The Guitar Hero series gets around, and has been seen in one way or another on a number of different home consoles and even the Nintendo DS. Recently, Activision teamed up with Konami to bring the rhythm franchise back to its origins: the arcade. Unfortunately, as one Destructoid community member recounts, the port is not all it could have been.

It appears as though the arcade game is a port of Guitar Hero III, not the more recent World Tour. This means that it features the same menus and even track list. Strangely, this track list also contains a number of "premium" songs, which mean that you have to pay an additional dollar for the privilege of playing them. Even worse, the original dollar only lets you play one song, making GH: Arcade one expensive arcade title.

The guitar controllers, meanwhile, are equally unimpressive. Not only is the controller much heavier than its home console counterparts, but the buttons have been changed as well. They are both further apart and more difficult to press. "At best, the buttons reminded me of a cheap third-party Guitar Hero II controller," the user wrote.

Given the way that Activision has treated the once-great Guitar Hero franchise, it's really not surprising that the arcade version appears to be a quick and dirty port that costs way too much. But that doesn't make it any less disappointing. It looks like guitar fans looking for some arcade action will have to continue to search for those ever-elusive GuitarFreaks cabinets.