Crispy Gamer News

Here’s a little disclosure for you - I used to work for Mad Catz, though thankfully not in their hardware / peripheral division. I’m glad of that, because Mad Catz controllers are synonymous with crap; these are the controllers you let guest use when they come over that you don’t like, or friends who you may want to punish for some unpardonable sin.
Whether that reputation is fair or not, the company has been trying to shake its bad image with gamers for years – to no avail. This is more important than ever given that the company is breaking ground with new licensed Rock Band and Rock Band 2 controllers today.

The company has begun shipping its range of premium licensed accessories designed for use with Rock Band and Rock Band 2 videogames for the Xbox 360. These new peripherals include the “first and only official” bass guitar available for Rock Band and Rock Band 2, the Fender Precision Bass Guitar; the Rock Band 2 Wireless Drum Kit the Portable Drum Kit; and the Rock Band Premium M.I.C. (Microphone with Integrated Controller).

Pricing, availability and more can be found at www.madcatz.com, though your best bet might be to stop by the GameShark Store to see if they are offering any specials with these peripherals - like free shipping (I honestly didn’t check, because I don’t care).

The Ant Commandos today revealed the Rock Commandos, a new set of drum stick peripherals for Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour that light up in flame red or electric blue when struck on any surface. The tip of these drum sticks is also coated with silicon to reduce annoying thumping noise when playing. The drum sticks come with 2 AAA batteries and come in flame red and electric blue.

The Rock Commandos are compatible with the PlayStation family of Rock Band games, as well as Activision’s upcoming Guitar Hero: World Tour. No word on whether or not The Ant Commando plans on supporting the Xbox 360 versions of these games.

Find out more here.

Activision and Logitech are teaming up to bring some quality Guitar Hero World Tour compatible peripherals to market in time for the game’s release later this year. Logitech is working on “premium” instruments across all platforms, but what exactly those instruments will be was not revealed.

One would have to suspect that a new guitar peripheral is in the works as a new drum kit and a microphone. We’ll let you know when we have more details. Guitar Hero World Tour ships this fall for the Xbox 360, PS2, PS3 and Wii.