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Activision recently released some info on the upcoming Guitar Hero: Modern Hits, for DS. Before you stop reading, I should tell you that I don't really care. I mean, the original Guitar Hero for DS was kind of fun, but left me with no desire to pull out my hand-cramp-inducing Guitar Grip anytime soon. However, there's one screenshot, showing off the new fan-request-based story mode, that got me thinking.

In the picture, a girl is asking the player to beat a specific song on bass, with "Bomb Notes" activated, and score at least 70,000 points. It seems that Activision is trying real hard to turn the franchise into more of a "game", which is the opposite of Harmonix's Rock Band, in which the only real purpose is to rock out and feel like you're in an awesome band. But why stop there? If you're going to turn it into a story, with missions to beat, why not just go all out and make it into a proper adventure.

The way I see it, many gamers have at least one plastic instrument sitting in their living room. But up til now, all we've got to use them for is straight-up rhythm games. Isn't it about time we started seeing them in other genres too? I'm not talking about a Donkey-Konga-Jungle-Beat-style platformer, in which you use the instrument to control your character, but more of a hybrid game that uses instrument and controller.

I haven't got any solid concepts, but there are definitely a few idea running around my head. How about a cross between rhythm game and rpg, kind of like Puzzle Quest, only with music sections instead of block puzzles? You could move around the world with the controller, but have the instrument handy in order to do battle. Maybe you'd be using rhythm sections to throw spells at the opponent, or maybe it would just be a case of getting a higher score with certain variables active. Either way, it could be fun.

Or you could go one step further, and incorporate the instruments into an mmorrpg. Since Activision/Blizzard own both the Guitar Hero and World of Warcraft licences, this idea isn't too far-fetched. You could introduce a new, bard-type character who would play songs during battle to boost stats. Every song would be a short section that the bard would have to play on their chosen instrument. More powerful spells would involve playing more difficult sections, but you wouldn't have to hit 100% in order to cast. However, the better you do, the stronger the spell will be, and hitting every note could even cause an additional boost.

I suppose you could use the instruments for controlling a whole game, though, if you went with a Patapon-style strategy title. Instead of simply tapping "Patta Patta Patta Pon", you would be drumming out proper rock beats, with more complex fills to pull off special attacks and manoeuvres. In this case, you could even use the controller for navigating the menus, as there would be no gameplay outside of the battles, except for some fun, rhythm-based mini-games.

I'm sure there are many other instances where our plastic peripherals could be used in fun ways, but so far no-one seems willing to try the concept out. There was a rumor going around for a while which stated that Tim Schafer's new game, Brutal Legend, would include support for Guitar Hero guitars, but this has since been debunked. Of course, this could be because the game was recently picked up by EA, the publishers of Rock Band, and it's unlikely that they'd want to give publicity to their competitor by advertising this feature. Unfortunately, they said that it won't work with Rock Band stuff either, but maybe they'll change their mind as it gets closer to release.

So how about it, developers? Is there a possibility that we'll soon be using our expensive controllers in a wider variety of titles, or will it always be just for rock games? I'd even settle for some smaller, downloadable titles, if that's what it takes to introduce people to the concept. With the launch of the XNA Community Games Channel on Xbox 360, it seems like we finally have the perfect place to try out some of these idea with minimum risk; it just takes someone brave enough to make that jump. Until that point, I guess my plastic instruments will only be used on those occasions when I want to feel like a rock star.

Which is every day, come to think of it.