On the Death of Guitar Hero

Okay, with a title that could be mistaken for a badly-translated version of "Guitar Hero Dies," let me first say RIP Gary Moore.

If you said "who?" I can provide you with a partially correct answer: he was one of Thin Lizzy's guitarists. Of course, Thin Lizzy has had about as many different guitarists as Megadeth (and that's only counting the Thin Lizzy that ended in 1983, not the zombie that still tours today), and Mr. Moore was not the longest-lasting of these (his only full album with the band was the oft-overlooked and underrated Black Rose, although he apparently also did at least one guitar solo on one of the earlier ones), so that answer's not exactly complete. But it's what I know him from, so it's what I'll miss.

Moving on, this post is actually about the demise of the rhythm-based wailing on plinky plonky plastic. Huzzah! Go out and buy a real guitar, realize that there's more to, say, "The Number of the Beast" than five easy buttons, and then get a real job as you contemplate just how badly you fail to measure up to your idols.

Seriously, the games ran out of good songs by the time they got to the third real installment, which is the only explanation I can think of for half that game's soundtrack. It's not like there are any major improvements to the control schematic anyway, so if they revive this in the future they should just do it as DLC. Let us pay $10 or whatever to play our favorite songs instead of shelling out $40 for a game we're really only getting so we can pretend to know how to play "Free Bird." The series ran down an end as dead as the one Mario Party found itself in, and it's taking the opportunity to retire with a few last shreds (pardon the pun) of decency.

Incidentally, was "The Boys are Back in Town" ever on one of the Guitar Hero games? If not, what is wrong with the developers? Yeah you had "Bad Reputation," but that's really not the same.