Are you ready to Rock?

I’ve never been much of a fan of Console Games, but a new game that recently came out for the PS/2 has really got me hooked.

A few weeks ago I walk into my living room to see my roommate standing in front of the TV, with a little kiddy plastic guitar in hand strumming away,  it was so funny I almost pissed in my pants right on the spot.  (Just imagine a grown man, rocking out to Stevie Ray Vaughn with what looks like a Plastic Kiddy guitar from Wal-Mart).

Well it turns out he was playing the new game Guitar Hero from RedOctane.

Guitar Hero is sort of like karaoke for life-time Air Guitar enthusiasts, when you buy the game you get a plastic guitar that replaces the usual joystick.  The entire game is played with this “guitar”

The object of the game; You start your own rock band, playing in garages and low-end venues, As you progress you are able to play in large arenas like theatres and stadiums, as well as purchase better guitars, clothes, etc.

The game comes with a whole stable of classic rock songs from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s as well as some newer alternative titles.   As you master a song, it opens up newer (and harder) songs to play.

The game is played by following animated colored dots that come flying at you on the screen, I wouldn’t really call them notes, but I suppose that’s what they are.   These notes correspond to the 5 colored buttons on the guitar, so if a green dot appears, then you need to press the green button, if a red dot appears, the red button.  When you press the buttons correctly on the guitar, you’ll hear the actual guitar note in the song. 

It’s pretty cool the way it works, they’ve digitized each song in a way so that the singing, bass, drums, and keyboard will continue playing, but if you don’t hit your notes correctly the guitar channel will stay silent, or worse, you’ll hear a little clangy sound like you would hear if someone screwed up (along with “Boo”’s from the crowd)

The game is a lot of fun, when you learn the pattern for a particular song you really do feel like you are the lead guitar player in a band. It can be especially gratifying to hit a real hard riff, or maybe one you played air guitar to when you were a kid (I’ve been practicing “More than a Feeling” by Boston so much I can almost do it without looking at the screen).   The game is balanced really well so that you’re not jumping into really hard songs in the beginning.  You’ll start out with songs that use just the first 3 notes, and then they’ll introduce the 4th and 5th note as you get better.   Playing all 5 notes can be tricky, unless you have really large hands you’ll need to get into the habit of being able to adjust your finger placement back and forth in order to hit the correct notes.

The game also has a two player option, if you get a 2nd guitar you can have two people duke it out in a “Battle of the Bands” Mode, which can be a lot of fun as well, it’s sort of like a car race to the finish, with the person who screws up the least amount getting the higher score.

Guitar Hero is a great game, I can see a lot of possibilities for future versions, I would love to see an expansion with more songs, maybe even another genre like Jazz Guitar, or possibly new instruments like keyboards, drums and wind instruments and have 4 people playing at the same time as an actual band. 

If you have a PS/2, and have a long established career playing Air Guitar, then Guitar Hero is the game for you