3/28/2008

With the Guitar Hero franchise having generated over a billion dollars in sales, there’s no question that it’s “Rockin’ on Top of the World.” Now one of the biggest games in the world has gotten together with one of the world’s biggest bands: Aerosmith. But is the addition of Steven Tyler and company “A Good Thing,” or will the fifth game in the series be the “Same Old Song and Dance”? We got a first look at Guitar Hero: Aerosmith today to find out.

Right away you’ll notice that this isn’t just Guitar Hero with Aerosmith’s name slapped on the box. The crew at Neversoft has gone out of its way to integrate the band’s music, look, and personality into every aspect of the game. This is first evident in the menus, whose backgrounds are all locations taken from Aerosmith’s real-life recording studio. Of course, all of the band members are in the game, albeit in stylized video game form and looking younger than they are today. Athletes coming into the studio to do motion-capture work is nothing new, but when was the last time you heard of a rock star donning the mo-cap suit for a game? Steven Tyler did quite a bit of motion capture to ensure that his signature moves and facial expressions would be accurately represented. Fans of Axel Steele, Johnny Napalm, Izzy, and the rest of the crew can rest easy–the gang’s all here, and they each have four new outfits, for a total of eight per character. You’ll be able to sport all eight costumes online, which sounds like it will essentially have the same modes as in Guitar Hero 3.

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