Activision has filed a trademark for Drum Hero, a new music game which will finally shine the spotlight on the band member most likely to suffer a horrific yet amusingly bizarre death.
Nobody wants to be the drummer. Russ Pitts pointed that out in a prescient mid-2008 article in which he noted that drummers get no respect as musicians and often as human beings. What does the average drummer get on an IQ test? Drool. Yet Activision seems to think that there might be enough Nicko McBrain wanna-be’s in the world to support yet another offshoot of the Hero franchise and has thus filed a trademark for Drum Hero.
Drum Hero could very well end up as a sort of tangential tie-in to the current Guitar Hero or Band Hero franchises, rather than a stand-alone videogame; the trademark filing covers a wide range of products including “toys, hand-held games with liquid crystal displays, musical toys; action figures and accessories therefor; arcade games; coin-operated video games; electric action toys; handheld unit for playing electronic video games [and] electronic toy drums.”
Of course, nobody knows whether or not the game is even in the works at this point and it’s quite possible that Activision simply wants to nail down another musical Hero title for future considerations. The publisher told CVG that it would not comment on “rumors and speculation,” including reports that a special “Rick Allen Mode” Achievement would be awarded to players who finish the game with one hand tied behind their upside-down Corvette.