Rhythm games like Dance Dance Revolution have been around for quite a while now. While a few can use the standard console controller, such as the fantastic Amplitude, most of them require a specialized peripheral to complete the experience: a dance pad for Dance Dance Revolution, a miniature Japanese drum for Taiko Drum Master, or bongo drums for Donkey Konga. The problem with these peripherals is that they can sometimes seem gimmicky or unnatural to use, or even somewhat unnecessary. Maybe they take some skill to learn, but more often than not, they are only good for a laugh at a party, as you watch someone jump around on a dance pad or bang on some goofy plastic drums.
So when peripheral maker Red Octane set out to make a guitar game, it is fair to be a little skeptical, thinking they would just want to whip out a quick game to sell their goofy plastic guitar. But then they selected Harmonix to develop the actual software…Harmonix, who created the aforementioned Amplitude, as well as Karaoke Revolution series. As a company, their stated purpose is “to create new ways for non-musicians to experience the unique joy that comes from making music.” So with one company making the hardware, and another working on the software, the question remained of whether Guitar Hero would end up as merely a gimmick, or as a satisfying music experience.
Let me jump to the end, and then work my way backwards: Guitar Hero is incredible. It is so satisfying on so many levels that is borders on being addictive. (In fact, at the offices of Penny Arcade, where they literally play video games all day long, they eventually had to ban Guitar Hero altogether.) According to GameRankings, a site which aggregates review scores from multiple sources, it was the 3rd best PlayStation 2 game of 2005, and the 11th-best PlayStation 2 game of all time.
The core selling point of Guitar Hero is that, in the most general sense, it makes you feel like you are really playing the guitar. Now, before any actual musicians take offense at my comments, let me qualify that statement by stating that I do not actually play the guitar. However, let me further clarify that by saying that I am not an idiot. I understand how guitars work, I understand the physics of the fret, and I have on occasion been known to hammer things on. So, while not a guitarist, I have a general idea of how things should work. I know that when you move up the neck to play a note (“up” in this case meaning “closer to your other hand”; okay, maybe I’m literally moving my hand “down,” but you get the general idea), you will be playing a higher note. I can even watch Eddie Van Halen and figure out how he’s playing all those notes with just his left hand. So now that we’ve cleared that up, let me explain how the guitar works in actual gameplay.
The guitar in Guitar Hero is modeled after the Gibson SG guitar, albeit at a slightly more manageable 3/4 scale. It’s small enough to be more broadly usable by various ago groups, while still maintain enough heft that it doesn’t look silly. There are five fret colored buttons along the neck of the guitar (i.e. one for each of the five uppermost frets), a strum bar on the base which can be played up or down, two buttons in place of the volume and gain knobs, and a whammy bar. Yes, that’s right: a whammy bar. Oh, and it has an internal tilt sensor; more on that later.
So for general gameplay, you watch the notes scroll down the screen towards your target area. When the note passes through the target area, you have to be holding down the appropriate fret button, and strum the strum bar. Just like a real guitar, you can hold the fret button down before playing the actual note, so if you’re playing a series of the same note, you just keep the fret button held down the entire time. Also (and maybe this would be more obvious to an actual guitar player), you can hold down a lower fret while playing a higher note. This is another nice touch, and allows for more-realistic fingering. When playing, you sometimes play single notes, and sometimes you hold down two fret buttons at a time to play a chord. Also, some notes have a line extending past them, which means you have to hold the fret button down to hold the note. This means that in some songs, if your finger slips off the fret button, you end up stopping the note early, and have to stand there looking like an idiot.
Let’s see, what else? During the long notes, you can go ahead and pound on the whammy bar, which acts just as you’d expect. It doesn’t do much for gameplay except look and sound cool, which makes it a nice touch. Remember that tilt sensor I mentioned before? If you are able to hit certain series of notes correctly, your Rock Meter will increase. Once it reaches a certain threshold, you can activate it to get double points for a certain length of time. You can either activate it by pressing the Select button, or you can just tilt the guitar vertically in true rock-god fashion. Again, it’s something that undoubtedly added to the cost of the peripheral, but serves no real practical purpose other than making you look cool, which makes it a nice touch. And speaking of looking cool, the game also supports hammer-ons and pull-offs, where you play the first note normally, but successive notes are played by either pressing on or releasing a certain fret button, respectively. They may be used sparingly in songs like “I Love Rock and Roll,” but they are an absolute necessity on “Texas Flood.”
And that leads me to the music selection. All the guitar technology would be worthless if it were used to play something by Nickelback or the Black Eyes Peas, but thankfully, the game includes thirty tracks spanning decades of great guitar songs, along with other unlockable songs by lesser-known groups in case you get bored with the main tracks. The songs are somewhat skewed towards the ’70s, but with groups like Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, can you really blame them? There are a ton of great songs here, from “Ace of Spades” to “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Texas Flood,” “Crossroads,” “Smoke on the Water,” “I Wanna Be Sedated,” “Frankenstein,” to some unexpected ones like “Killer Queen,” recent hits like “Take Me Out,” and my personal favorite, “More Than a Feeling.” Oh, and did I forget to mention “Iron Man”?? You can view the entire set list here; unless you’re completely musically illiterate, you will find something that you love. And best of all, they all feel extremely satisfying to play.
There are four difficulty levels in the game, and they vary in both the number and complexity of the notes in each song. On Easy, only the first three frets are used, and the note you play often represents a block of notes. On Medium, four frets are used, and you play more of the actual notes. Once you get to Hard, you are playing all five frets, which also means that you will actually have to move your hand around as you’re playing; you can stretch to play the fourth fret with your pinky, but you can’t do it across all five frets. The progression in what notes you play is actually quite subtle. For example, you can play a song on Medium and really feel like you’re playing all the notes, but when you switch to Hard, suddenly you notice a lot more notes that you didn’t really perceive before. The overall effect is that as you increase in your expertise, you feel like you’re focusing more and more clearly on the actual notes of the song. However, even songs that are simple on Medium can be maddeningly difficult on Hard. I barely made it through “Higher Ground” on Medium, so I can’t imagine how I could ever complete it on Hard.
The game does have a few flaws: It would be nice, for instance, if you could select part of a particular song and just practice it over and over again. It is disheartening to make it through two verses and choruses, only to fail spectacularly at the guitar solo for the twentieth time. (As you miss notes, the crowd reaction goes south; eventually, you fail the song completely as you are booed off the stage.) Did I say a few flaws? I guess I meant one flaw. Okay, I also wish there were more songs available. I suppose that will have to wait until Guitar Hero 2.
But if all those features aren’t enough for you, here’s the pièce de résistance: If a friend also has the game, you can hook both guitars up for some brutal head-to-head axe-offs! Sometimes you play in unison, while other times you trade licks back and forth. So once you pick up the game for yourself, there is added incentive to proselytize your friends. But even if you can’t find someone else to buy it, you will have endless hours of sheer hard-rockin’ pleasure playing this game. It’s fun to play alone, and it’s a blast to show off in front of your friends. I can’t say for certain, but I imagine you would enjoy it even if you already play guitar; I know my appreciation for the skill involved has gown immensely, and I am hearing notes in songs that I have never really noticed before. Sure, “Crossroads” sounds simple, but seeing the notes fly by is overwhelming. Maybe someday I’ll get through it on Hard. I guess I’d better go practice some more!
