Do Androids Dream of Fake Plastic Turntables?
 

The sales numbers for DJ Hero are in, and they are disappointing at best.  122,300 copies of the game were sold across all platforms.  That's very low for a music game, especially one that was as heavily promoted as DJ Hero.  Ars Technica attempted to explain the low sales, and fans of co-op will likely appreciate this particular reason:

Rhythm games work best with crowds, and DJ Hero is a solitary experience. That's not a knock against it; playing the game is great fun. It's just hard to share with others, compared to the more popular Rock Band and Guitar Hero franchises.

In other words, the lack of a compelling co-op mode may have been a factor in the game's lack of sales.  Music games seem to work best in a party setting, and DJ Hero just doesn't work due to the single-player focus.  Other reasons are listed in the article, but it just goes to show you that co-op is a major selling point for any game, especially one in a genre known for excellent co-op.

Source: Link

LEGO Rock Band. It's a mix of two of the greatest casual game franchises. What could have been just a cookie cutter track pack is actually an innovative addtion to the Rock Band franchise. Adorable characters, hilarious cut scenes, and a fun song list will keep people of all ages interested.  For Co-Op Casual Friday this week, we bring you our full review!

Last year we applauded Microsoft's entry into the music genre with Lips. Unique LED and motion sensitive microphones, plus a packed song list with plenty of co-op options made for a great party. Lips is back with the first sequel, called Lips #1 Hits. But is it worth your money?

If there was one thing holding Rock Band 2 back from being the perfect music game, it would have to be the lack of support for wireless microphones.  A patch has just been released that fixes this problem, allowing rockers to use the Lips microphones (also recently released seperately) in a fully wireless environment.  We're pleased with the addition of this feature, but curious as to why it took so long.  After all, wireless mic support was announced last year!

The patch also includes several other fixes, incorporating some of the tweaks from The Beatles Rock Band.  The change most relevant to gameplay is improved hammer-on and pull-offs for chords.  For those who download a lot of music (raises hand), you no longer have to wait for a song to download, and can just queue as many songs up as you like while you play.  There are a few other minor features as well.  Nice to see the support still going strong for a year old game!

Read More...

Image courtesy 1UP
 

Is the music game genre oversaturated?  Some might say yes.  I'd argue otherwise; there's still plenty of good music out there that isn't available in video game form.  In any event, we have some details about Harmonix's upcoming cutesified LEGO Rock Band.  Iggy Pop will be appearing in the game, as the tutorial voice, and also in plastic action figure form, as you an see above.  Iggy's song "The Passenger" will be in the game's song list.

LEGO Iggy is cool and all, but the real good news is that the songs on the LEGO Rock Band disc will be exportable into Rock Band 2.  After this feature was (understandably) left out of The Beatles Rock Band, it's good to see we'll be able to rock out to "The Final Countdown" and "Ghostbusters" (aww yeah!) in non-LEGO form if we want!
 

Source: Link

Guitar Hero 5 hits the shelves and the fall rush begins.  What's new this time around?  Is this just more of the same from Activision?  Does Guitar Hero 5 redeem the franchise, from a co-op perspective?  Find out in our review!

Guitar Hero 5 hit the streets yesterday, and now we now a bit more about the game.  We were specifically curious about the import features.  Rock Band 2 supported the import of the Rock Band disc songs last year.  We loved this feature, and when it was announced that it was finally being added to Guitar Hero, we were quite pleased.  Last night, I was unable to contact the servers to try the import, but USA Today has the info. Edit: Updated information below.

Read More...

It's barely September, and the fist major game release of the fall rush is here!  Guitar Hero 5 hits store shelves today, and is available for pretty much every console.  Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and PS2 gamers can rock out to the new and improved game engine today.  I'm eagerly anticipating this one, and it's scheduled for delivery today; look for our review later this week.

Also don't forget that if you snag the game this month, you'll get Guitar Hero Van Halen for free.  Don't forget you can purchase Guitar Hero 5 at Amazon and help support Co-Optimus!

As readers of the site know, I am somewhat of a music game addict.  This means we have several fake plastic instruments lying around our house.  After buying many, selling them off to finance upgrades, etc., we are now "down" to all Guitar Hero instruments.  We have a Les Paul from GH3, a trusty ol' X-Plorer from GH2, and the latest and greatest (for another few weeks anyway) the GH World Tour axe.  For the most part, we've been quite pleased with all these guitars, save a really sensitive tilt sensor on the Les Paul.  Our drum set is from World Tour, and, unfortunately, a few weeks back, the red drum pad stopped working.

Read More...

I'm torn about Guitar Hero Van Halen.  I love me some Van Halen, as a child of the 80s.  They are one of the most popular bands of all time, after all.  But considering this will be the fourth Guitar Hero title released in 2009, my interest was waning.  (Which is saying a lot, as I am totaaly addicted to music games.)  The news that Sammy Hagar would be absent, as would all of the songs from the era in which he was the lead singer, had me fuming.  I feel some of the band's best music came with Sammy.  Still, there's plenty of good stuff in the game, which of necessity includes pretty much every song you'd expect from the Diamond Dave days.  And the reveal trailer did indeed get me excited, once again.  Considering you can pick up GH Van Halen for free, I'm sure plastic guitar fans will be hoping for this game, spandex pants, and cans of hairspray under the tree this year.

Read More...