5 Things Guitar Hero Can Do to Stay Fresh

It’s obvious that we loved Guitar Hero III on the Wii, but its gotten to the point where the formula will have to have some thoughtful additions to keep it fresh and exciting to come back to. Neversoft made attempts with the addition of Boss Battles and the battle mode in general, but seemed to have missed the point. Guitar Hero III is a fun experience in that its a blast to nail a song. Throwing in the randomness of Mario Kart-esque items really detracts from the overall experience.In addition, where Rock Band has carved its niche in the multiplayer realm, we can’t help but feel it would be a mistake for Guitar Hero to follow in its footsteps by adding singing hero or drum hero to its repertoire. It seems in Neversoft’s best interest to differentiate itself further by taking its single player experience even further. So what can be done to enhance the core gameplay of Guitar Hero? We have five things that Neversoft could try out, check them out after the jump:

1. Distortion pedal peripheral

Something of a no brainer: the Wii version (as well as others) has a peripheral port on the underside of the guitar. While most of the rock songs included in Guitar Hero start out distorted and end that way, there are plenty of songs that take things down a notch and to actively switch between clean and distorted would feel incredible.

Some songs that would benefit (from GHIII): “One” by Metallica, “Black Magic Woman” by Santana, “My Name is Jonas” by Weezer

2. Whammy Notes

We all love hitting the whammy bar to show off, but what if it were an integral part of gameplay? There are many notes in GHIII that are played with a button change, but the pitch is actually affected in real life by a whammy bar. If the developers carved out whammy paths for players to follow, we would be all for it.

3. Optional Solos

We can’t fault Neversoft for seeing the need to keep the Guitar Hero formula fresh, but we can fault them for implementing boss battles as the answer. However, they were on the right track by including songs recorded by artists specifically for the game.

If instead of powerups the player was instead able to “choose his own path” so to speak, we could see it becoming a big hit. Artists could record their own original solos multiple times over the same track allowing for players to either choose safer solos with more accuracy, or crazier solos with bigger payoff.

4. Double Necked Guitar 

We’re just saying…this would be sweet.

5. HORSE Battle Option

As said earlier, Guitar Hero gives players a thrill when they 5 star or FC a song, and battle mode seems to miss the point. What if, though, Neversoft merged practice mode and battle mode into a game of HORSE, where a player is able to select a section or sections of a song and then play through it. The second player then has to match or beat the first player to stay in the game. Other games like Pain and Tiger Woods Golf have seen success with the unorthodox implementation of HORSE in their games, and it seems this would be a battle mode people could get behind.

---

We really do love Guitar Hero, and wouldn’t want to mess with the core gameplay so much that it became unfamiliar. That’s why additions such as a distortion pedal and whammy notes could be optional during main gameplay, only providing a score boost, and not messing up note streaks. That way casuals can still enjoy the game, but hardcore players can have an additional challenging way to get ahead on ScoreHero. Please head our advice and don’t give into the Rock Band reverie, there are still plenty of players that love singleplayer, and Guitar Hero reigns supreme in that realm.Also, if you do decide to go ahead with this Neversoft, you only have to unofficially credit us.

Tweet

Around The Net: