Guitar Hero 5 was released this month, rejuvenating the formula with mission-specific gameplay and a plug-and-play four-player mode.  That is, gameplay advances derided as “tired” when Dance Dance Revolution dabbled with them five years ago.  Ditto on a September release of The Beatles: Rock Band, which lacks cross-compatibility with the previous iteration or any semblance of difficulty.  Based on what I’ve read in reviews,  I see a pair of stagnant games toting solid review scores purely on the brawn of cosmetics.

Not that there’s anything new about that. This generation of core gaming has been the story of the “awesomez procesing powar”.  I’m just shocked to see a genre currently built on production values reinvigorate itself with production values.

But you can use three microphones instead of one! That’s three times as awesome!

No wonder Bemani fans are so defensive about Konami’s rhythm games.  In 2000, Dance Dance Revolution was the face of the rhythm genre.  It’s a game where people use their feet to press four panels in rhythm with a note chart.  In 2009, the face of the genre requires five buttons and a strum bar.  The difference is that we’ve turned the genre into an advertising platform for major record labels.  Hooray for innovation!

Want to do something about?  Stop propagating the bullshit that rhythm games can only be entertaining if you enjoy the song list.  In the past three days, two DJ Hero articles have been authored on Kotaku.  Both are the story of blithering idiots.

Luke Plunkett writes: Damnit, Activision. I’ve been down on DJ Hero since day 1, not for its premise, but for its roster, the diversity of which seems to be a grand exercise in half-assery. Now that Cut Chemist is joining DJ Shadow, though…

Michael McWhertor writes: The addition of French electronic duo Daft Punk to FreeStyleGames’ DJ Hero may represent the tipping point of my DJ Hero purchase. Especially considering the group’s extensive contributions to the soundtrack.

News flash to video game land: There will be a point where “good music” will no longer shock and awe the consumer.  If not, you will eventually exhaust your supply of “good music”.  When either happens, you will be required to cater innovation to an audience trained to purchase rhythm games on the merits of “good music”.  To Activision, to Electronic Arts, to Harmonix, to Neversoft: I hope you have a backup plan when you sink the ship you built.