Activision Drives the Guitar Hero Franchise Even Further Into the Ground

Although I was never a huge fan of the series, I once thought that the Guitar Hero games were decent rhythm titles that provided a good amount of fun. However, with Activision releasing countless spin-offs with negligible improvements and song lists that decline in quality with each new edition I quickly lost interest in the Guitar Hero games.

It looks like Activision is going to milk the series even further in 2009. Although we're all aware that they're going to be releasing Guitar Hero Metallica for consoles this upcoming spring, it looks as if they have their third DS title already planned for release next year as well. The ESRB has confirmed the existence of Guitar Hero: Modern Hits for the Nintendo DS for a 2009 release. This will mark the third time Nintendo's ultra popular portable has seen a Guitar Hero title in less than a year.

After playing the mediocre Guitar Hero: World Tour on the 360 and deciding that the series has lost its appeal I can't say that I'm excited for another title in this series, especially a dumbed-down portable off-shoot. In the end, though, I really can't blame Activision for rehashing the same one-trick pony ad naseum. The sales are certainly there, and the public seems to be eating these sequels up. However, this is a series I see heading down the same route as Tony Hawk (another Activision property that was milked beyond belief) where the franchise is eventually run so far into the ground that the public will eventually lose interest.

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