Tiny Diggers – An iPad Construction Truck Game for Kids Age 2-5

This evening I popped over my brother-in-law’s new home for a visit. It was a visit, like so many such visits are, that ended up having something of a gaming subtext. As a man who’s been on Guitar Hero since its origin, Adam has every Guitar Hero game on PS2 (he hasn’t yet picked up Aerosmith, but he will), along with a couple of RedOctane’s wireless controllers for the system. He also owns a Wii and plans on a 360 in the future, but as he’s invested so much already in the PS2 guitars, there’s no desire to dump more money until Activision stops publishing on PS2. He’s thinking practically here.

Adam’s in a good position to make the transition to Rock Band when Activision abandons his platform. The peripheral quandary tends to trouble us all, I think. What do you do when you change franchises? What about systems? A lack of standards in all this makes sense, but it doesn’t make things easier for Joe Consumer. Hi, I’m Joe Consumer. Yes, that’s my real name. No, my mom was not cruel, why do you ask?

The recent podcast and some other comments I’ve made might make it appear that I favor Guitar Hero over Rock Band, but I’ve never played Rock Band. While I insist that MTV’s brand is not showing the initiative in functionality that Activision’s is, I can certainly appreciate that when it comes down to gameplay, Rock Band is more fun just based on the experiences of others. That makes sense, as Harmonix is there. It’s too bad they aren’t working with RedOctane anymore, who are the other real stars of the show.

One thing I noticed while playing Guitar Hero II tonight on Adam’s PS2 was how much better the game looks than the Wii version of Guitar Hero III. It’s irritating to me that Neversoft’s Tony Hawk-style deformed characters (note singer Trapjaw on loan from He-Man and the Masters of the Universe) have infiltrated Guitar Hero and the game’s feel is just not quite as tight as its prequels were.

Of course, the Wii version of Rock Band is a wash, so I’d need to pick it up on PS3. But then, there’s that peripheral issue again. Do I sell Guitar Hero III and dive head-first into Rock Band, inferior instruments and all?

End rant.