The Games of the Union

[fixermark]

With the end of the year just past, I'd like to take the opportunity to review video games as a medium, the interesting developments of the year, and where things are going. Some of these are new, but many are a simple extension upon patterns that have been building for several years now. This particular review is fairly source-free, based mostly

Comments

[dr4b]

Don't forget that Harmonix didn't invent Guitar Hero or the Rock Band videogame concept to begin with. Guitar Freaks and Drummania have been around in Japan for almost 10 years, and have had interactive "session mode" between the games for almost that long. 6 years ago my friends and I used to get together regularly in Seattle to play Guitar Freaks, Drummania, and Keyboardmania together (for 5 players at a time total), along with karaoke lyrics being displayed. The only real difference is that the Rock Band games have American songs, slightly different controllers, and NOW the market is actually ready for it (as opposed to when Konami tried to make an American release of Guitar Freaks back in 2001 or so which flopped horribly).