Guitar Hero: Aerosmith

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is a music video game developed by Neversoft and distributed by Activision. The game was released on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 consoles, with a Wii version developed by Vicarious Visions, a PlayStation 2 version by Budcat Creations and with a PC and Mac version by Aspyr Media. The game was released on June 26, 2008 in Europe, on June 29, 2008 in North America, and on August 6, 2008 in Australia. The game is sold as both a bundle with a specially designed guitar controller as well as a game-only package.

The game is considered an expansion in the Guitar Hero series, extending upon the general features of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. As with other games in the series, the player uses a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the playing of rock music by playing in-time to scrolling notes on-screen. It is the first game in the series to primarily focus on the work of one rock band, with Aerosmith songs comprising approximately 60% of the soundtrack, while the remaining songs are from bands that have been influenced by or opened for Aerosmith. The single player Career mode allows the player to follow the history of the band through several real-world-inspired venues, interspersed with interviews from the band members about their past. Aerosmith has re-recorded four songs for this game, and have participated in motion capture to create their in-game appearances.

While Guitar Hero: Aerosmith maintains the same gameplay, the game has received criticism for being shorter and easier than the previous Guitar Hero titles and difficult to justify its price point; furthermore, with the game's strong focus on one band, reviewers felt that the game's ultimate enjoyment rested on the player's appreciation for the music of Aerosmith.

Story

A departure from other games in the franchise, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith follows the career of Aerosmith, by playing significant songs in their catalog in a 'rough chronological fashion'. The gameplay follows the band through various periods in its history, spanning from its first show at Mendon Nipmuc Regional High School in 1970 to the 2001 Super Bowl XXXV halftime show, to their induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on March 19, 2001. The player starts as Joe Perry, and will eventually be able to unlock Brad Whitford and Tom Hamilton. The game does not focus on the internal strife and stress within the band; Guitarist Joe Perry stated that the game would focus on the positive aspects of Aerosmith's history. Perry has stated that "Having a game built around Aerosmith has been a huge honor and really a great experience for us. We've put a lot of ideas into the game so that fans can have fun interacting with our music, getting inside our body of work and learning about the band's history."

Gameplay

The gameplay in Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is based on the same gameplay elements from Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. Players use a guitar controller to hold down fret keys and strum on the strum bar in time with the note patterns as they scroll down the screen in order to complete a song. The player's performance is tracked by a Rock Meter, and if it falls too low, the song ends prematurely. Star Power can be collected by completing marked note phrases correctly, and by using the whammy bar during sustained notes; Star Power is released by lifting the guitar controller vertically or by pressing the Select button in order to double the scoring multiplier and dramatically affect the Rock Meter. The player is rated after successfully completing a song from 3 to 5 stars, and can examine statistics related to their performance, and in Career mode, awarded money to be used to unlock ten bonus songs in "The Vault" and additional guitars, outfits, and other videos about the band. Each song can be played at one of four difficulties: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Expert, in order of easiest to hardest.

The game offers several gameplay modes. Career mode is broken into six tiers of five tracks, each based on a period in Aerosmith's history. Furthermore, within each tier, there are two Opening Acts, featuring non-Aerosmith songs, that must be completed before the Aerosmith songs can be played; the final song in each tier is an encore once the other four songs are completed. As the player completes this mode, they will also be presented with video clips talking about the band and other trivia about the band. The Career mode features one Boss Battle (against Joe Perry) as introduced in Guitar Hero III. Any unlocked song can be played in Quickplay mode, Co-operative mode, with one player on lead guitar and the other on bass, and Competitive mode, including the Battle modes. Unlike Guitar Hero III, there is no Co-Operative Career mode. One significant upgrade from Guitar Hero III is the addition of score balancing in Pro Face Off multiplayer mode, which allows each player to choose their own difficulty while still allowing each side to play the full note chart, instead of switching back and forth within regular Face Off.

Development

Billboard announced that the band Aerosmith was "working closely with the makers of Guitar Hero IV [sic], which will be dedicated to the group's music." Guitar Hero: World Tour was also confirmed as in development following the announcement of the merger between Activision and Vivendi Games in December 2007. It is currently unclear whether this announcement was in reference to Guitar Hero: World Tour, or the announced spin-off of Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.

On February 15, 2008, Activision announced that one of the two new Guitar Hero installments will be Guitar Hero: Aerosmith, to be released in June 2008. Guitar Hero: Aerosmith will be developed by Neversoft for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions, and the Wii version of the game will be developed by Vicarious Visions and the PlayStation 2 version will be developed by Budcat Creations.

The idea for Guitar Hero: Aerosmith came about during the development of Guitar Hero III. Originally, a cover version of "Same Old Song and Dance" was present in the game, but Neversoft president Joel Jewett noted that the quality of the recording was poor. After getting in contact with Joe Perry, Perry was able to provide the original masters for the song, and, according to Neversoft developer Alan Flores, "that sort of established the relationship." This also came at a time where Activision was attempting to expand the Guitar Hero franchise, and fans expressed a strong interest in playing a game focused solely on Aerosmith's works, according to RedOctane's Dusty Welch. Another producer for the game, Aaron Habibipour, stated that Aerosmith was one of the five "holy grail" musical groups as polled by Activision. Newsweek reported that Aerosmith's license allows for exclusive use of their songs within the Guitar Hero series for a limited amount of time, preventing their use within other rhythm games such as Rock Band. This is not the first time Aerosmith has appeared in a video game. The band was previously featured in both Quest for Fame and Revolution X.

Similar to Slash, Tom Morello, and Bret Michaels in Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock, the entire Aerosmith band has participated in motion capture to accurately recreate their moves digitally for the game. Additional opening acts and special guest stars are also in the game including Run-D.M.C. (who appears as a playable character), The Kinks, and Lenny Kravitz.

While Aerosmith was able to provide many of the original master recordings to the development team, the band re-recorded the four songs chosen for the game from their first album: "Make It", "Movin' Out", "Dream On" and "Mama Kin". Joe Perry re-mastered the lead guitar on many songs to interact with the gameplay better, while Steven Tyler re-recorded some of the vocals.

The game itself is based much on Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock's mechanics with some improvements; notably, hammer-ons and pull-offs are "less mushy", there are new venues for the game, and while all other gameplay modes from Guitar Hero III are present, there will be no co-op career mode. The game's interfaces and menus have been redesigned for the game. Additionally, the team re-evaluated the difficulty of the game based on feedback from players of Guitar Hero III who felt that there were "too many brick walls for casual fans".

The developers attempted to recreate as many of historical venues within the game. For example, to fulfill Joe Perry's request that they recreate Max's Kansas City in New York, the developers used old photographs and YouTube videos of the club during the 1970s, to a highly accurate degree, as claimed by those that had attended the club during that period. Within these venues, set decorations are inspired from Aerosmith album covers. Five that have been confirmed are Pump, Toys in the Attic, Just Push Play, Get Your Wings, and Nine Lives.

During Activision's press conference at the 2008 E3 convention, it was announced that a long-standing dispute between Activision and Electronic Arts over the use of guitar controllers in their respective games had been resolved; Guitar Hero: Aerosmith on the 360 was patched after released to allow the use of the Rock Band controller within the game, while all such instruments will be usable in Guitar Hero World Tour. The Playstation 3 Rock Band guitar controllers also are compatible with the Playstation 2 version of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.

Promotion

Activision released Aerosmith's "Dream O" to the Xbox Live Marketplace and the PlayStation Store as a free Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock downloadable song. The free download was available from February 16-18, 2008, after which it was removed pending the release of the game.

The members of Aerosmith participated in a special sneak preview event at the Hard Rock Cafe in New York City on June 27, 2008, allowing attendees to ask questions and try out the game. Target had Chip Ganassi's #40 car, driven by Dario Franchitti, painted to celebrate the release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith for a NASCAR race on June 29, 2008.

As with some of the previous installments in the series, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith is available as both a standalone disc and as part of a bundle. This bundle includes the Gibson Les Paul controller and a special red faceplate with the Aerosmith logo in white. The bundle also includes a tour book for the game listing the songs featured in the game. The special Aerosmith bundle is available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii versions. The Playstation 2 bundle includes the Kramer Wireless controller included with Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock. There is also a very limited edition bundle for the PlayStation 2 at Wal-Mart. This bundle comes with the game and two wired Gibson SG guitar controllers as bundled with the original Guitar Hero and its sequel.