That wasn’t the case, however, and recent releases show that the genre still has some life in it yet. In any case, the phenomenon was passing, and for those not paying attention it may have seemed like the end of rhythm music gaming.
Maybe gamers became more self-aware and wondered whether rocking out on a plastic guitar was slightly silly, or perhaps it was just the inevitable burst of the bubble. It was a finite craze, however, as new entries all too quickly became over-familiar and predictable: the music tracks changed but the actual games brought more of the same. Players who wanted to dive in had to pay some serious money for a plastic guitar to accompany the game, while those that really cared splashed out for band kits that included a microphone and drums. It was a phenomenon, capitalising on the rise of a new generation of gamers, that allowed us to live out fantasies of being rock gods with some of our favourite music. There was a time, in the not too distant past, when Harmonix and Activision were locked in a gaming battle of the plastic bands, with the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises facing off in the charts.
