Guitar Hero: Aerosmith to Release in June

Okay, here's the quick and dirty.

According to a Press release celebrating the June release of Guitar Hero: Aerosmith,
"Guitar Hero® III: Legends of Rock fans will have the opportunity to download and jam to Aerosmith's "Dream On." The song will be available for free from February 16-18 on Xbox LIVE® Marketplace for the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft and PLAYSTATION®Store for the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system."

I'll take the free song, but I think I'll pass on buying the whole disk.

Sure the game promises to "put players in the shoes of Perry (guitar), Whitford (guitar) and Hamilton (bass), as they rock out alongside frontman Tyler and drummer Kramer." It even claims that, "Gamers will experience Aerosmith's GRAMMY® winning career, from their first gig to becoming rock royalty, in a way that no other entertainment vehicle offers."

But who wants to spend a couple of weeks pretending to be Aerosmith? Do we get to rock through the stages of addiction?

Thankfully, no. The game will lack that level of verisimilitude. There will be no wireless syringe controller which triggers psychedelic imagery on the screen.

As much as I might mock the thought of buying an entire game devoted to the music of Aerosmith and the bands they have influence, which shouldn't be taken as me saying I don't like the music of the band, I have to admit that when it comes to new technologies Aerosmith is usually one of the first bands to jump on board.

Do you remember the old Aerosmith arcade shooter (Revolution X) where you shot compact disks at the dreaded forces of the PMRC (I mean the NON)? I do.

I was stickin' it to Tipper Gore (I mean Mistress Helga) daily...ewww...not that kind of stickin', I was shooting her lapdogs with cds and rockin' out to the Aerosmith soundtrack.

Mmmm...Mistress Helga.



On a side note, the formal press release has a great quote from Joe Perry about how games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are revitalizing the music industry. He states, "On a larger scale, it's cool for us to be pioneers helping to rebuild the music industry through a format like video games. It's great for rock since the record companies are struggling to make sense of how things are changing. Fans want to get and experience music in new formats--and there are going to be some of them who will play the game, then pick up the guitar for real and start bands. It's what's happening now, and it's only going to build more momentum in the future. It's a massive change for the music business."