| Guitar Hero: no strings attached
Christmas season, selling 290,000 copies. Now Harmonix is scrambling to complete Guitar Hero II. There are already more advance orders for the sequel than the number of sold copies of the original game. The first Guitar Hero would have sold much better, except for a shortage that made the game hard to come by during the holidays. Blame it on the guitar. Every copy of the game comes with its own axe, a game controller shaped like a rock guitar. But all the guitars are built at a single factory in China. "They haven't been able to make the plastic guitars fast enough," said Harmonix chief executive Alex Rigopulos, a musician. And of course you can't be a rock god without the ability to hurl six-string thunderbolts. The pseudo-guitar is the secret of Guitar Hero's success.
Konami Calls For Guitar Revolution?
According to Gamespot, Konami is ready to challenge the Guitar Hero crown with Guitar Revolution, their own electro-guitar-controller-thrashing game.
Perhaps hoping to capitalize on some of the success of Red Octane's breakout hit Guitar Hero, publisher Konami has made a filing with the US government to trademark the moniker "Guitar Revolution"--a title that shares the nomenclature found in the company's other music and rhythm games. The trademark, filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office on June 29, is littered with selected keywords and phrases used to describe the company's new endeavor. Among the trademark's listed descriptions are "video game controller in the form of an electronic toy guitar, sold as a unit," "stand alone electronic game machines with electronic toy guitars," and "coin-operated video games." more @ source.
Third-Party Guitar Hero Controller Sucks Like a Hurricane
Our ugly yet do-able distant relations over at Kotaku have a hands-on with the Shredder, a third-party Guitar Hero controller. While they originally championed the device, a disheartened reader told them that it was actually a hunk of garbage. They do not need to be pushed down as hard as the original, making hammer-ons and pull offs feel more natural. My biggest gripes about this controller are the tilt sensor and the select button. The tilt sensor is now a shake sensor. You have the shake the controller to enable star power. Big deal? Probably not, but maybe you could just get the real controller and save yourself a shaking bad time. – John Biggs Third Party Guitar Hero Controller Does NOT Shred [Kotaku] .
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