave the performance the look and feel of a rock concert, even swapping between adoring fans and disgruntled concert-goers depending on how well or poorly I played. Then, there’s Guitar Hero TV. Though some (rightfully) decry the mode for its saturation of microtransactions and the fact that you’ll never truly “own” any of the songs you play in it, I thoroughly enjoyed the Pandora-esque style of the channels as I played through known favorites and songs I’d never heard before back to back. Don’t like the song? Just change the channel! I enjoyed TV enough that when I did want to purchase a specific song, I usually had more than enough in-game currency to do so several times over.
While I hope we won’t see the over-saturation of Guitar Hero games that we did a few years back that resulted in the series’ hiatus, I’d love for these titles to continue. Whether that’s through continual DLC or a new installment every few years or so, I’m happy either way as long as there’s more songs to play.
Next: #7 - Emerging from the shadows