This is a week old now but I only just spotted it - Activision have taken the unusual step of releasing an official Guitar Hero Flash game , which is embedded below.
It doesn’t play particularly well (but then neither did Guitar Hero 3 - zing!) but I guess when you consider the limitations of the medium what’s there is an achievement, and even so it’s fun that they did it. I’m trying to figure out who it’s aimed at though; anyone who digs Guitar Hero probably has it by now - hopefully they experienced GH1 & 2 rather than just the inferior GH3 - and I don’t think this effort is going to convince anyone who hasn’t tried the real thing by now, given that it feels rather imprecise, and the keyboard is unnatural. Anyone who’s played GH will know that even though it’s just a bit of plastic, the guitar controller makes all the difference - if it didn’t, we’d all be playing Frets on Fire instead.
Maybe it’s just a gimmick to get the GH brand a little extra publicity in advance of the European release of Rock Band. To be honest I find it hard to determine which direction the GH franchise is going in now, given that they’re now planning on ‘doing a Rock Band’ and releasing other instruments. This seems like an empty ‘me too’ gesture - really GH3’s only saving grace was that it appealed to hardcore guitar specialists who have evolved an extra knuckle on each finger, most other people felt it was an inferior experience to GH2, particularly if you’re into co-op / party play. So if they’re stepping away from that specialism, they’d better get their act together because I’m betting Harmonix will hang them out to dry on a level playing field.
In any case, Rock Band is finally out over here in just over 2 weeks so I probably won’t care what Activision does with GH for a while. Everyone in the press refers to GTAIV as ‘the‘ game of 2008, but not in my house 
The price still hurts, and I see some people are taking that frustration out on the Amazon review system, but damn, given the amount of pleasure co-op GH2 has given us in the last year and that Rock Band looks even better, I’m confident it’s going to be worth it.
May 7th, 2008 at 11:58 am
Yeah, I noticed the reviews on Amazon as well…It really hasn’t gone down too well. I doubt it will affect the launch of Rock Band, but I think the price may put off a lot of people in the long run.
Must give the flash version of Guitar Hero a quick go when I get home
May 7th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
It’s still expensive, but with the online discounts it’s actually about what I expected, and Guitar Hero (2) has given me enough play time for several games anyway. I’m banking that with the extra instruments, a great initial track list and ongoing DLC, Rock Band will keep me playing all year. Given that I’ll play it with Marie a lot and probably with 3-4 players on Monday nights it’s a worthwhile (if slightly painful) investment. Hell, it may cost almost as much as a Wii but it’ll probably get a lot more use than my Wii does
I think the separates may help a bit, if there are people who don’t want to buy it all themselves and just want to play together with their friends. I want the whole set though, if I find it supersedes GH entirely I’ll probably eBay the PS2 to pay for an extra guitar and recover some of the cash.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:11 pm
I thought you already had GH3? The GH3 guitar (which is perfectly compatible on the 360) is the one I mainly use for Rock Band, as I prefer it slightly to the Strat that comes with Rock Band.
You’ll barely touch GH3 anymore once you start digging into Rock Band, especially with the fantastic DLC for the latter. Also, the drums will remind you what its like to be punched in the face by a music game, though you’ll enjoy every minute of it.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:19 pm
I do have GH3, but on the PS2 because I already had 2 guitar controllers from owning GH1 & 2 (predated me buying a 360). I barely play GH3 now anyway, we bounced back to GH2 because the ongoing fun is party play which they totally screwed up in GH3.
Yeah, videos of the drums make it clear it’s going to be a whole new learning experience, which is a good thing
May 7th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
I can’t get the hang of the real thing, and I can’t get the hang of the online version.
You wouldn’t believe I’m a real guitarist if I can’t do this!
May 7th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
At least here in The States, I think the majority of Xbox 360 GH3 purchases are so someone can play bass in Rockband :).
Rockband extra guitars were VERY hard to come by at least early on. It might be better now, I’m not sure.
And make sure and download the “Still Alive” Portal song sinbad :).
May 7th, 2008 at 9:16 pm
@Kezzer: you’re obviously faking it - it’s all done with mirrors I say.
@Kentamanos: in theory the separate guitars should be obtainable, because Europe gets the separates from day 1, but we’ll have to see. I’ll probably get a friend to bring his 360 GH controller around to begin with. And yeah, I have a scary number of DLC tracks on my wish list already
May 7th, 2008 at 10:12 pm
@Steve: I just flap my fingers around the fretboard and swish my right hand around a few times and usually it sounds okay. Plus, I’ve got some new acoustic moves since I was last around. You best be practising on the real thing too!
October 5th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
thx for info and the game