Special Wrap-Up: Guitar Hero Edition

Anyone else remember when Guitar Hero was first released on the PS2? It seemed like such a novel concept at the time. Take the average person’s desire to be a rock star, give them a special guitar-shaped controller as well as a list of memorable classic songs to play and you’ve got a recipe for instant success. It’s one of those ideas that you wonder why nobody had ever thought of before. Then Activision came along and did what they usually do: making sequel after sequel with such ferocity that they eventually drove that once novel idea right into its grave (see also: Tony Hawk). You can expect the same thing to happen to the Skylanders franchise in another 3-5 years. But I digress.

The Operation Rainfall Retro Commercial Research Team (in other words, me) could only find the commercial for the PS2 version of Guitar Hero II, so I’m going to have to cheat a little bit once again. With that in mind, here’s the old Guitar Hero II commercial for your enjoyment in this week’s Special Wrap-Up.

Here are the highlights from this past week.

Jonathan Higgins reviews Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse and Will Whitehurst reviews Kingdom Fall for iOS, Summer Carnival ’92 RECCA for the Nintendo eShop on the 3DS and MadWorld for the Wii in this week’s Games of the Past review.

Remember that Theatrhythm Final Fantasy: Curtain Call trademark that popped up last week? Well, Square-Enix confirmed that the game will be the sequel to the first Theathrhythm.

In addition, Square announced that Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII is going to have over 80 different costumes for you to choose from, all of which (Except the Cloud Strife costume) will be in the game from the start!

Karli Winata discusses why Emmy Altava from the Professor Layton series should be considered a role model for future female protagonists in this week’s Building Character.

Namco Bandai recently announced a free to play Soul Calibur game called Soul Calibur: Lost Souls for the PS3.

Speaking of PS3 fighting games, the PS3 version of BlazBlue: Chrono Phantasma will receive Kokonoe as an extra character.

Jonathan, Jared and Randy discuss some of the news from this past week, including the newest Pokemon Direct, the sequel to Theatrhythm, more information about Mighty No. 9 and more in this week’s Downpour Podcast.

WayForward gave us a look at some storyboards, some art and more about Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, as well as announcing that the game will be available on the PS Vita and the newly announced PS Vita TV.

Unfortunately, said newly announced PS Vita TV will not be released internationally at this time. However, there is going to be a new light-weight Vita model.

Ubisoft sheds some light (pun very intended) on their recently announced RPG Child of Light.

Finally, our Vote-to-Localize contest is officially over. Special thanks to everyone who entered.