This week’s Rhythm Game Track Finder update focuses on three of the biggest names in music video games “Rock Band,” “Guitar Hero” and “Alvin and The Chipmunks.”

Right about now, you may be wondering just how “Alvin” made it onto that list. While “Alvin and The Chipmunks” may not have been the most critically acclaimed game of last year, it does boast one of the most diverse and well-rounded soundtracks in quite some time. Granted, all songs were performed as covers by The Chipmunks, but, if you check out a few of the previews at the game’s official site, you’ll see just how amusing The Ramones and Run D.M.C. sound performed at such a high pitch.

In addition to “The Chipmunks” both “Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero 3″ saw three song updates in the form of downloadable track packs. However, it was announced today that “Rock Band” owners who have a PS2 or Wii will be able to purchase twenty song track backs to supplement the Xbox and PS3’s downloadable content. The “Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1” disks will be available on July 15. Also added were the first 15 (of 25) confirmed tracks for “Guitar Hero: On Tour.”

Check out the full list of updates:
Alvin and The Chipmunks (Wii, PS2) 40 Songs Added
Guitar Hero 3 (Xbox 360, PS3) 3 Songs Added (Muse’s “‘Exo-Politics,” “Stockholm Syndrome,” and “Supermassive Black Hole”)
Guitar Hero: On Tour (DS) 15 Songs Added
Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) 3 Songs Added (Angels & Airwave’s “It Hurts,” Yeah Yeah Yeahs “Date With The Night,” and Fall Out Boy’s “This Ain’t A Scene, It’s An Arms Race”)
Rock Band Track Pack Volume 1 (Wii, PS2) 20 Songs Added

As always, go to trackfinder.mtv.com, for all this and more — it’s the definitive search engine for all your music gaming needs.

A few weeks ago, Peekaboo Pole Dancing, the company behind the Carmen Electra pole dancing kit (the “Electra-pole”), announced that they are seeking a partner to license a pole dancing game for the Wii.

The announcement had many wondering, “Why?” According to Peekaboo, it’s all about… exercise.

When I inquired about further details, Simon Kay, a rep for Peekaboo and licensing agency AT New Media told me via e-mail:

“Peekaboo will be all about fun and fitness for a new generation. Peekaboo wants to make the fitness benefits of aerobic pole dancing accessible to millions of Wii users. The goal is to encourage men and women of all shapes and sizes to improve their pole dancing skills while having fun, toning up and burning calories. Ultimately Peekaboo and AT New Media want to do for pole dancing what ‘Guitar Hero‘ did for rock n roll!”

As for the pole peripheral development, the game’s ESRB rating and how the game would actually work (we imagine you’d need hands on the pole as well as on controllers), he declined to disclose those details. Kay did claim that the company is already in talks with developers and publishers for the Wii title, though they “will still entertain other third parties.”

Additionally, Kay said the game probably won’t involve Carmen Electra. When I asked if Electra was ever asked to be involved in the first place, the response was no. But is there a chance she could be involved in the future? “Unlikely… but not impossible,” Kay said.

He also said that the company was looking for additional partners for mobile. A mobile phone pole dancing game? We can only wonder.

Just filed a story for MTVNews.com about the “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” game coming to PS3, XBox 360, PS2 and Wii this June.

I wanted to highlight a couple of things:

The game won’t be as hardcore tough as “Guitar Hero III“…

“We went back and re-tuned the game so it was back to where people felt it needed to be,” producer Aaron Habibipour said. That doesn’t mean the game has been dramatically altered — “medium is not the old easy” — but the developers listened to “GH III” players who felt like the game might have had too many brick walls for casual fans.

The future of “Guitar Hero” is not only in games focused on a single band…

Centering a game on the band made sense, Habibipour said, but he clarified that band-specific “Guitar Hero” games do not represent the sole future of the franchise. “It’s its own path,” he said. Band-specific “GH” games and full “GH” sequels can co-exist, he said, in parallel paths of development.

You can find out plenty more about the game in my full story at MTVNews.com.

For the first six months they were making it, the creators of “Guitar Hero” for the DS weren’t sure their game was going to work.

Then things got better.

And from what I saw and heard when the game was demoed for me in New York City a few weeks ago, the DS experts at Activision’s Vicarious Visions studio have solved most — maybe even all — the challenges they faced.

Here are the obstacles this game faced en-route to its eventual release in June and what I learned about them during the demo I got of the game:

Challenge #1: The DS Is Not Shaped Like A Guitar

Read more…

This week’s Rhythm Game Track Finder update is not only plentiful, but also home to at least one interesting video game fact that I did not know.

The past few weeks of Track Finder updates have been a bit slow, only adding some DLC one week, and half of an upcoming game the other. However, the same can’t be said about this week. We are back on track, with updates for the biggest rhythm games around: “Rock Band,” “Guitar Hero,” and “DDR.”

“Rock Band” and “Guitar Hero III” both saw updates of newly announced track packs, but the “DDR” addition was more archival, since it added “DDR Ultramix 2” to our database. In doing so, it also added one of the first games to really take advantage of Xbox Live’s downloading capabilities.

There were six downloadable track packs for the original “Ultramix,” and once “Ultramix 2″ was released, there were another set of six for that game as well. However here is where it gets interesting, if you bought any of the track packs for the original, you could play those songs in the sequel as well. So your purchase wasn’t just tied to one game, instead it was tied to a franchise. Sadly, this is an opportunity that “Guitar Hero III” has already missed out on, but there is still hope for “Rock Band.” I mean, if this kind of technology worked four years ago, on a last generation console, why can’t it work now?

Here’s this week complete update list:
Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix (Xbox) 5 Songs Added
Dance Dance Revolution Ultramix 2 (Xbox) 130 Songs Added
Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360, PS3) 3 Songs Added (Def Leppard’s “Rock of Ages,” “Photograph,” and their still yet to be released new single “Nine Lives”)
Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) 3 Songs Added (Blondie’s “Call Me,” The Police’s “Message in a Bottle” and Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Simple Man”)

As always, go to trackfinder.mtv.com, for all this and more — it’s the definitive search engine for all your music gaming needs.

We all know that pro wrestlers love video games, some of them with …. extreme fervor.

I proved it last August when I found a wrestler who used a move called the Contra Code and another who enters the ring wearing an NES Power Glove.

But it wasn’t until yesterday that I discovered how passionately the trio of TNA wrestlers Christy Hemme, Lance Hoyt and Jimmy Rave feel about the two hottest rhythm games in the world.

I came across evidence that this trio, who call themselves the Rock n’ Rave Infection, really like “Rock Band.” What else could I gather from the image leading this story, which I found on Hemme’s fan site?

But there’s also very strong evidence that these three enjoy “Guitar Hero.

And by “enjoy” I mean: “They enter the wrestling ring wearing ‘Guitar Hero’ guitars.”

See for yourself.

What would the Honky Tonk Man make of this?

It was a slow week for the Rhythm Game Track Finder, but it wasn’t completely silent. We were able to get all of the announced tracks for the next console iteration of “Guitar Hero” added.

19 tracks for the upcoming release of “Guitar Hero: Aerosmith” were added, 13 from Aerosmith, and six from a variety of other classic bands. This ratio helps keep within the 60/40 split of tracks that was recently described by Gamespot. With 21 more tracks to go, will your favorite Aerosmith songs be making their way into the Rhythm Game Track Finder?

Guitar Hero: Aerosmith (PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii) 19 Songs Added

As always, go to trackfinder.mtv.com, for all this and more — it’s the definitive search engine for all your music gaming needs.

When Activision filed suit against Gibson Guitar Corporation on March 11, the game-maker included a nine-page chart that breaks down how “Guitar Hero” allegedly does infringe on a 1999 patent.

Why would Activision include that?

Probably because the company feels that the chart does not make a convincing argument.

The Gibson Patent Vs “Guitar Hero” comparison chart was included in a February 18 letter sent by Gibson’s lawyer to Activision’s legal team and is now part of Activision’s filing. It breaks down the patent vs. game comparison, line by line.

The  chart has a lot of this:

Vs

What do you think? Do all the arguments in the chart hold up? Judge for yourself.

The full point-by-point breakdown, in nine-page chart form, follows below.

Read more…

(Below is part of a story filed, in full, at MTVNews.com about the lawsuits filed against each other by Gibson Guitar and the makers of “Guitar Hero”)

…The [Activision lawsuit against Gibson] may surprise the many “Guitar Hero” fans who have played the game, because to do so requires holding officially licensed replica Gibson guitars. It would have seemed these two companies got along: The guitars for the first “Guitar Hero” games were modeled from Gibson SGs, the Xbox 360 version of “Guitar Hero II” included a replica Gibson X-Plorer, and the controller for “Guitar Hero III” is based on Gibson Les Paul.

It seems, however, that Activision isn’t interested in Gibson guitars appearing in future “Guitar Hero” games; a letter submitted as evidence as part of Activision’s suit suggests that any Activision-Gibson guitar deal is dead. In fact, Activision claims that is the reason for Gibson’s complaint.

In a March 10 letter to Gibson’s attorney, Activision lawyer Mary Tuck wrote: “As I indicated previously, Gibson knew about the Guitar Hero games for nearly three years, but did not raise it’s [sic] patent until it became clear that Activision was not interesting [sic] in renewing the License and Marketing Support Agreement. Gibson’s delay suggests that its infringement assertions are not being made in good faith, and it has provided no justification for its conduct.”

For the rest of this story, check out MTVNews.com.

I’m pretty sure it’s a proven fact that most males of a certain age in this country consider Gwen Stefani an actual goddess, and this past week “Guitar Hero III” received some DLC of No Doubt’s best work (from her hottest phase — the “Tragic Kingdom” period before she started wearing braces). My personal recommendation is “Sunday Morning.” Not only is it a great song, but it’s the best food fight-based music video ever.

Also, this week’s “Rock Band” DLC offers up some classic jam band music for everyone to enjoy, whether you’re young, old, or a dancing bear. The Grateful Dead make their first rhythm game appearance this week with six of their most famous (and trippy) songs.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Rhythm Game Track Finder was updated with some very unique titles from one of the first CD based consoles. The “Make My Video” series appeared on the Sega CD and offered gamers the chance to make and remix videos by their favorite artists including INXS, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, and the perpetually directionally-confused Kriss Kross (for those too young to know, they wore their close backwards… intentionally!). These three “games” make up the oldest additions to the Track Finder to date. Check out the list below for all this past week’s updates:

American Idol (PS2) 42 Songs Added
Guitar Hero III (Xbox 360, PS3) 3 Songs Added (No Doubt’s “Don’t Speak,” “Excuse Me Mr.,” and “Sunday Morning”)
Make My Video: INXS (Sega CD) 3 Songs Added
Make My Video: Kriss Kross (Sega CD) 3 Songs Added
Make My Video: Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch (Sega CD) 3 Songs Added
Rock Band (Xbox 360, PS3) 6 Songs Added (The Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones,” “China Cat Sunflower,” “Franklin’s Tower,” “I Need A Miracle”, “Sugar Magnolia,” and “Truckin’”)

Please let us know if you have any requests. As always, we can try to work them into the following week’s Rhythm Game Track Finder update.