This was the most shocking thing I retained from my interview with David. The rest is to be expected – of course Vicarious is pleased to have climbed from Jet Set Radio on the GameBoy Advance to such lofty heights as developing Guitar Hero: World Tour for the Wii.

“We’re excited to stay with Nintendo,” said David. “And we like developing for the Wii.”

David feels that people don’t know just what the Wii can do. Multiplatform game development usually treats Nintendo’s “next-gen” console like a retarded little brother that needs placating. But Vicarious was determined to bring all the passion that went into World Tour’s development on 360 and PS3 to the Wii.

To that end, nothing has been skimped except a layer of polish on the graphics. What did you expect? The Wii does have limits. All the stuff that makes World Tour a solid party game is there – the Music Studio, Career mode… And to top it all off, is the Mii Freestyle mode.

Mii Freestyle allows gamers to strum and drum randomly while their Miis rock out onscreen. It’s not like Music Studio in that you can’t edit together for a track. But as far as freestyle goes, it doesn’t get much better than this. There are even cue cards with suggested moves to get you going if you’re not sure what sort of sounds you “should” be making. You can also set a repeating drum backbeat so you can play along with that and sound like you’re actually making music instead of randomly strumming guitar.

David is especially passionate about the idea that everyone should be able to play this game. He told me a story about a fan who’d contacted him to thank him – this fan’s son was crippled by a stroke and could barely use one side of his body. Playing drums on Rock Band or on the 360/PS3 Guitar Hero is totally out of the question for this kid. But on the Wii, with the nunchuck-remote combo option for drumming, he can play drums. And David is totally stoked that his game made that possible.

“[Playing as] a band is a social experience,” David says. And so is his game.

In addition to that everyone-can-play attitude, the in-game music store features accessibility like nobody’s business. Anything you buy from the store (or download from the Guitar Hero site’s Music Studio section) can be put on an SD card, and carried anywhere and put in any set list on any system running the game.

I wrapped up with some key questions about what he liked to play on Guitar Hero. David likes drumming to the Foo Fighters (jeez, who doesn’t?), playing guitar to Assassin by Muse, and singing Billy Idol’s Rebel Yell. He also has ideas on what song he’d like to see in Guitar Hero. At first he told me The Sugarplastic’s Sun Goes Cold – but later, he emailed me, saying he “couldn’t live with himself” if he didn’t change that to I Am the Resurrection by the Stone Roses.

“Considering the number of times I air-guitared to the song as a teenager, it is clearly at the top of my list,” reads his email. “Hopefully at some point down the road I’ll get my chance to play it in Guitar Hero, but for the near future I’ll have to get by on playing The Stone Roses’ ‘Love Spreads’ which is in World Tour.”

In case you missed the question in my Neversoft interview with Brian Bright, I’ll ask again – what song would you want to see in Guitar Hero or Rock Band?

Me? On Wii, I think it’d be cool if they did a Disney pack of all the songs from the movies we saw as kids. Under the Sea, Beauty and the Beast – shit like that, so we can relive our childhoods (or maybe share them with our own kids).

It started with a broken BART train. This led to a cab, which I had no money to pay for. The next shit storm occurred when my flight was cancelled. And then, the later flight I got bumped to was delayed by an hour and half. Oh, but it gets better. I get to the hotel with a mere 40 minutes to go before the event starts and the room I’m given is being remodeled.

*Cue AJ’s head exploding*

So, yeah. After all that, Guitar Hero: World Tour fucking owed me a good time.

And by God, I got it. I had to throw a few elbows and put up with the posturing bastards attracted by the competitive edge to Guitar Hero III, but I freaking got my good time.

Here’s the thing – this game is Rock Band. No, don’t give me that crap about how it’s different, it’s better, it’s got six drumheads, so it’s totally different. It is Rock Band. And who says that’s a bad thing? I already knew how to play the instruments. Not well, mind you, but it’s not like I needed a tutorial to find the fret buttons.

It’s like having a favorite candy and then they come out with a sour version that fizzes in your mouth and has Tool songs. That’s what Guitar Hero: World Tour is – the Warheads to Rock Band’s Airheads.

There are some subtle differences in appearance – the in-game visuals are more lurid and less sparkly, the fonts and vocabulary are completely different, and the Tool-themed venues are just freaking awesome creepy. And the not-so-subtle differences from Rock Band aren’t that jarring because this is still a Guitar Hero game, so it’s perfectly natural to go through competitive modes and encounter devil-looking “bosses” as you plow through career mode.

The only major thing that sets Guitar Hero: World Tour apart is the make-your-own-music feature. On PS3/360, this is only in the Music Studio mode where you can record yourself jamming on whatever instrument (except the vocals) and edit it together to sound like a real track. This is part of Activision’s strategy to reach out to the community in a way that Rock Band didn’t; allowing you to record your own music and upload it to the web (where other people can download it and put it on their set lists).

The Wii has Music Studio, too, but it also has Mii Freestyle mode. And if just now, you’re rolling your eyes and muttering “Wii Music, feh,” I’ve got news for you: this mode was probably the most fun anyone had all night (next to getting sloshed and singing Michael Jackson’s Beat It without shame or inhibition). Mii Freestyle is just like jamming in your friend’s basement when you’re young and don’t know what you’re doing – a carefree setup where there is no wrong and no right, with little cue cards and an optional looping drumbeat to get you going if you don’t know where to start.

I tried this mode out after being savaged by my peers on the 360 version; it was the perfect salve to my wounded pride. It’s not that I disgraced myself singing vocals on 360 – I may be tone deaf, but World Tour’s Easy mode lets you get away with off-key murder (and on Beginner, you can just shout incoherently into the microphone). It’s just that the attendees had divided into two groups without telling me – and the 360 version was for Hardcore Only. So because I didn’t know the lyrics to Filter’s Hey Man, Nice Shot and I wasn’t alive during the 70s when Pretty Vacant came out, I wasn’t “hardcore” enough to play with that crowd (even though it wasn’t me that failed us out of Schism, it was the drummer).

That’s my main problem with Guitar Hero: World Tour – the peer pressure from other gamers. Rock Band has its fair share of performance artist assholes that refuse to play with anyone who isn’t rocking on Hard or above, but I think it was established by the consumers that Rock Band was for everybody and Guitar Hero III and beyond was for the hardcore (come on – boss battles?). Thus, I encountered way more competitive jerks in just three minutes on World Tour than I ever did playing Rock Band for an entire year. The people I was playing with on 360 wouldn’t even let me try out Beginner and sneered at me when I chose Easy for vocals. Which is funny, since none of them wanted to sing at all.

After we scraped our way through Hotel California, my impressions of World Tour were all bad for a solid 10 minutes: “Fuck this game, it’s just a rip-off of Rock Band – only assholes want to play Pretty Vacant. And who really cares about singing? So what if there’re two extra drumheads to hit? I can just wait for Rock Band 2…” Etc.

It didn’t help that there’s still an emphasis on competition in World Tour. It’s not as severe as in Legends of Rock where versus mode had you crippling your opponent with seemingly-random power-ups. That game was less about the music and more about the game. But it’s still obvious in World Tour that you’re supposed to be better than the next guy – or at least above reproach if you fail the song. Even the icons for each player’s success speak to this; they’re side-by-side instead of on the same line, enhancing the feeling that you’ve got to be better than everybody if you don’t want to get made fun of.

I frown on this – and not just because I suck at guitar. Even if I could pull off the insane riffs without spraining my wrist, I would still scorn a game that takes all the fun out of pretending to be a rock star. So I salute World Tour for including Beginner mode – even if it’s boring for the bassist to just press the strum button every so often and not go near the fret buttons. It’s a way for a noob (or a girlfriend, or a kid) to play without forcing them to sing when they don’t want to (and aren’t particularly good at it anyway).

When I found my way to the Wii version, everything got better. It wasn’t just the Mii Freestyle mode that changed my outlook; it was the gamers that gravitated to Nintendo’s little white box. These were the guys and girls who didn’t care who was playing on what mode and were patient as people combed through the song list over and over again, looking for that one song they weren’t ashamed to sing (Eye of the Tiger was a big hit). And they didn’t give me lip when I set vocals to Beginner so I could screw up the live version of Sweet Home Alabama (I have a Texan accent – I just can’t say “Alabama” the way Lynyrd Skynyrd intended).

So maybe one stereotype is true – non-hardcore gamers prefer the Wii. But like Guitar Hero being a Rock Band clone, who says this is a bad thing? If the dev team on World Tour meant to make a game for everyone that had just as much appeal as Rock Band and maybe a little bit more (okay, kind of a lot more) content, then it looks like they’ve succeeded.

Or at least they got through to me. And by the end of the night, I was screeching my way through Jimmy Eat World’s "The Middle" (apropos, given the peer pressure I was under) with the best of them. But I swear, if you guys aren’t already good at guitar, you’re either going to have to play World Tour in secret until you get better, or play it on Wii.

P.S. I realize hardcore does not equate asshole. And I’m damn sure you guys are going to love this game with or without all that fancy-schmancy accessibility I was gushing over. The set list is solid, the difficultly ramps up smoothly so you don’t hit any brick walls, the motion-captured celebrities look amazing, and the head-to-head face offs are now a fair fight of who is the better player instead of who gets the power-up first. Just try and remember this is a party game and not an opportunity to alienate all of your friends, ‘kay?

ETA: Sorry - something was way broken with my gallery...

By now I'm sure most of you are familiar with the seemingly odd transition of Guitar Hero from consoles to handhelds, namely the DS. When Guitar Hero: On Tour was announced a few months ago it left many of us scratching our heads wondering how they would pull it off. Even with the addition of pictures of the add-on peripheral it was still hard to imagine exactly what it would be like trying to play. I finally got my chance to check it out for myself a few days ago and despite former misgivings I actually found it quite fun.

The first thing I took a look at upon arriving was the "guitar grip" peripheral. It was a pretty sturdy little piece of a equipment that fits snugly into the GBA slot of the DS. The clear plastic cover is removable and the logo can be pulled out so you can customize the look of it. The strap is likewise customizable, no doubt providing plenty of opportunity for merchandising. As you may know, there are only four buttons in this iteration of the game and while some players may find this disconcerting, there is actually a good reason for it. With the DS literally strapped to your hand, it would make it impossible for you to be able to slide your hand to reach the fifth button. Then of course there is the space issue. After looking at it close up, it seems the addition of the fifth button would make it a bit crowded.

I started out with a little solo play and was surprised how easy it was once I got comfortable with it. I will admit that the peripheral seems a bit awkward at first, but once you figure out how to hold it in a way that is comfortable for you, it just becomes an extension of your hand. Strumming is done on the touch screen with a guitar pick stylus and you can pretty much strum anywhere on the screen for it to work. The whammy bar is also controlled here in the same way for those long notes. The rest of the gameplay is pretty straightforward GH: follow the notes and hit your keys.

Next I checked out the multiplayer game (multikart only) with a fellow journalist. It was fairly easy to get the two DSs talking and once it started it was all out war. The DS multiplayer has the addition of attacks that can be pulled out at opportune times to foil your opponents playing. Set their guitar on fire, make them sign an autograph, cut their strings, the viscous fun never ends! While these attacks were cool and added a nice variance to the game, I sometimes found it difficult to launch the attacks since you have to touch little icons on the strum screen. If you are anything like me and are concentrating on the moving dots, sometimes it's hard to look away long enough to touch the icons. I still managed to launch some attacks but it was to the detriment of my playing. Still, if you can manage doing those things all at once, the attacks are a lot of fun.

Other additions to the game include some new venues (subway, rooftop, parade, Greek Arena) and two new characters (Gunner Jaxon and Memphis Rose). Guitar hero: On Tour will feature over twenty five songs, twenty of them being exclusive to the DS and the remaining being staff favorites from Guitar Hero III. For a handheld game taken from a popular console title, I have to say I was pretty impressed by the graphics. They looked sharp and didn't leave me feeling cheated or that I was missing something. All in all I had a good experience playing and this should be a great title for Guitar Hero fans and since it's rated E it will be a great fun for your rockin' little ones too! Take a look below for a partial song list of twenty songs. The remaing five will remain a mystery until the game launches or someone leaks it. Which one do you think will happen first?

Subway
Do What You Want – OK Go
All the Small Things – blink-182
Spiderwebs – No Doubt
Are you Gonna Be My Girl – Jet
We’re Not Gonna Take It – Twisted Sister

Rooftop
All Star – Smashmouth
Breed – Nirvana
Jessie’s Girl – Rick Springfield
Hit Me With Your Best Shot – Pat Benatar
This Love – Maroon 5

Parade
Heaven – Los Lonely Boys
Helicopter – Bloc Party
China Grove – The Doobie Brothers
Rock And Roll All Nite – Kiss – *Cover
What I Want – Daughtry

Greek Arena
Jet Airliner – Steve Miller Band – *Cover
Black Magic Woman – Santana – *Cover
Stray Cat Strut – Stray Cats
La Grange – ZZ Top – *Cover
Youth Gone Wild – Skid Row – *Cover

A memorial service shall be held next Tuesday. Flowers and donations may be forwarded to Vicarious Visions and Activision Corp. Guitar Hero is survived by its sole sibling, Rock Band. Rest In Peace.

[Thanks Josh!]

On Tour will use a pick-stylus and touch screen strings for strumming and that fancy Guitar Hero Guitar Grip for fretting. The game will include a local wireless co-op mode and a Guitar Duel battle mode with battle items unique to the DS. Some examples include forcing a player to blow into the microphone to put out pyrotechnics gone wrong and being forces to autograph the touch screen to stave off crazed fans in the middle of a set.

The game will have five new unlockable venues. You can customize the game a touch by changing the color of your guitar and picking outfits for your guitarist. The DS version will come with six characters, two of which are new to this version. The rated E 10+ game is due out this summer.

Hit the jump for the full release, complete with quotes!!!

Guitar Hero(R): On Tour Explodes onto Nintendo DS This Summer

New Game Introduces Revolutionary Guitar Hero(TM) Guitar Grip(TM) Peripheral for Anytime, Anywhere Guitar Hero(R) Gameplay

SANTA MONICA, Calif., Mar 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) — For the first time, handheld gamers will have the freedom to unleash their inner rock star anywhere, anytime with Activision, Inc.'s (Nasdaq: ATVI) upcoming Guitar Hero(R): On Tour for Nintendo DS(TM). The game will deliver a unique Guitar Hero(R) experience by challenging handheld gamers to rock out and prove their shredding skills on the most diverse set list of master tracks ever offered in a Guitar Hero game, including classic rock, alternative and pop favorites such as Nirvana, OK Go and No Doubt.
The game will be packaged with a revolutionary Guitar Hero(TM) Guitar Grip(TM) peripheral that fits snugly into the DS and a unique Guitar Hero pick-stylus that brings a new dimension to handheld gaming and the core gameplay that defines Guitar Hero. Guitar Hero: On Tour has been designed specifically for the DS platform and will offer the DS audience an all-new compelling music experience.

"We are continuing to introduce new and exciting ways to bring music to audiences with Guitar Hero," said Dusty Welch, head of publishing for Activision/RedOctane. "The Guitar Hero Guitar Grip redefines how games can be played on handheld systems and the integration of the microphone and touch screen gameplay on the DS, further illustrates Guitar Hero's leadership in delivering the most unique and creative quality hardware and software on the market."

"We're designing Guitar Hero: On Tour from the ground up to take full advantage of the DS platform by integrating signature gameplay with fresh new content and DS specific features," said Karthik Bala, CEO of Vicarious Visions. "We've taken all of our learnings on the DS platform to date and pushed it to the limits to create a truly innovative Guitar Hero experience."

Guitar Hero: On Tour continues to build on the franchise's signature easy-to-play, yet difficult to master addictive gameplay, and now lets players take their experience on the road wherever they go. Players use the Guitar Hero pick-stylus on the touch screen to strum their favorite tunes and create their rock 'n' roll legacy in career mode.

Fans can also join together to play co-op mode using a local wireless network, or battle each other in a Guitar Duel using new Battle Items unique to the DS platform. For example, players must blow into the microphone to extinguish a pyrotechnics effects gone wrong, or use the touch screen to autograph a crazed fan's shirt in the middle of their set.

Featuring five unlockable new venues, the game lets players personalize their experience by choosing the color of their axe of choice, selecting to play as one of six characters - two of which are all new and exclusive to Guitar Hero: On Tour - and outfitting their guitarist in numerous styles.

Guitar Hero: On Tour is being developed by Vicarious Visions for the Nintendo DS. The game is rated "E 10+" (Everyone 10 and older) by the ESRB and is scheduled for release this summer. For more information, visit www.guitarheroontour.com.

Also of note: GHDS will match the 3D graphical style of the original series. To some this is great news, but I'd welcome the DS platform as a place to screw with these young traditions a bit, fight the man and all that jazz. Because does anyone out there have real expectations for the port? I've sort written it off as an amusing novelty.

Austin GDC '07: New Guitar Hero DS details [via cvg]

Skolnick breaks down the Star Trek into five different rules to write by.

Start With Bang

You need to hook the audience immediately. It was important in 1966 when Star Trek started and is even more important today. They would open with a teaser that would grab you, making you stay past the first commercial break to see what happens. In later series this trend faded. He illustrates this point by showing the openings to a TOS episode that presents a conflict, putting the crew into a dangerous and intriguing situation right from the start. He then shows a Next Generation episode that begins with the ship waiting for something while Geordi and Data look at a model sailboat. Exciting! Made the point quite nicely.

In game writing, this translates into starting with a short, gripping cutscene and then launching the player into the conflict.

Defy Expectations

Give people something they don't expect. Spock is a prime example of this. Getting Spock into the series was a struggle because he was non-emotional and looked like the devil, but today is one of the most popular characters in the whole franchise. Another risk was Uhura. A female African America bridge officer? Unheard of at the time. Skonick also uses the example of the episode "Devil in the Dark", where the horta is at first a murderous monster but turns out to be just a mother protecting her young. The trend continued through the latter series. Choosing an older, bald captain for the Next Generation Enterprise, introducing Date, an outsider android on a quest for human emotions, making Klingons into allies, etc.

Game writing applications? Skolnick says you need to constantly surprise your audience. Hunt down clichés in your work and kill them. If you can keep it believable, change the course of the story in an unexpected fashion just when things are starting to make sense.

Externalize Internal Conversations

Ah yes, the Kirk / Spock / McCoy triumvirate. Star Trek takes conversations that would take place in Kirk's head and gives them life by using Spock as Kirk's logical side and McCoy as his emotional side.

This can be applied to game writing by creating characters with different personalities from each other so you can look at situations and opinions from different angles.

Use Classic Structure
All classic stories have three basic parts. The beginning, where characters are introduced, the conflict, and the resolution. Skolnick explores the classic story structure using Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which is of course the best Star Trek movie unless you are some kind of freaky communist.

The game writing takeaway? Study classic structure and apply it to your game writing.

Focus On Character: Heroes

Kirk is a decisive, action-oriented character who takes risks. He solves his own problems. For Skolnick, Kirk defines the hero, so as he writes he often asks himself, "WWKD?"

In Game writing, it is important for the player to be that hero. To feel like they are important and that the risks they are taking are real ones.

Focus On Character: Villains

KHAAAAAAAAAAN! A villain has to be a match for the hero. In fact, Skolnick feels it is important that the villain of the story not consider himself a villain. He thinks his way is right, and in his own story *he* is the hero. A villain must have a clear motivation.

"It's very important to view the entire game story from the villain's point of view." Make the villain consistent and believable.

He finishes up with an analysis of City on the Edge of Forever, the most popular episode of the original series, despite not following the formula most would consider vital to a Star Trek episode. There were no space battles, no aliens, and no even any really sexy bits. Just a bittersweet love story that succeeds because it defies expectations and gives the hero a very personal stake in the situation.

Skolnick urges aspiring game writers to take their own area of expertise and explore how it applies to game writing. Whether you are a Star Wars fan or a Lord of the Rings junkie, you can learn from those classic works of fiction and use the knowledge you gain to help create gripping video game storylines.

Evan's final message? Live long and prosper.

Vicarious Visions New York-based location appears to be unaffected by the cuts.

So, for the record, this week's employment shake-ups include SCEA, the ESA, Nintendo of America, and now Vicarious Visions. What a world! Michael McWhertor

Exclusive: Activision Closes Vicarious Visions' CA Office [Gamasutra]

We are deeply troubled by the prospect of New York enacting legislation that would treat video games differently from other protected, creative expression...

In 2005, we became a part of Activision... but we are committed to long-term growth in the Albany area... We have worked hard to keep strong, creative "home grown" talent here in New York, rather than having them leave for places like California and Florida...

At a time when New York is working hard to maintain its competitive edge... we have to avoid stigmatizing video games and game development in our state.

We know many in our state may not like the content of some video games, and, to be frank, we do not like some of it either. However, a better way... would be to... encourage use of video game ratings and parental controls...

More power to them if their voices get heard, because in the long run, it does seem confusing that the powers that be want to create a law for something that is already standard in the industry. Kim Phu

Developer Vicarious Visions Weighs in on New York Game Legislation

The official site for the upcoming Spider-Man 3 game adaptation is live, giving friendly neighborhood gaming fans a very brief look at the game. Featuring little more than a trailer, some wallpapers and a brief developer blog (all unfortunately wrapped up in a crusty, bitter Flash shell), the site promises development updates from developers Treyarch and Vicarious Visions. With only 93 days before the film and the game's release, let's hope they find the time.

The game trailer looks to be the same from clip from E306, which showcases little more than the "actual in game model" and some very dark environments. In other words, watch this space for actual updates.

Spider-Man 3 The Game is currently scheduled for the PLAYSTATION 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC, DS, PSP and PlayStation 2. Everybody's happy! Michael McWhertor

Spider-Man 3 The Game Official Site

I ll admit it, the Tony Hawk series hasn t interested me since Tony Hawk 2. Sure, I fired up Tony Hawk 3, found it was more of the same and put it down. I was admittedly skeptical before the Thursday presentation for American Sk8land and finally laid the skepticism to rest when I spent an hour with it on Friday. Sk8land plays like a Hawk title should. It s tight, responsive and slick. Vicarious Visions redid the art style, cel shading the entire world and characters. The storyline is kitsch '80s camp and the bits we were showed were great. The tricks are just as sick as ever, and Vicarious Visions is an early adopter of the new Wi-Fi tech Nintendo is using, you ll be able to upload top scoring runs to the net and similarly download runs to watch. The Visions team plans to supplement the game with additional content and will work with Nintendo to gauge how many people really are playing Wi-Fi online. Screens after the jump.

Laptop Required for Non-McDonald's DS Wi-Fi