Some Important Folks Share Their Favorite PS2 Games

[irixith]

Lets be realistic here, Guitar Hero took a very obscure game genre and brought it into the spot light, basically creating a new genera of games. Was it the "first" music instrument game? No. But it is the first one anyone really cared about. When someone gets mad that guitar freaks or parappa are not getting their due credit, I think of the kid in the back of class room that shouts "Lief Erickson" every Columbus day.

I'd modify your thought only slightly -- it took a particular genre and made it ACCESSIBLE to the masses. Whether Beatmania or Parappa or Guitar Freaks or whatever came first is immaterial in this sense. They did not have that "x factor" that managed to gain any sort of mass appeal.

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As for the game selection, I'm surprised at the variety and the sheer amount of quality games listed. It lets you see that the developers are also gamers themselves, and appreciate the very same things we do. Some great hidden gems sprinkled in there too. Much better post than the usual drivel that goes up on the PS Blog.

[Erik_Twice]

The problem is that you don't even need to go back to Beatmania or look at games unreleased in the US to see that GH was not the first iteration of the genre.

Everyone knows Dance Dance Revolution, it is not obscure at all and was a huge hit when released.

I'd modify your thought only slightly -- it took a particular genre and made it ACCESSIBLE to the masses.

I think that accesible is not the term. DDR is very accesible.

I think that the reason why GH sold was that it was a guitar game. The licences probably helped but they are not the main reason.

Whether Beatmania or Parappa or Guitar Freaks or whatever came first is immaterial in this sense. They did not have that "x factor" that managed to gain any sort of mass appeal.

They had mass appeal where they were released (Japan). GF was never released into the west and the only Beatmania version that got there was labelled as a Guitar Hero ripoff by ignorant reviewers.

[irixith]

The problem is that you don't even need to go back to Beatmania or look at games unreleased in the US to see that GH was not the first iteration of the genre.

Everyone knows Dance Dance Revolution, it is not obscure at all and was a huge hit when released.

While DDR may be fairly popular, its still not something you see in every living room (or consequently, covering the shelves of used game stores). History will have Guitar Hero as the one that made the genre explode to the masses, and I think this was what the folks that mentioned it on the PS Blog meant. They were also specifically talking about the PS2, not platforms that came before it, or arcades, or anything else. These guys were asked for their favourite games, there's no reason for anyone to get upset that they didn't mention the entire lineage of the rhythm genre in their three sentence blurb.

[Limewater]

While DDR may be fairly popular, its still not something you see in every living room (or consequently, covering the shelves of used game stores). History will have Guitar Hero as the one that made the genre explode to the masses, and I think this was what the folks that mentioned it on the PS Blog meant.

I don't see how that fits with the quote we're talking about:

"Guitar Hero – Created a new game genre."

I had no problem with the guy who said it "kickstarted" the genre.

[irixith]

It just becomes a silly semantics game then. I'm sure he didn't mean to upset all the genre purists by using one word instead of another.

[Limewater]

It just becomes a silly semantics game then. I'm sure he didn't mean to upset all the genre purists by using one word instead of another.

I don't think anyone's upset. Geeks are just laughing about a guy who should know better saying something dumb.

[Hobie-wan]

They were also specifically talking about the PS2, not platforms that came before it, or arcades, or anything else. These guys were asked for their favourite games, there's no reason for anyone to get upset that they didn't mention the entire lineage of the rhythm genre in their three sentence blurb.

Right but you have to take history into account. You wouldn't say that Gradius III & IV "created a new game genre" just because it was the first shmup on the PS2 (not sure if it was or wasn't). It just comes across as a bad statement from someone you'd expect to know the history a little better as they're in the industry. Though maybe it was a bad editing decision that made their statement come across that way in the space allotted. Ah well, I thought it was a funny observation and didn't mean it as a serious bizness sort of thing.

[Limewater]

Though maybe it was a bad editing decision that made their statement come across that way in the space allotted.

Heh. That's a good point. Getting quoted by a journalist can really suck.