Johnny Whatever

Johnny Whatever is a cancelled PS2 and Xbox and then Gizmondo game from Warthog Texas. It was to be a punk rock anarchic dystopia musical-wailing action game.

Plot
In a futuristic totalitarian England, the Iron Mother reigns supreme. She has outlawed music. To enforce that law, she has created robot policeman. Not only that but her goons have captured your band mates, the The Hooligans.

You play as Johnny Whatever, a punk rocker in Lower London who means well. Your quest is to break the system, restore order, and free your friends. Aiding you is inventor Roland Clockworks.

Gameplay
The game would play like a third-person musical sandbox action game. Your guitar, named Nancy, is both a weapon and a tool. Nancy is equipped with a Positronic Wave Amplifier, meaning music played on it has special effects.

Different music pieces do different things. One type of chord disables the 'robo-bobbies'. Another chord frees the mind of the slaves. The music came from acts like Metallica, Deep Purple, The Ramones, and more.

There was to be multiplayer via Xbox Live. You could play co-op do music duels, or even do free-form guitar playing.

Development
In 2004 Warthog Texas was brought out by Gizmondo, and thus became Gizmondo Texas. Johnny Whatever would then become a Gizmondo exclusive in 2005.

Cancellation
Gizmondo failed badly, becoming defunct in 2006 The Gizmondo's failure lead to the closing of Gizmondo Texas. This lead to the cancellation of the game.

The liquidators sold the rights to Johnny Whatever back to the original CEO of Warthog. During Johnny Whatever's stay at Gizmondo, Warthog all the while was leaking code.

This leaked game code ended up at RedOctane, a US-based games publisher. A developer at RedOctane played a leaked build of Johnny Whatever. It was good. He built a controller to play a similar kind of game and called it 'Guitar Hero'.

Johnny Whatever helped create one of the biggest gaming franchises. That is why one of the guitarists in Guitar Hero is called Johnny Napalm, as a tribute.

Video
Trailer.