Guitar Hero Mobile Stumbles with AI Launch

When it comes to fast-and-furious rhythm games, although the genre never really took off in the West, there was one huge exception; Guitar Hero. Now, this legendary franchise is set to make a triumphant return, and even better, it's coming to the humble platform of mobile! However, Activision stumbled right out of the gate with an awkward announcement that has left fans scratching their heads.

The announcement was not carried by a trailer or a press release, but instead by a blatantly AI-generated promotional image posted on Instagram. As you might have predicted, the return of this iconic franchise is being overshadowed by the poor quality of the AI art, especially following another widely-reported instance of AI use in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6. This has caught Activision in the crosshairs of criticism once again.

As far as further information on what Guitar Hero Mobile will look or sound like, we don't have much to go on. Although the famous series did come to mobile previously, that was nearly 20 years ago, as you can see below. Fans are hoping for something quite impressive this time around.

Broken Strings: Many have pointed out that the art used in the Guitar Hero Mobile announcement was egregiously bad, and not necessarily even created with more modern image generators. Suffice it to say, Guitar Hero Mobile might be dead on arrival, especially with stiff competition like Space Ape's excellent BeatStar, which remains popular.

Ultimately, while the idea of Guitar Hero making a return excites me, and I can see huge potential for it working well on mobile, it's undeniable that Activision has really put their foot in it once more, despite all the positives.

In the meantime, if you want to see what big waves other top franchises have made on smartphones, why not dig into the top 9 Final Fantasy games on mobile?