Ignoring the imminent rhythm game market saturation, 505 Games and Rolling Stone magazine have announced a partnership to bring Wii gamers Rolling Stone: Drum King.
The game, which lands on store shelves sometime this Spring, has players drumming along to famous tunes using the console’s Wii Remote and Nunchuk peripherals.
From the official announcement:
In Rolling Stone: Drum King, players can rock out in single-player mode or duel against a friend in multiplayer mode by swinging the Wii Remote and Nunchuk controller to the beat of the music. Gamers can enhance their experience with a customizable avatar complete with a rock ‘n’ roll drummer personality and put their dashboard drumming skills to the test with a wide range of drumming styles and music. Aspiring drummers and gamers alike will be able to perfect their drumming skills with 30 top-quality cover tracks inspired by artists like Queen, Fall Out Boy, The Clash, Gorillaz and The Police as they go on tour and take the stage at numerous performance venues.
If you can brush aside all the cookie-cutter PR speak, you might notice one major flaw in this entire plan: “30 top-quality cover tracks inspired by artists like Queen, Fall Out Boy, The Clash, Gorillaz and The Police.”
Best case scenario, “inspired by” means the game will be populated by cover bands weakly recreating classic tunes in a bid to avoid licensing fees. While the original Guitar Hero scored massive success with these kinds of covers, rhythm gamers these days expect master tracks.
The market leaders, Rock Band and the latest iteration of Guitar Hero both sell themselves on the inclusion of songs by the original artists, so who but clueless elderly relatives are going to buy Rolling Stone: Drum King for little Jimmy and Suzie?
