Licks and Clicks

Popstar Guitar for the Nintendo Wii - Review

Kids are subjected to playing the new Guitar Hero knock off POPSTAR GUITAR for the Nintendo Wii.

Guitar Hero Drums Revealed

The latest issue of Game Informer has photos of Guitar Hero IV's new drum kit.

So we all know this isn't going to work out how we want it to.  Those of us accustomed to playing Rock Band drums will have to learn a whole new way to play if we decide to pick up the Guitar Hero drum set.  And of course none of these things will be compatible with one another, you can count on that.

So which franchise gets hurt the most out of all this impending foolishness?

GameSpot Guitar Hero Tournament - Watch it Live

Today at 7pm ET (4pm PT), GameSpot will be broadcasting a Guitar Hero Tournament live on their website.  The first place pretend-rocker will receive a $1,000 Best Buy gift card.

You can watch the fun go down here.

South Park Season 11 Comes With 3 Rock Band Tracks

TVShowsOnDVD.com is reporting that the next release of South Park on DVD will contain three tracks for Rock Band.

The tie-in with Rock Band is somewhat curious, considering that this season of South Park contains the popular Guitar Hero episode, but since Paramount Home Entertainment is part of the Viacom empire along with MTV Games, it all makes sense.

No word as of yet as to what the three songs are.  Everyone is hoping for something cool and South Park related, but... who knows.

Guitar Hero Does Encourage Real Guitar Playing

The Toronto Star has an article today about the increase in demand for guitar lessons and ties it to the success of the Guitar Hero franchise.

Guitar Hero, the video game, has become "a calling card for the instrument" and it's been hard to keep up with the demand for lessons, with more than 400 students enrolled, Kennerney said.

The game "brought the guitar into the living rooms of 4 or 5 million people and tons of kids are taking lessons as a result," Kennerney said.

"With guys like Kevin on board, you're able to build up a healthy program because they're so good at what they do, they make it fun for the kids."

Continue reading "Teens in training to be real-world Guitar Heroes"...

More Robots Playing Video Games

More artificial intelligence video gaming, this time playing Rock Band on Expert.  I really don't understand the appeals of doing stuff like this.  Go cure cancer or something.

Muse for Guitar Hero III on May 8th

Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock gets more downloadable songs on May 8th.  The triple pack of songs from British band Muse will feature Supermassive Black Hole, Exo-Politics, and Stockholm Syndrome. 

Price should stay constant with previous triple packs (500 Microsoft Points, $6.25 on the Playstation Network).

Rock Band Makes Money

Viacom, parent company of MTV Games (makers of Rock Band) announced that their earnings were up for the first fiscal quarter, thanks in part to the amazing success of Rock Band sales and downloadable content.

Rock Band has now sold over 10 million songs on both Xbox Live and the Playstation Network since it's release late last year.  Over 3 million Rock Band bundles have been sold in that time.

Rock Band's performance helped raise Viacom's Q1 (January-March) income 29 percent year-on-year to $567 million. Revenues were up 15 percent to $3.1 billion.

Continue reading "Rock Band: 3 million shipped, 10 million songs"...

And So It Begins - Aerosmith Exclusive to Guitar Hero

While not entirely shocking given that they're releasing a game devoted to the band, Activision and Guitar Hero announced that they have secured the exclusive rights to use Aerosmith's catalog of music.  So Train Kept A-Rollin, which currently appears in Rock Band, will most likely be the only Aerosmith track we'll see in Guitar Hero's competition for the next few years.

The battle for band exclusivity begins...

Guitar Hero on Tour Track List Released

Activision has announced 15 of the roughly 25 songs due to appear in this summer's release of Guitar Hero for the Nintendo DS:

• Do What You Want - OK Go
• All The Small Things - Blink 182
• Spiderwebs - No Doubt
• Are You Gona Be My Girl - Jet
• We're Not Gonna Take It - Twisted Sister
• All Star - Smash Mouth
• Breed - Nirvana
• Jessie's Girl - Rick Springfield
• Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
• This Love - Maroon 5
• Heaven - Los Lonely Boys
• Helicopter - Bloc Party
• China Grove - The Doobie Brothers
• Rock and Roll All Nite - KISS (cover by Line 6)
• What I Want - Daughtry

Will there be 10 unlockable tracks or was the original number of 25 incorrect?  We'll continue to investigate.