61 Frames Per Second : guitar hero

Chiptune Friday: Game Boy Hero

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 14:30:00 GMT

Last month, Game Boy musician Cornbeat finally released his long-anticipated EP Chip Hero through 8bitPeoples. As the name implies, Chip Hero presents itself as a concept extended play, the soundtrack to a future video game where the player simulates the live performance of Chiptune music with synthetic controllers resembling the vintage game consoles the songs were originally recorded with. Sounds familiar, no?

As would be expected for the soundtrack to such a game, the five tracks making up the twenty-minute soundtrack are great fun and you might just find yourself wanting to press buttons in time with the bleeps as well. Here now, for your week ending enjoyment, my favorite track from Chip Hero, "Backseat Driver":

Download Chip Hero from 8bitPeoples here.

Related Chiptunes:
Twilight Electric's "Razor Blades"
USK's "Little Sound Disko"
Anamanaguchi's "Helix Nebula"

Chiptune Friday: 8-Bit Daft Punk

Derrick Sanskrit — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Third Daft Punk post this month? Clearly March is all about robots dancing as far as I'm concerned.

You may have seen around the 'net that a new bit of NES homebrew was released last month in D-Pad Hero, a game that mimicked the now all-too-familiar Guitar Hero/Dance Dance Revolution style of tapping buttons in rhythm to a scrolling bar of icons, only it replaces the guitar controller/dance pad with a traditional NES game pad and high quality song recordings with size and medium appropriate chiptune. Gameplay is expectedly challenging, but the songs are divine, especially the chiptune version of Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger".

Something about those clicks and warbles just seems... appropriate.

Even though the original "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" was popular when released back in 2001, it rose in popularity again in 2007 when Kanye West sampled it for his hit song "Stronger". You can download the ROM for D-Pad Hero here (you'll need some form of NES emulator). If you like it, click "support us" and PayPal them some cash to make a sequel. Maybe we'll get some chiptune Toto next time!

Related tunes:
NES Radiohead
Game Boy Postal Service
MIA vs. Super Mario Bros
RAC vs. The Legend of Zelda

Guitar Hero Text Adventure from 1982

Cole Stryker — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 19:00:00 GMT

Anyone who follows this blog knows that I have an outspoken penchant for the text adventure games of yore. There's something special about graphics-free gaming. It stretches the mind and invigorates the imagination. I'm all for retro-remakes, but I'm not sure it would work in every case.

What follows is an incredibly nerdy one-off joke. A rare screencap of the "original Guitar Hero", after the jump, if you think you can handle the cheeze:

If that gave you a chuckle, congratulations! You're a super dork.

(via Offworld)

Music Game Shark Jumpin’: Activision Possibly Too Legit to Quit, Working with MC Hammer

John Constantine — Wed, 17 Dec 2008 23:00:00 GMT

There’s been some talk around the gaming campfire about the possible decline of the Guitar Hero/Rock Band-styled music game. The reasons are pretty much what you’d expect: severe market saturation thanks to Guitar Hero having three very successful years across multiple consoles and games, consumer confusion over available product (what do you mean I can’t use this guitar with Rock Band on Wii?), and just could ol’ fashion fad passing. Of course, November’s NPD report showed that people aren’t quite sick of music games. They just aren’t buying them all on one system any longer. Whether or not music games are still profitable is besides the point though! What really matters is whether or not they’re still entertaining, still fresh, and whether or not there are still opportunities to add-on to the house built by Harmonix. What more can they do? Build a mic as versatile as the one included with Microsoft’s Lips? Create a procedural song generator so any song in existence can be used with the games? Stagnation is the enemy here for sure. Here’s a thought: how about trying to make a decent hip-hop game? It’s been attempted, but never successfully. Maybe that’s the next band game evolution!

But not like this, Activision. Not like this.

It’s only a rumor right now, but if the man himself is telling the truth through his Twitter, it sounds like MC Hammer is working on a project with Activision. The man who popularized Skids for one hazy summer back in 1991 said (Twitted?), “"I got one day to recover, then it's LA to Activision to get a glance of a top secrete project." And then later, "Activision was fantastic ... action!" Secrete action with Activision, eh Hammer? I am horrified.

Look, Guitar Hero the 80s was stupid enough, Activision. Don’t let Hammer back into out lives. He explicitly said we could not touch this and after almost twenty years, I’m inclined to take his advice.

If it does happen, I say Harmonix turns around and makes a Wu-Tang Rock Band. Have an unlockable mode that’s a sequel to Shaolin Style!

Hmmm. Proper.

(Link: The Escapist via Joystiq)

Related links:

Everyone Will be Able to Rock
"Games are about Wanking", Says Limey DJ
Surprise! Nickelback Misunderstands Guitar Hero
Rock Band: My Anti-Music
GWI: Gaming While Intoxicated

"Games are about Wanking", Says Limey DJ

Cole Stryker — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 13:00:00 GMT

In the latest issue of NME, a British rock rag that hasn't been relevant in decades, has published an article about the relationship between virtual rock stardom via games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, and SingStar vs. actual rock and roll. DJ David Quatick, who from the above portrait looks like he lives a downright debauched life, says:

Games are not rock 'n' roll, they're metal - aggressive, loud, violent and scared of women. You can't dance to a game or have sex to it. games are still for nerds. Rock 'n' roll is about fucking, games are about wanking. Rock music makes you leave the house and meet drugs, games make you stay in and smell of your own piss.

Whine on, you crazy diamond. I am reminded of one-time NME darling Kurt Cobain, who claimed to spend nearly every waking moment of his youth sitting in his bedroom with a guitar, learning old Beatles songs.

According to the the Guardian Games Blog, the article paints gamers as socially stunted, nerds. Progressive, I know. There is one dissenting opinion, courtesty of the Sex Pistols' Johnny Rotten:

[Guitar Hero is] teaching you how not to be a rock star. How not to be an arsehole, and how not to seek fame and fortune, because the whole fucking thing's a joke.

The most rock and roll act I saw live last year (and I saw about a hundred) was Crystal Castles at Glastonbury. These journalists need to quit being such crochety old rockists. Oh Chad Kroeger, up yours!

My Top 10 of 2008 in No Particular Order: Audiosurf

Bob Mackey — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:00:00 GMT

It's the end of another year, and that can only mean one thing: it's list season. Inevitably, you're going to see top ten lists by the thousands; and, as an official member of the enthusiast press, I'm afraid I can't violate my directive. But, to make things a little more interesting, I've decided to assemble my 10 favorite games of this year in non-hierarchical form because--let's face facts--it's hard to pick a favorite. And unlike other top 10 lists, this one will be doled out to you in piecemeal over the next ten excruciating days! Please enjoy.

So, what is there to say about Audiosurf? Unfortunately, I already wrote extensively about the game for a former blogging gig, and since part of my bridge-burning policy involves insulting all of my former employers, I'm going to go ahead and call that website awful. But, as an entertainment writer, it's my job to be repetitive. My job. My Job. Repetitiveness is my job. So I must solider on by informing you of how amazing Audiosurf is--as if you didn't know.

And if you didn't know, Audiosurf turns any non-DRM protected MP3 file (I'm looking at you, iTunes) into a puzzle/racing hybrid rollercoaster. And the most amazing part of this is that it actually does a good job of transforming audio into a physical construction; admittedly, the game is kind of simple, but there's really nothing like experiencing your favorite songs via Audiosurf's Tronlike trappings. And, if you came of age in the 1990s like me, the whole quiet/loud alternarock thing is perfect for the virtual architecture of Audiosurf--as are any songs with tempo changes and strong beats.

The "game" part of Audiosurf is nothing more than simple color matching (think high-intensity Klax), but there are quite a few different modes of play available for almost any kind of hardcore or casual temperament. Audiosurf is no Guitar Hero or Rock Band; but the ability to "ride" any song in the world for the low price of ten bucks more than makes up for the intricately-designed note tracking of the modern plastic guitar genre. The game has unexpectedly become a major part of my life; whenever I buy a new album, I immediately start listening to it by playing the tracks in Audiosurf. Nerdy, but amazing. And an essential part of my 2008.

Related Links:

Miyamoto Says, "It Would Be Great If Music Education Started With Wii Music."
Warner Music Wants More Royalties
Surprise! Nickelback Misunderstands Guitar Hero

Where's the In-game Advertising?

Cole Stryker — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 23:26:00 GMT

Reuters reports that marketing types aren't quite as enthusiastic about the prospects of in-game advertising as they have been in the past. This new marketing channel has been hyped for over a decade now, but it's shown little growth, certainly not the explosion that was predicted around the time that Munch started drinking SoBe.

Projected growth estimates for in-game advertising vary, with several experts suggesting that ad spending there will top $100 million this year, and grow to around $1 billion in 2011.

That may sound like a big number, but when you place it within the context of $150 billion annual advertising spending, it's peanuts. The figure should be alot higher, considering that video games are now supposed to be bigger than film.

Sports games continue to lead the pack, probably because advertising is so prevalent in real world sporting events that its inclusion within video games does little to affect immersion.

"I have been saying ever since we took over Take Two that I thought in-game advertising was a very limited opportunity that applied mostly to the sports business, and I remain of that belief," he said. "It's a detail. It exists, it can be profitable, we'd be happy to have it. It's just not going to move the dial."

I find this tough to believe. Advertisers just need to get more creative. Just look what Guitar Hero is doing for music sales.

Rock Band: My Anti-Music

Bob Mackey — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 18:00:00 GMT

Last Friday, Joe blogged about the curmudgeonly Nickelback and their outrage over how music games like Guitar Hero are supposedly preventing people from actually picking up real instruments and starting bands. As I said in the comments section of that post, if the world needs anything, it's fewer local bands; the town I come from is so lousy with them, you can't leave your car parked anywhere for more than ten minutes without your entire windshield getting plastered with an inch-thick layer of fliers. So I don't think we need to worry about rock and roll going anywhere anytime soon--and if anything, Nickelback is only contributing to the death of the genre, what with their general shittyness and all.

For me, though, Rock Band is my only real musical outlet. You see, between the ages of 16 and 17, I had about a year-and-a-half of guitar lessons--and while it didn't give me much of a musical foundation, I still picked up some fundamental skills that manifested into a sort of prototype Guitar Hero. I'd put on a song, try to play along with it to the best of my ability, and think "Damn, this would be pretty sweet as a video game." Of course, I'm not exactly claiming I had the idea first; everyone knows that GuitarFreaks predated Guitar Hero by a good seven years--I think my imagination was mainly stoked by my obsession with Um Jammer Lammy and the guitar controllers found on the Japan-only arcade release of the game.

So, essentially, I'm now reliving a far less authentic version of my teenage years; but it really doesn't bother me. I may be keeping Nickelback up at night, but at this point in my life, I don't really have the time or patience for playing "real" music. It's a little surreal to play songs in Rock Band that I actually know on the real guitar, but the instant gratification completely makes up for guilt over my stunning lack of musical discipline and my utter contempt for the act of stringing. And now, I'm pretty sure that I have some vague idea of how drums work! Oh, and speaking of drums: any of you aspiring drum players out there, heed my words. Your friends do not want to come over and listen to you drum along to that Rage Against the Machine CD. They're just too polite to tell you.

I'm no hypocrite; if all the kids out there were playing Freelance Writer Hero, I wouldn't even think to bemoan the death of my chosen art. Though I would question their idea of "fun."

Related Links:

Miyamoto Says, "It Would Be Great If Music Education Started With Wii Music."
Warner Music Wants More Royalties
Surprise! Nickelback Misunderstands Guitar Hero

Surprise! Nickelback Misunderstands Guitar Hero

Joe Keiser — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 20:00:00 GMT

I am sorry that I have to bring up Nickelback here, but this thing they said on Leno just gets me so angry. Even angrier than I usually am at Nickelback, which for the record is “pretty angry.”

But that’s not game-related bile. This is, though: Chad Kroeger told Jay Leno he wants kids to stop playing Guitar Hero and start up real bands. This in and of itself is not a horrible thing to say: apparently Kroeger is having trouble finding bands that are willing to interact with Nickelback, but rather than thinking that is a problem with his own band or his own douchey personality he is rationalizing it away as “there aren’t enough rock bands out there these days.”

But his statement is also based on another fallacy—that a significant number of talented musicians are lost to the world because they get their fix from rhythm games. You hear this all the time, and it is crazy and must be stopped.

Rhythm games are for people like me: those who enjoy music, but don’t have any particular talent for it or drive to create it, to get some simulacrum of a rush we could otherwise never know. They are also for musicians, who can use it to interact with the music they love in a low stress way.

What rhythm games absolutely do not do is scratch the itch musicians have to learn instruments, and to use them to create music. I guess I should not expect Nickelback, a band that has never created “music” as I define it, to understand this. But let’s put it this way: I have never known anyone that has played the guitar, who has stopped playing that guitar after being introduced to Rock Band. On the other hand, I do know people who played Rock Band and found in them a passion that caused them to learn the real guitar.

In a world that followed Kroeger’s logic, the popularity of Madden would ensure that the NFL never drafted another player, NASA would have shuttered following the release of Mass Effect, and Pokemon would have saved the planet from the media circus of illegal dog fighting. Fortunately, that sort of logic is, like Guitar Hero itself, just fantasy.

The "Bike Hero" Viral Video is a Fake...But Should You Love It Any Less?

Nadia Oxford — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 22:42:00 GMT

For a brief and beautiful 24 hours, a guy on a bike gave us a reason to keep living. It's since been revealed that the Bike Hero is a fake; he is not in fact a Guitar Hero/physical fitness guru who's come to Earth to show us all the way. Instead, he's a viral creation of an ad agency called Droga5.

But Gamecyte asks us: should that matter?

If a company produces a legitimately awesome piece of art in the vein of user generated content, does its less-than-humble origin detract from its value? Are any of you angry or disappointed that there isn’t really a part-time McDonalds employee and his friends behind the production — or perhaps that Droga5 tried to make you think that there were?

I am personally at peace with Droga5. I think a little piece of my heart knew the Bike Hero did not actually exist in this paranoid era. Really, if Old Man Macphearson saw a bunch of punk teenagers applying giant coloured tiddlywinks to the suburban sidewalk and street, what would stop him from calling the cops? And what would stop the police from busting up the project? Looking at it rationally (boo, hiss), turning a neighbourhood into a giant Guitar Hero song would be a dangerous endevour. Drivers and pedestrians would be distracted and confused and someone might end up as pate at the end of it all.

So, yeah, I feel like I've learned all over again that Santa doesn't exist, but that doesn't mean I like Christmas any less. Rock on, Bike Hero. You still live in our souls and in my fanfics.

Related Links:

Meme of the Moment: Bike Hero
A++ Parents Let Their Teen Quit School to Become a Guitar Hero
Everyone Should Be Able To Rock

Easy Access: Eelke Folmer Is a Mule of Epic Proportions

John Constantine — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 22:00:00 GMT

Easy Access is a semi-regular look at gaming for the physically disabled. For anyone unfamiliar with the term mule, dig this.

I’m garbage at playing guitar. Somehow I managed enough finger dexterity in my youth to actually become competent at playing the trumpet, but there’s always been something about working my way across six strings that’s eluded me. I am, as the kids say, all thumbs. What’s even more embarrassing is that I can’t even muddle my way through playing fake guitar. When Rock Band is inevitably broken out on late Friday nights and I grudgingly yield the mic to a friend, I can only handle the guitar parts on easy, the gaming equivalent of being patted slowly on the head and offered a cookie. A sad state of affairs, no doubt, but my problem with fake guitar is different than that of the real deal. It’s the timing, matching my fingers to the oncoming visual cues, that gives me so much trouble.

Eelke Folmer’s new Frets on Fire (an open source Guitar Hero clone) mod, Blind Hero, might actually let me play on medium or higher. The University of Nevada Reno AP’s game is built specifically for the blind and allows you to play Frets based on sound and touch alone via a specialized glove used in conjunction with the guitar controller. The glove uses pager engines to create haptic feedback, signaling the player when a note should be played and with which finger. Based on a test sampling for twelve players, three of which were themselves blind, the glove works like a charm.

So, yes, I’m thrilled, but, more importantly, Folmer’s work is another exciting step for opening games up to a wider audience. I’ve thought about the largely unexplored frontier of designing videogames outside of traditional interface types a lot in the past few months and Folmer is a pioneer in the field. Blind Hero is just one of a number of game projects Folmer has developed with disabled players in mind. He has also constructed one button versions of Super Monkeyball, Bejewelled, and Mario Kart for paraplegic players, as well as a closed captioning system for FPSs running on the Torque Engine.

You are a mule of epic proportions, Eelke. 61 Frames Per Second salutes you and your drive to rule. Check out the man’s webpage here for more information on his projects.

(Link: Kotaku)

Related links:

Easy Access
Easy Access: Ubisoft and the Subtitle Initiative
GWI: Gaming While Intoxicated
Kenji Eno Is a Mule of Epic Proportions

Meme of the Moment: Bike Hero

Bob Mackey — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:00:00 GMT

The "Most Creative Use of Free Time" award goes to YouTube user madflux for the following video--and perhaps, for all time. Combining biking, Guitar Hero, an extraordinary amount of planning, and what must have been dozens of takes (he ain't telling), madflux shows us that he takes his fake instrument playing very seriously. And we all benefit from it:

The most astounding part about all of this--to me, anyway--is how the bike rider is able to keep up a consistent tempo (in this case, speed) for all of this to work out. I'll also be astounded if, by the end of the week, Bike Hero isn't turned into a t-shirt, referenced in 1000 lame webcomics, or made the focus of a new reality show on VH-1. Ah, the time before a meme becomes obnoxious. Savor it.

Related Links:

A++ Parents Let Their Teen Quit School To Become a Guitar Hero
Praise His Name With Guitar Praise--Or Go to Hell
Everyone Will be Able to Rock

How Chicago Inadvertently Penned an Anthem for Dead Anime Fathers

Nadia Oxford — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 23:47:00 GMT

The other day, I was browsing a retail establishment when Chicago's "You're the Inspiration" came over the store speakers. Suddenly, I felt very sad.

It was an interesting reaction and not one I would have had a few years ago. Having surrendered my youth to the modern day equivilent of potato mines (retail), I'm familiar with the safe music that's piped over the speakers to keep the masters and beasts complacent. I would never give Chicago another thought ever again if not for an Elite Beat Agents scenario involving an anime girl's dead father.

Surely I'm not the only one who's come to associate games with certain licensed songs. The Japanese have been sneaky about it since we were kids: Mario's invincibility music is lifted straight from Jesus Christ Superstar and more than one tune in the early Mega Man games sounded like a tribute to Guns n Roses and/or Metallica. But legitimate songs being used in games (or to advertise games) is quickly becoming popular and I'm increasingly interested in the association aspect. This doesn't apply so much to games like Guitar Hero or Rock Band, which usually have you belting out tunes in a club, or possibly a fancy club. I'm referring to instances where a song is used to define a game, or an in-game scenario like the ones in Elite Beat Agents.

For instance, I will forever associate the song "Mad World" with Gears of War--more specifically, a giant goddamn spider from Gears of War (Sidenote: I very much prefer Tears for Fears' half-frantic original to Jules' whiny lamentation). Gears of War 2's commercial has taken the song association route as well, though I don't remember anything about the choice. I am uncool--but perhaps the song is not as an effective choice as Mad World since there's no association in my head?

"Under the Sea," of course, belongs to Bioshock. In fact, Bioshock's licensed selection is brilliant and goes a long way in defining the game overall. "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" is benign, but "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window" stuttering over and over on a damaged jukebox in a silent, busted-up bar is a memory that will visit your dreams often, if you're like me. Also, there is a specific instance wherein the player hears the sad drone of "Danny Boy". It is a brilliant touch of atmosphere.

I'm limiting myself by gushing on about my experiences alone. What songs have embedded themselves into your memory because of a game? Bonus points if your parents made out to the song as youth and are now horrified to see it squandered in a video game.

Related Links:

Warner Music Wants More Royalties
The Economist Weighs In On Music Games
Wii Are Not Amused

GWI: Gaming While Intoxicated

Bob Mackey — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Like any sensible young man, I am a fan of good beer. And obviously, a fan of video games as well. For certain reasons, these two interests don't usually intertwine. I usually unwind with an adult-style beverage (or two) along with some quality gaming at the end of the day, but I get hopelessly distracted when operating on anything more than a solid buzz. However, a recent purchase of mine proved to me that some games actually get better as your BAC rises.

Folks, Rock Band 2 has driven me to drink. More.

Of course, this really should have come as no surprise; I've done karaoke before, and I can say that if you aren't sick the following morning (and not from shame), you're doing it wrong. So I decided to test out the Karaoke Principle by inviting a few friends over who had never played Rock Band before. Here's some dialogue that was exchanged as we were sober and holding plastic instruments:

Friend 1: I'm not gonna lie. I feel like a pretty big nerd right now.

Me: Don't worry; this is the first step of our suicide pact.

Before the drinks were poured and/or swigged, one Rock Band item found itself completely untouched: the microphone. It dared us to grab it, but the basic limits of human shame had not been brought down to the level where singing in front of each other would be socially acceptable. But, given enough time, the Karaoke Principle took over and we were soon singing as loudly and as badly as humanly possible. My neighbors must have all been murdered in their sleep because the next day there wasn't as much as a written warning or brutal police stand-off to be found.

We left Rock Band briefly to pick up more music fuel downtown, and actually ended bringing a few people back with us (don't worry, I knew them an am well aware of stranger danger); until about three in the morning, me and five other people sat/stood in my cramped living room as we tried to see the TV screen through visible, floating clouds of alcohol. Some of the most fun I've had with a video game? You bet. Strange, because I've played Guitar Hero at a dozen parties, and it just seemed tedious at the time.

So are there any other games worth checking out with a room full of drunks? So far, my other option has been the Wii version of The House of the Dead 2, but you can only make fun of shitty acting so much before irony collapses in on itself.

Related Links:

Whatcha Playing: A Little Singin’, a Little Dancin’
The Magical Mystery Tour is Coming to Take You Away
Everyone Will be Able to Rock

Ceci N'Est Pas Une 1-Up: The Surrealist Future of Postpunk Gaming

John Constantine — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:30:00 GMT

While reading Rip It Up and Start Again, Simon Reynolds’ sharp history of postpunk, I started thinking about videogames. I’m nothing if not predictable, I know. There’s a slight corollary between the gaming zeitgeist and punk rock. Not politically, of course. Videogames are, at least popularly, more conservative today than they’ve ever been. Just look at Bobby Kotick’s reasoning for dropping Brutal Legend and Ghostbusters from Activision’s release schedule: "[Those games] don't have the potential to be exploited every year on every platform with clear sequel potential and have the potential to become $100 million dollar franchises.” I realize that Activision is in the business of making money and not artifacts to inspire the human soul, but publicly stating that your publishing ethos is assembly-line-production makes it difficult to assess the creative merits of Guitar Hero: Buy This One Too, Just ‘Cause.

No, videogames in 2008 are, like punk rock in 1974, taking a medium that’s become marked by excess and stripping it back to its most basic. Even beyond Capcom’s retro efforts and traditional two-dimensional, genre exercises (Braid, Castle Crashers) on Xbox Live, designers like DICE are trying to keep games simple and raw. Mirror’s Edge, for all of its visual polish, uses only three buttons for the bulk of its action and the game’s goals are uncomplicated (run to, run away.) Games are also trying to put the power of creation back into the audience’s hands. Halo 3’s Forge, LittleBigPlanet, and Maxis’ Spore might not be putting players into the guts of design, but they are inlets for everyone to make their own games. You don’t need to know how to play guitar to rock, and you don’t need to know C++, or draw, or write to make a game. Add these mainstream juggernauts to the booming independent dev scene, the confrontational tedium of games like No More Heroes (as Goichi Suda says, punk’s not dead,) and we may look back on the 2010s as gaming’s punk rock era. But how does punk lead to postpunk, the rebellion of aestheticism through the surreal and the futurist against the simplistic and traditional? What would that game even look like?

Modern gaming’s genesis came during postpunk’s six year lifespan and the two, strangely enough, shared many of the same audio/visual tics. But where postpunk’s visual tendency toward angular, primary colored geometry and aural predilection for jittery electronics and propulsive bass lines were born of artistic statement, videogames came to them out of necessity. This is why envisioning a surrealist gaming experience is problematic; the hallmarks of surreal a/v media are traditionalist hallmarks in games. While a game like Deus Ex Machina, Mel Croucher’s 1984 Spectrum title – a game that could very well have been a Fast Product Records release a few years before – look like ready examples of surrealist design, but were it released today, it would look like little more than retro fetishism. In order for a game to be successfully surrealist, its mode of expression will have to be tied directly to play and not traditional presentation. The game has to subvert expectation based on established mechanical tropes to garner the desired subconscious effect. The seeds for this are out there, in places you might not expect. Mario tends to be associated with childlike psychedelia, but the manipulation of perspective and gravity in Super Mario Galaxy are a larval form of potential surrealist play; for twenty years, Mario would die if he jumped into a void, and here the void propels him to new heights.

A game can be most anything the designer wants it to be. In the coming years, the most difficult task for both designers and players will be looking backward, seeing what games are and have been, and figuring how they can break them to create something brand new for the future. Punk play to postpunk to whatever comes next. Now if only we could figure out how to get the vital social commentary in there…

(Thanks to 1UP for the Bobby Kotick quote and Edge Online for the Deus Ex Machina retrospective)

Related links:

Yeah, But Is It Art?: It Will Never Be the Same
Kenji Eno Is a Mule of Epic Proportions
Far Out, Man
Easy Access

Praise His Name With Guitar Praise--Or Go to Hell

Bob Mackey — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 17:00:00 GMT

If your worship of Jesus Christ permeates every level of your life to the point where you must include Him in your fictional guitar playing, your worries can now cease; Guitar Praise, a PC Guitar Hero clone, exists to remove all of the fun from music games forever. Okay, Okay; I know I'm being kind of harsh. To be honest, when it comes to Christian Rock, I'm of the same mind set as King of the Hill's Hank Hill: "You're not making Christianity better, you're just making rock and roll worse." It's totally cool to worship however you want, though Flanders-ized products like this always seem a little disingenuous to me; I'm sure God has better things to do than fret over you playing "My Name Is Jonas" on expert. Still, if you must have this product, it exists. One question, though: just what are you doing on the secular Internet?

If you're wondering just how Praise Hero plays, Wired's Eliot Van Buskirk has written a hands-on report that's obviously not as hateful (or fueled by Catholic school experience) as my own take on the game. One thing I thought was funny, though, was his mention of Guitar Praise's use of gentle encouragement for those who totally suck on toast:

Digital Praise's Guitar Praise - Solid Rock adopts the same concept of "playing" rock tunes on an increasingly difficult level. But it inhabits a gentler world where a bad performance gets you mild clapping and gentle suggestions instead of the raucous boos and catcalls that accompany failure in Guitar Hero.

If you'll excuse me, writing this post has made me hungry. I'm off to go make some nachos, Flanders-style; that's cucumbers with cottage cheese!

Related Links:

Atheists Riled Up Over Spore
Where Are All Of Videoland's Nice Jewish Boys?
Sackboy Vs. Muhammad

I’ve Got a Driver, And That’s A Start: Now That Harmonix Has The Beatles, What Should a Fab Four Game Even Be?

John Constantine — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:00:00 GMT

I said it way back in June, and I’m happy to say it again today: FINALLY! Today’s co-hosted conference call from MTV and Apple Corps announcing that Harmonix will be developing a game devoted solely to Geroge, John, Paul, and Ringo is, not to be too cutesy or anything, music to my ears. There are really only two pieces of concrete news. First, Giles Martin, son of fifth-Beatle/production-pioneer George Martin and producer of the best Beatles mix tape ever made, Love, will be on music production for the still unnamed game. Shame George himself wasn’t confirmed (or Paul and Ringo for that matter), but Giles has already proven his mettle. The second, and more interesting for videogame-land, is that the game will not bear the Rock Band name, leaving the game to become its own unique artifact covering the group’s entire career. But this begs the question: what will The Beatles game be?

If The Beatles: The Game turns out to be just a four-piece band simulator with all the usual Harmonix trimmings, that would be absolutely swell. I can see it now, every era of the band accompanied by stylized graphic representations: black and white for pre-65, awash in psychedelics until ’69, and ending with the stark, humanist imagery that colored the band’s last couple of years. But part of me wonders if this would be a missed opportunity. The Beatles have a very rich multimedia history: A Hard Day’s Night is still a marvelously entertaining movie that plays off the boys’ natural charisma, Help (weird as it is) remains a winner, and Magical Mystery Tour has stayed, well, interesting. While I’ve only indulged in the soundtrack, Cirque du Soleil’s production of Love has a sterling reputation. And, hell, Yellow Submarine is beloved and the band had almost nothing to do with it. Videogames offer a new opportunity to explore the band’s music and cultural impact but I have no idea how to realize it. A Rocky Raccoon Platformer? Nah, too commercial. Sergeant Pepper’s RPG? Too Japanese. Eleanor Rigby Sims! Ugh, that’s appalling.

Nah, never mind. Just Beatles Rock Band for me thanks. Just make sure to include “You Won’t See Me” in the Rubber Soul portion, Harmonix.

(Link: UGO)

Related links:

The Magical Mystery Tour is Coming to Take You Away
Whatcha Playing: A Little Singin’, a Little Dancin’
Everyone Will be Able to Rock
Everyone Should Be Able to Rock
Why Dontcha Cry About It, Saddle Bags: Konami Sues Viacom Over Rock Band
The Economist Weighs in On Music Games

Christian Games Need Not Sucketh

Nadia Oxford — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:39:00 GMT

News of a "Christian" alternative to Guitar Hero has the gaming world laughing at Christians again. I can't imagine why.

"Grab the guitar and play along with top Christian bands! Shred those riffs or blast the bass…you add a unique sound to the solid Christian rock. But watch out: if you can't keep up, the artists will take a break and stop the music."

Oh yeah. That's why.

How did Christian-oriented games end up as the #1 Choice for Scared Grandmas who need a Birthday gift for sonny boy? By all rights, Christian games should kick ass. They should make you think about your own spirituality. They should make you consider the wonder of the world around us. They should not be about unconditional lollipops and dodging Sunday-shopping heathens to get to Church.

Speaking for my own upbringing, I am a Jew with a smattering of Catholicism. My mother was Irish-Catholic, but she converted. It basically means that she is one of a very few women in the world who has cooked chicken soup and matzoh balls while crying over the death of Pope John Paul the II.

Christians and Jews get lumped in together a lot, except when someone needs to cook up a conspiracy about the banks, but the truth is that Jews and Christians have very different outlooks on God, at least in my own tres observational experience. Christians are more worried about offending the Lord with foul speech or thoughts, which is how we end up with Guitar Praise. Jews are more oriented with the Old Testament, meaning we're well aware that God can fuck up our shit without giving us much of a reason. Let's just say in Hebrew school, I learned about God's power and God's glory, but not necessarily God's love. Oh, and I learned the lyrics to Guns n Roses' "My Michelle" because someone had written them on a stall in the women's washroom. That is soul music.

Since my religious learnings were not coated with a crunchy layer of feel-good, I heard all about the trials of Jacob, Moses, Issac and Abraham. I learned that they fought with God, outright disobeyed Him at times--and, overall, acted very human towards a force they were never meant to understand. I learned that God acted in turn, punishing them severely (and seemingly unfairly--hi, Job) at times. My lessons were stories, not warnings.

But there was a time when Christian authors weren't afraid to explore and question God's wrathful side, either. "Paradise Lost" casts the rebellion of Lucifer in a sympathetic light. CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia went as far as to suggest that all righteous men--even righteous devil-worshippers--have a place in Heaven. These sorts of thoughts are extremely taboo in mainstream Christian literature now and, apparently, "Christian games." Everybody wants to write about how walking with Jesus is groovy. Nobody wants to risk talking about their faith being tested.

The Japanese have taken on Christianity in a lot of their RPGs, but the results are blasphemous at best. Okay, maybe not, but there's a reason why Santa Claus was crucified on the wall of a Japanese department store. It's an urban legend, but a pretty persistent one.

I loved unravelling the evil Church of St Eva in Breath of Fire II (m'very first "Kill God" JRPG...sniff...), but the Bible is one of the most influential texts written in mankind's history. It still impacts humankind tremendously, America especially, but the "Bible" games produced by the people who claim to know it best are far sillier and emptier than anything the Japanese could come up with. That's not how things should be.

If nothing else, it's fun to consider how such squeaky-clean froo-froo games could be inspired by a book full of rape, violence, genocide and incest.

(So your daughters "fooled" you into sex twice, Lot. Uh huh. Sure.)

Related Links:

A++ Parents Let Their Teen Quit School To Become a Guitar Hero
Everyone Will Be Able To Rock
Warner Wants More Royalties

No Alternate Soundtrack: Donkey Kong Jungle Beat

Derrick Sanskrit — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Nearly a full year before the first Guitar Hero introduced gamers to the now all-too familiar concept of game controllers shaped like musical instruments, Nintendo released Donkey Kong Jungle Beat for the Gamecube worldwide. The game was a platformer in the vein of Donkey Kong Country that overlooked the Gamecube controller in favor of the DK Bongo peripheral used earlier for Donkey Konga, a rhythm game that aped (oh god, sorry about that) its own development team's Taiko Drum Master series of games. Rather than come off as gimmicky as a result of this peripheral use, though, Jungle Beat felt fresh and intuitive and was praised by critics for its innovation. Years before the Wii would get gamers off their butts, Jungle Beat was moving players and causing them to work up a sweat, all while playing a traditional platformer.

It couldn't have been much simpler. To move DK left, you tapped the left bongo. To move right, tap right. Hit both the jump. Clap or hit the sides of the bongos to cause DK to pound his chest, which sent out powerful vibrations. That was pretty much it, with a few more specialized moves taught along the way. Incredibly easy to learn, and so thoroughly well designed that there was never a dry well of possibility in the adventure. The music in the game itself was typical Donkey Kong Country fair, but none of that mattered because the sounds of the game were utterly muffled by the slaps, pounds and claps of yourself, the player, getting downright primal in your control of the hairy hero. Yes, the bongo controls were merely remapped Gamecube controller button presses, so you could play more quietly with a standard controller, but that defeated the entire purpose of the game, and sucked a huge chunk of the fun out.

If your palms aren't sore watching that video, you obviously haven't played this game yet.

Three reasons to pick up Donkey Kong Jungle Beat:

1 - It was the first game developed by Nintendo's EAD Software Group Tokyo development team. Their second game? Super Mario Galaxy.

2 - It's a workout. Your muscles will be more sore after three kingdoms of Jungle Beat than several hours of intense Wii Sports. The only other video game to make me sweat this much has been Wii Fit, specifically the long runs around the island. Plus, as it's actually a traditional game and not a casual sports/fitness simulation, you'll feel like you're actually accomplishing something.

3 - As a Gamecube game (which still plays on your Wii just fine), it's dirt cheap these days. I was able to get both the bongos and the game brand-new for under twenty dollars total.

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Make The Music With Your Games, Kids
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A++ Parents Let Their Teen Quit School To Become a Guitar Hero

Nadia Oxford — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 23:44:00 GMT

I know the news has a tendency to report one side of a story (contrary to popular belief, this has less to do with political affiliation and more to do with how badly Stan the Sports Guy wants to nip off to Hooters). I know that a complete education needs to be more than sitting at a desk until a bell rings and we jump like Pavlov's pups.

But I can't find one scrap of redemption in a story about a 16-year-old quitting school to become a "Professional Guitar Hero player."

Wait. Stop. Let's go over that again, class.

Guitar Hero. Professional.

I'm not one of those self-appointed musical crusaders who tries to convert Guitar Hero players to a Fender. Getting drunk and banging on a Fisher-Price toy to make noise is supposed to be about having fun. It doesn't prepare you to be a real guitar player any more than playing Madden prepares you for getting squashed under Team Gorilla.

Hence why letting a kid drop out of school to play Guitar Hero at a pub is such a tragic comedy. I know many rock and punk revolutionaries dropped out of school to embrace the guitar. I know that the great bluesmen who forged music as we know it today didn't have the benefit of anything close to an adequate education. Unfortunately, the vast majority of kids who drop out to smoke weed, plunk guitar strings and starve don't make it anywhere close to fame. What's going to happen to a kid who drops out to play a fake video game guitar? Will he develop a cotton floss habit that will eventually destroy him?

Bonus points to the kid's parents. "He kept nagging us and insisting school was a waste of time, so we let him drop out." Brilliant! Granted, the parents have hired a tutor for their plastic prodigy, but he/she is likely to become a tutor of Rockin' Out.

Related Links:

Everyone Will Be Able to Rock
Everyone Should Be Able to Rock
Through the Fire and Flames on Mariopaint

Everyone Will be Able to Rock

John Constantine — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 19:00:00 GMT

At the end of June, my concerns for the future of videogames' burgeoning rock star genre were growing by the hour. Activision was waving their new drum kit in EA’s face while Konami tried to get people to like their music games outside of Japan. The big problem? None of those companies appeared to give a damn that they were flooding a market and audience already drowning under a torrent of plastic instruments. Not to mention that none of those instruments were guaranteed to be compatible with games that didn’t come packaged with alongside them. Yeah, Guitar Hero 3 and its electronic axe might be one of the ten best selling games in the history of games but that doesn’t mean the genre bubble can’t burst. Today, another faceless company has helped to allay my fears.

And, would you believe it, it’s Sony doing the allaying.

The once haughty Japanese giant stated on their Playstation blog that they have reached an agreement with Activision, EA/MTV, and Konami to allow every single publisher’s rock & roll instruments will work with every publisher’s games on the Playstation 3. Bought Rock Revolution but want to get in on Rock Band 2’s killer track list? Go for it. Feel like using that gorgeous new Guitar Hero World Tour drum kit with Konami’s new opus? Fine, have fun. Not only that, but SCEA also said that, though it isn’t happening just yet, they’re working on a fix for the original Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 as well.

This is the first step on the road to peripheral-based music games finally coming into their own. Guitar Hero made them an institution but this agreement will help cement the instrument set as an expandable platform that doesn’t necessitate annual hardware revisions. What else needs to happen to guarantee this glorious, melodious future? Microsoft and Nintendo need to step up to the plate and make the same arrangements on their respective consoles. It’s likely Microsoft has already got this in the bag, but Nintendo? They enjoy screwing over their customers a little too much, methinks. All that would remain after that would be a centralized music store that supported every game and hosted a library akin to iTunes that offered procedurally generated tracks based on the engines developed by Harmonix, Neversoft, and whomever else gets in on the action.

The future, she is bright this day.

(Link: via Joystiq)

Related links:

Everyone Should Be Able to Rock
Why Dontcha Cry About it, Saddle Bags: Konami Sues Viacom Over Rock Band
Warner Music Wants More Royalties

Warner Music Wants More Royalties

Cole Stryker — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 00:00:00 GMT

File this one under "Still Not Getting It".

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warner Music Group Corp, the world's third-largest music company, said on Thursday that video game makers will need to pay more to license songs for music-based video games like "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band."
Warner Music Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman drew comparisons between MTV's launch 25 years ago or Apple Inc's iPod launch five years ago, and today's video game companies like Activision Blizzard Inc and Harmonix, a unit of Viacom Inc.
"The amount being paid to the music industry, even though their games are entirely dependent on the content we own and control, is far too small"

Presumably these additional tariffs will be passed on to players, resulting in pricier song downloads.

I don't think Warner realizes what a good thing it has going with Guitar Hero and Rock Band. This is perhaps the one market for music that can be said to be in a growth stage, and now they want to snuff it out when they should be nurturing it with giveaways, tie-ins and purchase incentives. Warner threatens to pull their music from future releases if they are not appropriately compensated for their tunes. Criminy, how else do they expect to turn kids on to Aerosmith? As usual, the music industry opts for short-term gains and long-term losses.

An alternative strategy: release more content at the current price, reaping higher profits at almost no additional cost.

(via Reuters)

Through the Fire and Flames on Mariopaint

Nadia Oxford — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:40:00 GMT

I've never been able to tell if I'm supposed to take Dragonforce seriously. I guess the fact that their fame comes from being the creators of Guitar Hero III's most insane song should be an indication--I mean, you have to guitar-battle Satan while these guys babble on about evil wizards or something. I guess I'm not going to take them seriously no matter what.

Anyway, the music compser for Mario Paint really suits Dragonforce's flagship song, Through the Fire and Flames. I love listening to song adaptations over Mario Paint, even if I can't tolerate them for long. I remember attempting to compose music on the SNES classic and winding up with a bunch of jingly-jangly noise.

Anecdote: when I was younger, I went over to the house of a friend of mine who had Mario Paint. When we walked in the apartment, the SNES was on and there was a flashing message on the television telling us both--by name--to eff off. The greeting was courtesy of my friend's brother, who didn't count on the fact that plans had changed and we'd be getting picked up and let into the apartment by the astonished matriarch of the brood.

Related Links:

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Why Dontcha Cry About It, Saddle Bags: Konami Sues Viacom Over Rock Band
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Why Dontcha Cry About It, Saddle Bags: Konami Sues Viacom Over Rock Band

John Constantine — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:00:00 GMT

It seems that Rock Revolution isn’t the only way Konami is responding to Harmonix’s meteoric rise to music-videogame power. The house of Castlevania announced that they are suing Viacom, MTV Games’ parent company, and Harmonix specifically because Rock Band and its instrument peripherals violate Konami patents. According to Bloomberg.com, the patents in question detail, “simulated musical instruments, a music-game system and a ‘musical-rhythm matching game.’” They are not, however, suing Activision or Red Octane, makers of the current incarnation of Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero and its original guitar peripheral were themselves designed by Harmonix, so it seems peculiar that Konami wouldn’t direct their hissy-fit at them as well.

What do you think FPSers? Does Konami have a leg to stand on or are they just being babies because no one likes their music games anymore?

Our thanks to Bloomberg and NeoGAFer TheOddOne for alerting us to the breaking news.

Related links:

You Got Served: Zubo Puts Music in Your Combat
Everyone Should Be Able to Rock
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Everyone Should Be Able to Rock

John Constantine — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:00:00 GMT

When Konami announced Rock Revolution back in May, their re-entry into the rock and roll videogame arena, you could practically hear the gaming world’s exasperation, eyes rolling, sighs exhaled in unison. No one wants stagnation, obviously. Guitar Hero’s fresh approach to music games revolutionized the industry three years ago, a feat Konami’s GuitarFreaks hadn’t managed in the better part of a decade. But no one wants clutter. Yet another band game hitting the public means yet another set of proprietary instrument controllers. Problematic, considering the precedent set by Activision last fall. They made it abundantly clear that they’re not interested in having their instruments completely compatible with another publisher’s software, a point they’ve reiterated by developing brand new drum, guitar, and microphone peripherals (with different functions than those made by MTV Games for Rock Band) for the upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour. It seems that Konami’s chosen a more reasonable approach. Konami associate producer Keith Matejka told MTV News’ Patrick Klepek, "Compatibility is a big issue for music games. Peripherals are expensive for the user and they are expensive to produce. The existing peripherals all deliver only a slightly different gameplay experience. Different teams have varying perspectives on what should be compatible with each game. I think all guitar- and drum-based games need to be compatible with each other to some level."

He’s absolutely right, and not just from a consumer friendliness perspective. While they’ve sold millions of $90 guitar-and-game sets over the past few years, it’s impossible for Activision to continue monopolizing the market as competition continues to grow. Every publisher making an instrument based game is going to have to contend with the market saturation born out of their own success; people simply won’t buy new instruments every year. For the music game genre to be successful going forward, Activision, MTV Games, Konami, and whoever else joins the fray will need to swallow the same bitter pill hardware manufacturers have choked on for years. The money’s in better software, not gear.

Related links:

Whatcha Playing: A Little Singin', A Little Dancin'
The Magical Mystery Tour is Coming to Take You Away

The Magical Mystery Tour is Coming to Take You Away

John Constantine — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 15:00:00 GMT

Finally. The Beatles’ slow arrival to digital media has been pretty torturous for us fans. I mean, my CD of Revolver will barely play thanks to all the scratches earned through years of travel and love, and it’s not like I can listen to vinyl on the go. Why go out and buy another disc? It’s 2008, I should be able to legally download the damn thing by now. My newfound love of Rock Band has made things even worse. It seems downright perverse that I can sit down with friends and play Paramore’s “CrushCrushCrush” but I can’t belt out my scintillating rendition of “Happiness is a Warm Gun”. While I doubt that the “talks” EMI and Apple Corps are having with Activision and MTV Games are going to end in time for Abbey Road to hit Guitar Hero 4 and Rock Band 2 this fall, it’s still reassuring to know they’re happening.

Even beyond The Beatles, I’m anxious for Activison and MTV’s games to have iTunes-like access to music. Is it possible to build the software so it procedurally generates the game interface instead of having to hand craft it for each song?

Thanks to Next-Gen for spotting this story.

Related links:

Whatcha Playing: A Little Singin', A Little Dancin'

Guns and Football: The Ten Best Selling Games in America

John Constantine — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

It’s one thing to hear people in the international community exclaim that Americans are loud slobs who don’t care about anything except violence and football. It’s another to see it spelled out in raw numbers. Brian Caulfield of Forbes, using data provided by the NPD Group, wrote an article early last week looking at the ten best selling videogames in the US as of April 2008. Here are the results:

1) Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 9.4 Million Units Sold
2) Guitar Hero 3 8.2M
3) Madden NFL 2007 7.7M
4) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City 7.3M
5) Madden NFL 2006 7.7M
6) Halo 2 6.61M
7) Madden NFL 2008 6.6M
8) Call of Duty 4 6.25M
9) Grand Theft Auto 3 6.2M
10) Madden NFL 2005 6.1M

Yep. Guns and football from here until Sunday. What’s most shocking about this list is the complete absence of even the most recent Pokemon titles, a series that continues to sell millions of copies within weeks of a new edition’s release.

Depressing as this list is, Caulfield makes one excellent point.

So are there any exceptions to the pattern of gore and gridiron? Yes. Guitar Hero III, the second-best-selling game on the list, breaks the pattern. The game pairs players with an enormous, guitar-shaped controller and has them try to keep up with onscreen cues in an effort to recreate monstrously complex guitar riffs. In fact, if you factor in the high price of the game--$99 for the Sony PlayStation 3 edition, largely because you're also buying a big fake guitar controller--the game generated more sales than any others.

That's right, sweet rock 'n' roll is the only thing in America that can outsell football and violence. Maybe there's still hope for us yet.

Man, I hope he’s right.

Thanks to NeoGAF user sonycowboy for the link.

NPD Wrap: The Times Are a Changin’

John Constantine — Fri, 16 May 2008 18:00:00 GMT

April’s come to a close and now, under the cold, hard light of math, three things are becoming clear. First, people freaking love Nintendo games. Sure, we already knew that, but over a million people bought Mario Kart for Wii in less than a week. Second, people freaking love Grand Theft Auto. Nearly two million people bought that in even less time. Third, our access to new videogames is going to change dramatically in the very near future. While these numbers may just look like numbers to us, to the people who publish videogames, the people who control when we get to engage these creations, the math is saying that 2008 is different. Tradition dictates that high profile, big hype games are held in reserve for the holiday push from late September through December and the rest of the year is just a slow trickle of quality goods. The math of March and April 2008 says that people will buy many, many games throughout the year, not just around Christmas. What happens now? Going forward, we’re going to see more games, more often. At least, until digital distribution destroys physical media and the whole issue becomes moot.

While the gigantic March sales numbers didn’t keep their drive through April, even with five days of juggernaut sales from Grand Theft Auto 4, all the players put in impressive showings. Wii sales kept pace, down to just 714K units from 721K, but Nintendo DS sales saw a more precipitous decline, down to 414K units from a powerful 698K despite the healthy software debut for both Pokemon Mysterious Dungeon SKUs. GTA4 moved the huge numbers expected, selling 1.85 million units with only days left in the reporting period but it failed to make an impact on HD console sales. Microsoft and Sony saw sales of their home consoles drop below the 200K mark but both companies can expect bigger sales through May thanks to GTA4 momentum and anticipation of marquee June titles Metal Gear Solid 4 and Ninja Gaiden 2. Software sales were cool on the whole. GTA4 and Mario Kart Wii dominated, but no third party was able to replicate the success Ubisoft and EA had in March with the debuts of Rainbox Six Vegas 2 and Army of Two.

Hardware Sales

Wii - 714,200

Nintendo DS - 414,800

PSP - 192,000

Xbox 360 - 188,000

PlayStation 3 - 187,100

PlayStation 2 - 124,400

Software Sales

GTA IV (360) – 1,850,000

Mario Kart Wii -1,120,000

GTA IV (PS3) – 1,000,000

Wii Play – 360,000

Super Smash Bros. Brawl – 326,000

Gran Turismo 5: Prologue – 224,000

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Darkness – 202,000

Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time – 202,000

Guitar Hero III – 152,000

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (360) -141,000

Out thanks to both Next-Gen and Kotaku for their coverage.